Mouse & keyboard gone after inactivity

pilsburypie · 15 Jan 2020 at 16:54

All has been working fine until today. But now my wireless mouse and keyboard don’t work after a 20+ minute of inactivity.

I googled this and followed the suggestion to go into device manager and uncheck the “allow computer to turn off device to save power” for both mouse and keyboard..... but it still happens. Never happened before. A simple shake of the mouse or click woke everything up.

My pc is as good as frozen when this happens. Only solution is to turn off power and restart. All fine then until inactivity. Just don’t know why this has happened today..... no changes at all.

LuckyBenski · 16 Jan 2020 at 01:41

How do you know the mouse and keyboard have stopped working? Are other PC functions still obviously happening?

Have you tried unplugging and replugging the receiver when this happens? Are there hardware power switches on them you can cycle?

pilsburypie · 16 Jan 2020 at 08:25

LuckyBenski said:
How do you know the mouse and keyboard have stopped working? Are other PC functions still obviously happening?

Have you tried unplugging and replugging the receiver when this happens? Are there hardware power switches on them you can cycle?

They are non responsive. Mouse does not move a cursor or clicks don’t work.... but the laser is clearly on. They keyboard registers no key presses. In effect the computer is frozen as I can’t operate it with no keyboard or mouse.

I shall unplug the receiver later and also see if I can remove the drivers then reinstall. thanks for the suggestion.

LuckyBenski · 16 Jan 2020 at 08:41

I think your PC has hung tbh.

Mike 702 · 16 Jan 2020 at 09:19

Might be some sort of power saving option, does the mouse and KB use batteries - maybe change them over.

pilsburypie · 16 Jan 2020 at 10:13

Unplugged usb receivers, batteries out of keyboard and mouse, new ones in, different keyboard and mouse tried, wired and wireless, BIOS battery replaced as I read this can cause strange effects. Same thing happens.

I’m leading towards a computer issue as I tried several things like plugging in a USB external HDD which clearly powers up but then does not prompt on screen with what to do with files as per usual. Also my iPhone usually opens iTunes when plugged in.... now nothing. So is this a USB freeze?

Why does it fix when I turn the PC off and on? Bloody annoying.

Any other thoughts most welcome.

pilsburypie · 16 Jan 2020 at 10:15

LuckyBenski said:
I think your PC has hung tbh.

I’m thinking that too. But why? Why does it do it after inactivity? What’s the solution? I can use it when just turned on so have the opportunity to rectify if I knew the solution.

ANDARIAL · 16 Jan 2020 at 12:23

Run memtest?

LuckyBenski · 16 Jan 2020 at 12:57

ANDARIAL said:
Run memtest?

I'd suspect this. Does it only hang if you leave it long enough to go to sleep?

I had a motherboard with bent CPU pins for the memory slots - used to hang if I tapped the case.

pilsburypie · 16 Jan 2020 at 15:14

Thanks for your suggestions, but I think I’ve sorted it. Time will tell and I’ll do memtest if the problem continues.

A google search suggested HDD issues, so I ran a SeaTools for windows scan. One of my internal storage drive failed the test. Strange as it appeared to be working fine. So I copied the data (photos and video) to my other internal HDD and then just unplugged it in the case. So far, a couple of hours later all seems to be fine. Fingers crossed in the coming days it remains so.

Really strange how a HDD with zero programs or OS can cause this issue. I wasn’t even using it at the time of hang.

pilsburypie · 16 Jan 2020 at 15:31

Just ran memtest64 for giggles. No issues found. Still can’t get over how a storage HDD can cause the issues I had..... hopefully that was it.