I have a dual boot Windows Vista 32-bit / Ubuntu Linux 12.04 LTS PC that I built four years ago. It's never had any issues. A couple of 'days' (weekends, but it's not used during the week) ago the USB mouse started to freeze in Ubuntu, and it seemed to do so randomly rather than at high load etc. Once frozen I could unfreeze it by unplugging it and replugging it back in. The mouse also started to stick in Vista at the same time but unstuck itself after a second or so.
I started to go down the obvious routes - update drivers, check for errors in Device Manager (none). I then removed the card reader (USB direct to board) and unplugged Bamboo Fun tablet, just in case one of them had errored and was causing the problems. The motherboard ended up with just the keyboard, mouse and the integral LAN wireless card as USB components. I've since disabled the LAN card in BIOS also.
Assuming the mouse itself was damaged, I then switched to an old Wacom tablet mouse I had that has been used on the setup without issue before for years. This worked fine for a few hours in Windows, then also started to get stuck. Switching back to the optical mouse, the situation is now worse, and freezes in as well Windows and needs unplugging to get it started again. All back I/O ports are affected and the front panel ports.
Infrequently I get USB malfunction messages on the taskbar, but these are very rare - maybe once a day, whereas it's freezing even few minutes and sticking several times if you even try to move the pointer across the screen. Once the mouse refused to come out of being frozen at boot and at that point the keyboard did also freeze, although that's not happened again - after being left off and unplugged this resolved back to the constant sticking and freezing.
I updated the Intel Chipset Utility (no effect), and then updated the BIOS which included a CMOS reset (no effect). Re: CMOS/CPR - the PC is unplugged five days a week by default, though I've not removed the coin battery since the BIOS updated included a CMOS reset anyway. I've also disabled the LAN wireless card now in case that was damaged also, to no effect, so the only USB components running are the mouse and the keyboard.
The motherboard is a Asus P5K-e wifi which does have a PS/2 port for the keyboard but not for a mouse. The BIOS is now the most recent. USB is enabled in BIOS. Both mouse and keyboard are cheapo Technika ones.
The only thing that changed that I can think of was that I upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS a day or so before this started to happen. Beyond that nothing has changed, and as I say, Windows is affected as well.
As an aside the BIOS also thinks the PC has a floppy drive (it does not and never has) and it can no longer see a slave drive. The non-existant floppy drive predates the BIOS update, but I can't remember how long the slave drive has disappeared for - it may well have been missing for weeks, I don't use it. I haven't really looked into the drive confusion yet - been preoccupied with the mouse side of things. The slave IDE is attached via a card (it's an old PATA drive and the motherboard doesn't have any PATA inputs).
I've been assuming this is a hardware issue as the problem is independent of OS, but am perplexed that it's affecting all mice rather than just one dodgy mouse, but not affecting the keyboard. I've ordered a new cheapo optical mouse for the sake of trying yet another mouse. I perhaps could have confused the system by having both an optical mouse and a Bamboo tablet plugged in at the same time, but wouldn't that be OS-specific as well? If the USBs in the I/O board are fried, is it odd that the USB keyboard is working fine, and that the mice don't work in the front ports either?
I am planning to build a new PC/rebuild this one but not for another few months - ideally this one needs to limp on until November. I'm running out of ideas - I haven't tried any pen drives as I didn't have any expendable ones to test, but I can test one if it's likely to give more info. I could try a PCI Express USB card but I'm wondering if that will have similar issues. I've ordered a new USB mouse to see if a completely novel mouse has the same issue.
I'm at a bit of a loss and would appreciate any ideas!
I started to go down the obvious routes - update drivers, check for errors in Device Manager (none). I then removed the card reader (USB direct to board) and unplugged Bamboo Fun tablet, just in case one of them had errored and was causing the problems. The motherboard ended up with just the keyboard, mouse and the integral LAN wireless card as USB components. I've since disabled the LAN card in BIOS also.
Assuming the mouse itself was damaged, I then switched to an old Wacom tablet mouse I had that has been used on the setup without issue before for years. This worked fine for a few hours in Windows, then also started to get stuck. Switching back to the optical mouse, the situation is now worse, and freezes in as well Windows and needs unplugging to get it started again. All back I/O ports are affected and the front panel ports.
Infrequently I get USB malfunction messages on the taskbar, but these are very rare - maybe once a day, whereas it's freezing even few minutes and sticking several times if you even try to move the pointer across the screen. Once the mouse refused to come out of being frozen at boot and at that point the keyboard did also freeze, although that's not happened again - after being left off and unplugged this resolved back to the constant sticking and freezing.
I updated the Intel Chipset Utility (no effect), and then updated the BIOS which included a CMOS reset (no effect). Re: CMOS/CPR - the PC is unplugged five days a week by default, though I've not removed the coin battery since the BIOS updated included a CMOS reset anyway. I've also disabled the LAN wireless card now in case that was damaged also, to no effect, so the only USB components running are the mouse and the keyboard.
The motherboard is a Asus P5K-e wifi which does have a PS/2 port for the keyboard but not for a mouse. The BIOS is now the most recent. USB is enabled in BIOS. Both mouse and keyboard are cheapo Technika ones.
The only thing that changed that I can think of was that I upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS a day or so before this started to happen. Beyond that nothing has changed, and as I say, Windows is affected as well.
As an aside the BIOS also thinks the PC has a floppy drive (it does not and never has) and it can no longer see a slave drive. The non-existant floppy drive predates the BIOS update, but I can't remember how long the slave drive has disappeared for - it may well have been missing for weeks, I don't use it. I haven't really looked into the drive confusion yet - been preoccupied with the mouse side of things. The slave IDE is attached via a card (it's an old PATA drive and the motherboard doesn't have any PATA inputs).
I've been assuming this is a hardware issue as the problem is independent of OS, but am perplexed that it's affecting all mice rather than just one dodgy mouse, but not affecting the keyboard. I've ordered a new cheapo optical mouse for the sake of trying yet another mouse. I perhaps could have confused the system by having both an optical mouse and a Bamboo tablet plugged in at the same time, but wouldn't that be OS-specific as well? If the USBs in the I/O board are fried, is it odd that the USB keyboard is working fine, and that the mice don't work in the front ports either?
I am planning to build a new PC/rebuild this one but not for another few months - ideally this one needs to limp on until November. I'm running out of ideas - I haven't tried any pen drives as I didn't have any expendable ones to test, but I can test one if it's likely to give more info. I could try a PCI Express USB card but I'm wondering if that will have similar issues. I've ordered a new USB mouse to see if a completely novel mouse has the same issue.
I'm at a bit of a loss and would appreciate any ideas!
You can tell I'm starting to go in circles with this.
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