Mouse disconnects/reconnects randomly, but with a twist!

[Adytzah]

Greetings, people of Tom's Hardware!

Over the past few weeks(months?) I've been experiencing a problem with my USB gaming mouse. Basically what happens is it randomly disconnects for about 1-2 seconds, only to reconnect afterwards. During this time my cursor freezes for the whole duration of the process. It occurs at random intervals and an entire disconnect-reconnect spree can last up to an hour(if not more). I hear the Windows sound that notifies me something has been disconnected(and then reconnected), and I get a small popup from my taskbar saying that a "USB Device is not recognized".

When I go into 'Device Manager', under the 'Mice and other pointing devices' tab I have my HID-compliant mouse(which if I disable/uninstall I can't move the cursor, which should happen), and lower under the 'USB Controllers' tab lies the 'Unknown Device'(alongside the other USB Root Hubs and whatnot). I'm certain that the 'Unknown Device' is connected to the Mouse, but I don't know exactly how.

I've checked for a solution on Google, but nothing that is exactly my problem seems to come up(that, or, I'm a moron who can't search for some words), the only things I could find were the issues that I have, but separate. I tried the fixes recommended for them, but to no avail(it seems to be disconnecting less frequent RIGHT NOW, but it's pretty random so yeah).

I've considered a hardware problem(the whole wires breaking at the mouse entry point thing, which seemed more viable since I dropped the mouse at some point in time and the scroll wheel broke and fell under the "shell" <<NOTE: the issue would appear before this also>>), but it's seeming less likely now, considering I've been moving the cable around with no result a few minutes ago(although the first time I tried that, which also happens to be today, it seemed like the disconnecting was synchronised with the movement), heck, I've even went as far as letting the mouse dangle from the cable, only to my surprise of nothing happening at all.
I've also opened it up(the screws were under the glides), and upon inspection of the wire there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it where it entered the mouse, or anywhere visible. I also put the scroll wheel back in its place so atleast I can apply for warranty now. I'll definately check it again as a last option.

Should mention that my warranty is still good for another 1-2 years or so, but I'm reluctant to send it there since salesmen try to bend you over hard where I come from and will look at literally anything(and sometimes even make things up) that can save them some refund money. Not to mention the price for an inspection incase they find nothing wrong is slightly expensive. I don't really wanna buy a new mouse in the near future, either.



Now for some relevant specs and the model:
Mouse: http://www.platinet.pl/en/?loc=products&prod=120126 (no, I'm not from Poland)
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit
CPU: Intel E2180 @2.00ghz(OC'd at 2.70ghz)
Power Supply: err.. can't remember the exact model, but it's a Raidmax and it has 500W
GPU: BFGTech Nvidia 9600GT OC1


Oh right, I forgot something. Sometimes, during certaing games which are pretty demanding(I'm looking at you, Team Fortress 2), I get some nasty mouse-lag. Kinda like input latency, or negative acceleration, so I had to set the hid.exe proccess to high-CPU priority in Task Manager to balance that. For some reason, it also set itself to using both cores instead of just one. In the past, setting it to high-priority and single-core would fix it(could be a red herring), but now it doesn't really do that anymore.


Sorry for the massive post, but I didn't really wanna leave any detail out in hopes that I'll find a solution to this problem. Thanks!

 

[DevenneyEU]

I can think of two possibilities that you haven't noted: the drivers for the USB ports themselves and the motherboard BIOS. A few ideas for troubleshooting and narrowing it down a little bit:

■Does the same problem occur when you use a different mouse in the same port?
■Is the issue replicated over all usb ports?
■Does the mouse function correctly in a different computer entirely?

I'm no expert but I'd say that's a pretty good place to start. Anything you can do to narrow it down will make the problem much easier to identify/fix.

 

[Adytzah]

Unfortunately at the moment I don't have access to another USB mouse to test it out, however I have tested the mouse on my mother's laptop(which is pretty old and still running Windows XP), and it didn't disconnect at all.
The issue would happen over all the USB ports, yes. I'm starting to consider a friend's theory that I'm not plugging the input in well enough and that it randomly loses connection because of this. Pushed into it as hard as I could without breaking anything when I came back from testing it on the laptop, we'll see what happens.

Also, my USB ports' drivers are updated. I run a software that automatically searches for newer version and asks me wether/which I want to update or not.

Regarding the motherboard BIOS, what about it? I'm pretty bad with the "in-depth" insides, so I have no idea what to do there(aside from tampering around with clock frequencies)

 

[DevenneyEU]

If it works fine on your mother's laptop and the issue is present across all of your USB ports, I'd say the issue is most likely to be on the side of your system rather than the device itself. I recall having a similar issue when I first updated my current motherboard's BIOS to the latest version and I managed to fix it by clearing the CMOS (which sadly means I never got to find out what exactly was the issue in the BIOS). Have you tried it with factory default settings in the BIOS to make sure it's not somehow related?

Other than that, does the issue only happen with the mouse? Not with your keyboard, flash drives, etc.? Some things you've said make it seem like it's definitely a system issue, yet you've not mentioned any of your other peripherals experiencing the issue which implies it's the mouse.

 

[Adytzah]

It's only the mouse. None of my other USB peripherals have or have had any sort of problem like this.

I don't wanna jump to conclusions(I hope I'm right though, as stupid as that'd make me look), but I think the aforementioned theory about the USB cable moving in the input is true. After shoving it in, it seems to work perfectly now. :\
I'll give it another day or two. If it doesn't disconnect at all, I'm an idiot. If it does, well, I'm not an idiot but I still have a broken something.

 

[DevenneyEU]

Well, best of luck with it. Let me know how it goes and feel free to throw me a message if you need any further help.

 

[revolt8]

I had the same problem where my mouse and keyboard which were connected to USB port rather than PS2 port use to disconnect frequently for 6-7 seconds and then reconnect.(for over 4 months) and i lost all hope. In my case power was coming from Power socket to UPS, which was further supplying to SMPS. I read all similar forums and utilized every trick which i can deploy like changing power settings, disabling gestures, updating drivers, changing OS, new mouse/keyboard etc...
Finally i changed SMPS, it did gave some hope for 1-2 days, But still issue not resolved. Suddenly an idea came to my mind of placing VOLTAGE STABILIZER to this whole unit....What i did: Placed Voltage Stabilizer in between UPS and Power socket. and of my surprise Issue got resolved. And it's been 2 months i haven't faced that issue and really happy to share the solution which could be applied by many users.