Solved Strange keyboard disconnecting

[DownhillDruid67]

Occasionally, Windows decides to disconnect my keyboard (although the keyboard still lights up), playing a "hardware disconnected" sound, and leaving me unable to type, and a few seconds later re-connects it without any "hardware connected" sound. Why is this happening, and how can I stop Windows from doing this?


This started when I re-arranged some of my USB devices, causing them to be in different USB ports. Is this the reason?


Also, sometimes, after resuming from hibernation, Windows will fully disconnect my keyboard (keyboard lights off and everything), for a good minute or two, before it will connect my keyboard again. What's going on?


My keyboard is a Redragon-brand gaming keyboard.

 

[Megahertz07]

I would say it's caused by a bad contact or by a broken wire inside the cable.
Is the cable under tension? Do you move it often?
Are you using back or front USB port?

 

[DownhillDruid67]

I would say it's caused by a bad contact or by a broken wire inside the cable.
Is the cable under tension? Do you move it often?
Are you using back or front USB port?

I am using the ports on the back of the computer (previously, I used the front). As far as I'm aware there is no damage or tension on the cable.

 

[Megahertz07]

Spray a contact cleaner on the male and female connector. It can be dust preventing a good contact.

 

[DownhillDruid67]

Spray a contact cleaner on the male and female connector. It can be dust preventing a good contact.

Will try that tomorrow.

 

[DownhillDruid67]

I am now experiencing this issue with my headset.

 

[Megahertz07]

Lets do the basic:
- Open device manager. Is there any yellow alerts of missing drivers?
- Open a CMD window as admin and type: sfc /scannow
- Schedule a disk check. Open a CMD window as admin and type: chkdsk c: /f
It will say that the disk is in use and ask if you want to schedule to next start = yes Reboot and pay attention on the results.

 

[DownhillDruid67]

Lets do the basic:
- Open device manager. Is there any yellow alerts of missing drivers?
- Open a CMD window as admin and type: sfc /scannow
- Schedule a disk check. Open a CMD window as admin and type: chkdsk c: /f
It will say that the disk is in use and ask if you want to schedule to next start = yes Reboot and pay attention on the results.

Will running an SFC scan remove my custom boot screen?

 

[Megahertz07]

System File check (SFC) will only check system files. No user files will be checked or changed.

 

[DownhillDruid67]

System File check (SFC) will only check system files. No user files will be checked or changed.

The thing is, the way the Windows 7 Boot Updater works is by modifying the system files (specifically, winload, winresume, and bootmgr). So I have a feeling doing an SFC scan may replace my custom boot screen with the default one.

 

[Megahertz07]

Never had any problems running SFC.
SFC doesn't change ANY configuration files. It will replace system corrupted files.

 

[DownhillDruid67]

Never had any problems running SFC.
SFC doesn't change ANY configuration files. It will replace system corrupted files.

That's the problem though.
Windows 7 Boot Updater does not add any new files or change configuration files.
It modifies system components in order to do it's job.
I have a feeling that from SFC's perspective, it will look like a corrupted file, and will overwrite it with the original.


It's not a big problem because I can just change it back, but I would like to know.


Thank you for your help.

 

[DownhillDruid67]

This issue is still happening.

 

[johnhoh]

throw $10 at one of these, plug it into the usb port that feels the tightest, then never unplug it.

Amazon.com: Anker 4-Port USB 3.0 Ultra Slim Data Hub for MacBook, Mac Pro/Mini, iMac, Surface Pro, XPS, Notebook PC, USB Flash Drives, Mobile HDD, and More (0.7 ft Extended Cable): Computers & Accessories

The designers of USB wanted a port that would be physically easy-in easy-out, so they designed it with hardly any contact pressure and no locking clip. Think of your sata connector, or a molex, or rj45 - they are much tighter. The USB designers tried to compensate for the lack of pressure by greatly increasing the contact area. That's fine right up until the shape of the female port changes slightly, then the contact area diminishes, resistance is introduced, and connection errors happen.

 

[DownhillDruid67]

throw $10 at one of these, plug it into the usb port that feels the tightest, then never unplug it.

