Extremely odd keyboard lag behavior

ibjhtt

Honorable
Oct 7, 2012
3
0
10,510
Hello - I've been getting a sudden and bizarre lag with my keyboard playing FPS games recently, with a widely varying lag sometimes as long as a half-second. The problem is NOT that the computer is overstressed; the visuals continue to work just fine and at a good framerate, and I can move my point-of-view with the mouse just fine. The problem is strictly lag on the keyboard inputs. This is in single player so there's no MP synch issues involved.

Once the problem starts I can't do anything to stop it; while the severity of the lag varies between modest annoyance to extreme game-killer, the responsiveness never returns entirely to normal once it starts.

Even more bizarrely, when I quit the game the problem persists until I do a full reboot. It's doing it right now, in fact. Here's an example:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxOxxxxxx

the O is roughly where I let go of the key. You can see how this makes most kinds of games unplayable.

It's as if I'd started a milder version of Sticky Keys...but Sticky Keys IS turned off, as are the other accessibility options. Instead my keyboard just suddenly acts sluggish, my character keeps moving in the direction I've been pressing (sometimes for several seconds after taking my fingers off the keyboard, sometimes less, always at least a little extra) and holding down a key for several seconds - like (I dunno) W or A or S or D - will make the computer continue giving that input for a long period after I stop typing. At its worst it climaxes with a torrent of beeping noises from my computer speaker while I lose all control of what's happening on the screen for a few seconds.

Since the problem is persistent even when the game is shut down I've been assuming the issue is at least in part (or perhaps entirely) a Windows 7 driver problem, but that insight has been no help because I know very little about drivers and Google is giving me crap results when I search for more info. Perhaps my system is running too hot? The GPU currently tops out at 86 C so it's a bit toasty, but I'm not seeing any visual effects of overheating, and the problem persists even after I quit the game and temps return to normal.

The ONLY thing that fixes the problem is a reboot and that only lasts until the next time I play an FPS game and get caught in heavy fire. My drivers are all current, including my chipset drivers, and both my generic wired Dell USB keyboard and my friend's expensive gaming keyboard are doing it. Turning down the graphic settings all the way produces a 60+ fps even in the heaviest scrums but it doesn't prevent this problem from occurring. I can't find any other plausible suggestions to fix the issue and the Gearbox forum isn't proving to be much help.

So I'm here for advice on how to proceed.

Here's my stats:

ASUSTeK Mobo P7H55D-M EVO (LGA1156)
Intel i3 2.93 Ghz (Clarkdale)
ATI Radeon 6870
8 GB RAM DDR3
Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
USB wired Dell keyboard/mouse

Any advice or suggestions are welcome. My ability to play this game hinges on it, I suspect. Thank you!
 

fuzg13z

Honorable
Aug 5, 2012
151
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10,690
It's possible that some data intensive peripheral that's plugged into your USB is using all of your USB bandwidth and causing your keyboard to lag. If that's the case then try removing the peripheral. If that's not the case, try updating your USB drivers. You could also buy a USB to PS/2 adapter to avoid having your keyboard run through your OS..
 

fuzg13z

Honorable
Aug 5, 2012
151
0
10,690

Hey man there's no need to be sarcastic. It's not like you've got some sort of really common issue that everybody knows the answer to. People are going to respond if they know the answer and they wont respind if the dont. Also, if we don't know the answer there's no need to begrudge us for it. :non:
 

ibjhtt

Honorable
Oct 7, 2012
3
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10,510
Sorry fuzg13z, I let my frustration get the best of me. Normally I can Google and troubleshoot my way through the worst of problems but it's surprisingly really hard to get good search engine results for this issue. So after 50 views and no comments I let off some steam. Again, my apologies.

The only data-intensive thing attached to my USB ports is a USB-powered pre-amp for my speakers. And honestly I don't think it's THAT data-intensive; nothing like running a game off a USB hard drive, anyway. That pre-amp has been using the same drivers and has been attached to the same ports since I got the computer two years ago, so I'm not sure why it'd suddenly be a problem.

I don't have any PS/2 ports on this mobo so I'll check the drivers and report back.
 
Some particularly badly coded keyloggers can also cause this. Have you done full anti virus / anti malware scans? What were you doing when you first noriced this occurring? install anything new? download anything new? go to any new websites etc etc.
 

Trouble007

Commendable
Oct 22, 2016
1
0
1,510


The problem I had , was exactly the one described above. Here is how I solved it.

Pulling out my external hard drive out of the USB port next to the USB port where my wireless keybord USB reciever is plugged in, did the trick for me. So, for me, I can conclude that the problem situated itself at the lvl of the USB ports*, causing an overload of some kind, probably data driven.
*More specifically, at the lvl of a USB port cluster; my ext. HD was, toghether with my wireless keyboard usb, plugged in at the front of my PC. (I have two USB ports at the front.) Relocating the ext. HD to the back of my PC, inserting the USB directly into a USB port of the motherboard, caused no further trouble.

If the problem returns, i will keep you posted.
Thank you for your help.

@ibjhtt, I suggest you do try to remove the pre-amp out of the usb slot. What good is advice if you don't try it. Btw, I had the exact same problem as you discribed, and it also started while playing an FPS ('Insurgency' in my case). Thank you for this thread. You explained the problem very well.
 

Gamboleer

Prominent
Jul 18, 2017
1
0
510
This old thread tends to top search results for this problem, so I'll post here as it seems useful to keep all the information in one place.

I just had this happen tonight, in the middle of a chat session in Google Hangouts. Rebooting, hard powering down, swapping batteries in keyboard, unplugging all other USB peripherals, none of these helped. I decided to swap out my mouse, a G700s, for my backup, a G700. The system detected new hardware and installed a fresh driver. The problem disappeared immediately, and stayed fixed after I swapped back to my G700s. So, it seems possible a corrupted driver can do it; removing the mouse and / or keyboard in Device Manager and then reattaching may fix it for some.