Roccat Kone XTD mouse may spontaneously disconnect when devices attached to the computer are manipulated

Question

For some odd reason, my Roccat Kone XTD gaming mouse likes to disconnect by itself when I plug in, disconnect, or otherwise manipulate other devices that are attached to my computer. That includes such mundane things as touching a cable to a USB port (without even plugging it in) or probing a USB battery charger connected to the computer with a multimeter. It isn't happening that often, but it's annoying me enough to ask this question (and Google hasn't been very useful here).

When this happens, the mouse seemingly turns itself off and Windows gives me a "USB Device Not Recognized" error. Clicking the mouse restores the connection. On rare occasions, my Roccat Isku keyboard will reset itself as well. No other USB device I use exhibits this behavior.

The nature of this behavior makes me think the problem lies in the mouse not tolerating noise from the electrical ground of the computer. Aside from replacing the mouse, is there something I can do to address this problem? What might be the cause?

If this helps, the computer is a Sager NP8255-S (Clevo P157SM) running Windows 8.1 Pro. Updating the mouse's firmware did not help, and all drivers are up to date. Roccat Talk is installed and up to date as well. Event Viewer doesn't show any relevant events.

Answer 1

I've determined that the problem is not my mouse, but my laptop.

I've been having ongoing issues with USB 3.0 storage devices disconnecting while transferring data. Longer cables are more susceptible to this issue, while shorter cables are better behaved. Wrapping a cable in aluminum foil, funnily enough, prevents it from disconnecting. As this is independent of the actual device connected to the computer, it is clear that the computer is at fault, being abnormally sensitive to electromagnetic interference.

By extension, it would be logical to conclude that the computer's sensitivity to EMI is causing it to disconnect USB 2.0 peripherals when subject to interference spikes such as those generated by electrostatic discharge. The relatively long cables used by Roccat tend to amplify the issue as they can act as antennae and couple noise onto the USB ports.

Answer 2

This indeed sounds very much like a problem with noise or (not certain about the correct English term here) erroneous voltage on the different shield wires around the computer. The usual debugging sequence for something like this is as follows (assuming you are in an area with separate Ground and Neutral wiring and have a general clue about working on electrical devices):

• Disconnect as many peripherals as possible.
• Check your power outlet for correct grounding.
• Run your entire system from one outlet ony (perhaps using a multi-socket power strip)

Does the problem persist? Do you normally use more than one outlet? If so, the ground potentials from the two outlets may be different. In this case, use only one outlet and the power strip. If not:

• Add peripherals one by one and check for the error to re-occur. Often, faulty monitor power supplies or similar can introduce currents via the signal cable shielding.

If this doesn't point to a problematic peripheral, the last thing I'd try is to run grounding wires from all components (PC, Monitor, Switch/Networking gear, peripherals and especially your USB hubs) to a central grounding point. Do not do this by yourself if you are not familiar with working on electrical systems. But this will offer the best and most robust way of getting unwanted currents out of your setup.

Answer 3

Here are some ideas to try :

1. In Control Panel -> Power Options, click "Change plan settings", then "Change advanced power settings", in the dialog box expand the entry "USB settings", and set "USB selective suspend setting" to Disabled.

2. In Device Manager, expand "Universal Serial Bus Controllers", double-click "USB Root Hub" entry and in the "Power Management" tab uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".

3. Uninstall the mouse/keyboard from the Device Manager and reboot.

4. Try another USB port.

5. Use USBLogView to better analyze the problem.