Amazon.com: Anker 4-Port USB 3.0 Ultra Slim Data Hub for MacBook, Mac Pro/Mini, iMac, Surface Pro, XPS, Notebook PC, USB Flash Drives, Mobile HDD, and More (0.7 ft Extended Cable): Computers & Accessories

The designers of USB wanted a port that would be physically easy-in easy-out, so they designed it with hardly any contact pressure and no locking clip. Think of your sata connector, or a molex, or rj45 - they are much tighter. The USB designers tried to compensate for the lack of pressure by greatly increasing the contact area. That's fine right up until the shape of the female port changes slightly, then the contact area diminishes, resistance is introduced, and connection errors happen.

I don't think this is a physical problem as I mentioned.
It almost always happens just around 2 or 3 minutes after resuming from hibernation.

 

[johnhoh]

My opinion is unchanged. Coming out of hibernation windows initially tries to load every hibernated bit back into memory while simultaneously verifying the physical presence of all devices. If a device has a poor connection, it will try to load its hibernated driver over and over, eventually giving up and simply doing a plug and play reload of the driver. The way to know if this issue is hardware related or not is to see if the symptoms are identical using multiple different usb ports. If the symptoms don't change, you know its likely not a usb port hardware problem.

 

[DownhillDruid67]

My opinion is unchanged. Coming out of hibernation windows initially tries to load every hibernated bit back into memory while simultaneously verifying the physical presence of all devices. If a device has a poor connection, it will try to load its hibernated driver over and over, eventually giving up and simply doing a plug and play reload of the driver. The way to know if this issue is hardware related or not is to see if the symptoms are identical using multiple different usb ports. If the symptoms don't change, you know its likely not a usb port hardware problem.

It also happens with my USB headset (as I mentioned before), which is plugged into another port. But good advice and interesting info.

 

[johnhoh]

If multiple ports produce the same symptoms we should assume the issue is not the ports. So then the question is why are usb devices disconnecting and reconnecting? The next thing I would check for is a driver issue. You can reload your existing drivers by doing an uninstall/re-install of all chipset and usb drivers in device manager (which is kind of involved as there are many), or an easier thing to do is simply update your drivers. I would run the intel driver and support assistant and let it update your drivers to the newest levels.
Intel(R) Driver & Support Assistant

Another thing to try is make sure your motherboard is never turning off power to your usb ports. So go into control panel > power settings > advanced and make sure USB selective suspend is disabled, and also go into device manager and right click both on your keyboard as well as other usb devices, select properties, select power management, and make sure to UNcheck "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

 

[DownhillDruid67]

If multiple ports produce the same symptoms we should assume the issue is not the ports. So then the question is why are usb devices disconnecting and reconnecting? The next thing I would check for is a driver issue. You can reload your existing drivers by doing an uninstall/re-install of all chipset and usb drivers in device manager (which is kind of involved as there are many), or an easier thing to do is simply update your drivers. I would run the intel driver and support assistant and let it update your drivers to the newest levels.
Intel(R) Driver & Support Assistant

Another thing to try is make sure your motherboard is never turning off power to your usb ports. So go into control panel > power settings > advanced and make sure USB selective suspend is disabled, and also go into device manager and right click both on your keyboard as well as other usb devices, select properties, select power management, and make sure to UNcheck "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

I would also like to mention that only my USB headset and keyboard do this, no matter what port they're plugged into. My wireless mouse, gaming joystick, etc, do not display this behaviour. Not sure if that information is of any interest, but just in case it helps diagnose the problem.


Thanks for the help, and I'll try your solutions when I have time.

 

[johnhoh]

only my USB headset and keyboard do this.

If your keyboard is lighted then power draw is what differentiates those items from your others. Theoretically your motherboard should be able to handle the power requirements if you used all your usb ports at once, but then again nobody does that and in fact you are putting a higher power strain on your usb ports than most people. If nothing else solves this after trying everything like drivers and power settings, a pci-e usb card that has an external power cord for extra amps may be the way to go...

Amazon.com: Feb Smart PCI Express(PCIe) 4 Ports USB 3.0 Expansion Card for Windows XP,7,Vista,8,8.1,10 Desktop Computer- Super Fast 5Gbps Data Speed-2Ampere on Board Power and 10A Max SATA Power Supply (FS-U4): Gateway

I've seen a lot of coming-out-of-hibernation problems that had to do with the simultaneous windows requirement of being able to reload the driver out of memory AND powering up the device immediately, both at the same time. I would bet that if windows had a coming-out-of-hibernation option (it doesn't) of sending power to all devices for 3 seconds PRIOR to reloading memory from disk, problems like yours would go away. But right now windows is sometimes trying to load a driver to a device that is not yet electrically stabilized. That's my theory anyway.