Strange USB issue

morpheas768

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Lately, I've been having to deal with possibly the strangest issue I've encountered on my PC so far.

What happens, is that when the PC has been turned off for many hours (at least 3+), upon boot into Windows (7), I will see a balloon message on the system tray, telling me that windows was unable to install drivers for a device and it doesnt work properly.
The mouse will be unresponsive, basically dead.

This issue happens ONLY if the PC has been off for several hours, it wont happen if I simply turn it off right now and then turn it on again. Also it wont happen on restarts.

Now here's the really strange part: I have tried many times to simply reboot or even turn it off and then back on again, when this issue happens. It still wont fix it.
The ONLY thing that always fixes it, is unplugging the USB cord of the mouse, and then plugging it in again.
Re-plugging it even worked while the PC was off!!

95% of the time, it will be just the mouse. There were 2-3 times (about 5%) that the keyboard died as well. Its not even guaranteed that it will happen, it happens about 50-60% of the time when the PC has been turned off for several hours. So I cant even reliably reproduce the issue, which makes it harder to diagnose.

When I get this issue, I have tried restarting and booting into bios, and the mouse doesnt work there either. Going into Device Manager, it shows me "windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (code 43)" for "Unknown Device" in the Universal Serial Bus Controllers.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the mouse drivers multiple times, have the latest Logitech Gaming Software installed, latest firmware as well.

I have all the latest windows updates for Windows 7, latest BIOS for my mobo and drivers as well.

I tried another mouse which I KNOW works fine for sure, and it happened with that one as well.
Keyboard somehow is magically fine most of the time. I even tried plugging the mouse in the USB port of the keyboard, and keyboard in the port of the mouse.

Only USB ports I didnt try are the USB 3.0 ones.

I am worried that my motherboard may be slowly dying, but I still havent completely ruled out a software issue.
These symptoms are just bizarre.

My Specs Are:
PSU: Corsair TX750
CPU: i5-2500k (stock, I cant OC anyway)
M/B: Gigabyte B75-D3V (Latest Bios)
GPU: MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G
SSD: Samsung 850 Evo (system drive)
RAM: 4x2GB DDR3 (2x Corsair 2x Teamgroup all tested with Memtest86 yesterday)
Mouse: Logitech G502 Proteus Core
Keyboard: Logitech K280e
OS: Windows 7 64 bit SP1 (up to date)

I am honestly at a loss, I dont know how to diagnose and fix this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks
 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
Given the age of your system, it's possible that the board is simply showing signs of wear and tear and it's age to be frank. You could recreate your Windows 7 installer and reinstall your OS to rule out an OS side corruption. Can you state which BIOS revision is on your motherboard? Is it BETA?
 

morpheas768

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Yes the motherboard is very very old, as are most of the components, save for the SSD, graphics card, and hard drives.

BIOS is the latest F9, and no it is not Beta, as far as I know.
 
In cases like this when nothing makes sense, your first move is to replace motherboard battery. It's cheap trick, so even if it won't help it's worth the try.
The fact that mouse will not work in BIOS shows clearly it is not a software problem (or at least not a Windows problem). Code 43 means the device is not recognized on hardware level - and since the mouse clearly works, it must be USB port/hub that's having a problem. Have you tried using front USB port for the mouse?
 

morpheas768

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Removing the battery may be kinda difficult at the moment, but doesnt this just reset the BIOS to default settings?
Cant I just go and do "Restore Defaults" in BIOS? As far as I know, removing the battery is only necessary when you cant enter the BIOS setup, but I can do it no problem.

I have not tried the USB ports of my case, I will do so, thank you.
 

morpheas768

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Oh, my bad I misunderstood.
I'll have to actually buy one, so do you think there's a decent chance this will work?

Mind you, I've had a few strange issues with BIOS settings getting lost (reset) on this motherboard a couple of years ago, just randomly without me doing anything or any other issue occurring whatsoever. This issue only happened a few times, and only when the PC was off for several hours.
 


Lost or reset BIOS settings when PC is not powered for longer periods of time are typical symptoms for dying battery. However those could be caused by ageing motherboard as well, so hard to tell if it will help. Definitely worth trying.
 

morpheas768

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I have ordered the battery and will buy it tomorrow (cant do it today).
The thing is, that this lost BIOS settings issue has not occurred in a very long time, probably over 2 years.

Anyways, I really hope its the battery, so I can put my worries to rest. Because if the motherboard is simply dying, I am well and truly screwed.
 

morpheas768

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Also, I tried plugging the mouse to one of the USB 3.0 back ports, and the same issue happened after the PC was off for ~3 hours.
Only this time, upon Windows boot, it told me that it successfully installed "Unknown Device" which of course didnt allow my mouse to work.

lol
 

morpheas768

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I moved the mouse to the back USB again. Was fine for a few days, so I thought maybe its fine (silly me, problems dont fix themselves), until it happened again. But I did a little test: I turned off the PC and also switched off the PSU using its little switch in the back. Turn it back on again, and voila, the usb mouse worked fine both in BIOS and Windows.

Following that, I decided to change the battery on the motherboard, as per your suggestion. I replaced the stock battery with an Energizer CR2032. Using a multimeter, I checked the old battery and it was sitting at 3.27 volts, while the new battery was at 3.29 volts. Hardly any difference, I would say the old battery is as good as new, imo. Regardless, since I have the new battery, and the old one was already out, I replaced it anyway.

First thing that happens upon boot into BIOS (After loading optimized defaults as the manufacturer suggests on removal of the battery), is that the mouse doesnt work. Exactly the same problem as last time.

So there are 2 things that fix it right now: 1. Unplug/replug USB, and 2. Turn off the power completely (switch off PSU) and turn back on again.

Given the latter, I am suspecting an aging poor old PSU. Its older than the motherboard itself, in 3 months it will be officially 10 years old!
I just dont know how to verify if its the PSU, I dont exactly have a spare....
 


I can't see a way faulty PSU could affect ONLY the mouse. A problem with all USB ports? Sure I can see that. But problem with USB port only when mouse is connected to it? No way.
So why the shutting PSU down works? Because motherboard boots differently from 'cold' start. It does more detailed survey of connected devices and perhaps that is enough in your case.
 

morpheas768

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This actually makes sense. Also, I stress-tested the system, and there's no issues. I dont see why it would only produce this strange very specific issue but be able to handle being pushed by the system. Not that I'm ever able to go anywhere near 750 watts, but still.

Anyway, it seems I am back to having the motherboard as a primary suspect. Wish I could confirm that for sure however.