1

I'm back with the same issue that's been following me for a few years now. I asked a question a month ago for this issue, previously thinking it had to do only with the keyboard.

I've since noticed that it's not isolated to the keyboard. The issue affects all my USB devices; webcam, mouse, microphone, etc.

The Problem

What is happening is, after a Windows 10 Update, my USB devices start acting up. In USB 2.0 ports, the devices seem to work partially, but go from a connected/disconnected state or their input to the PC is choppy, like parts are getting missed or ignored intermittently... Hope that makes sense. USB 3.0 ports just don't work at all. Here's some example behaviors:

USB 2.0 behaviors:

  • The keyboard will skip keystrokes or repeat a single keystroke infinitely until I press another keystroke. (defined in detail in the referenced question)
  • The mouse will miss clicks or sometimes even double click
  • The microphone will connect/disconnect rapidly.
  • The Webcam is not detected

USB 3.0 behaviors:

  • All USB 3.0 ports are unresponsive

What I've Tried:

  • Booting in Safe Mode. This removes the problem but also doesn't run most of my USB drives. It does run my keyboard and mouse though, and those have shown to work in Safe Mode. Don't know what to do after this step.
  • Uninstall/Reinstall USB drivers. This used to work but as of yesterday this doesn't work anymore.
  • Driver update from CCleaner; just in case. Didn't make much difference.

It should be noted that I have a "SuperSpeed" USB 3.0 port that hasn't worked since I got the PC. It has a driver called Texas Instruments USB 3.0 xHCI Host Controller. It errors out when I try to update it, it's perpetually stuck in Code 10 (The device cannot start). All USB 3.0 ports point to this one, and I'm convinced it is why the 3.0 ports do not work. I have no idea why the USB 2.0 ports act the way they do.

Specs

  • HP Z420 Workstation
  • Windows 10 Pro 21H1 19043.1237 x64
  • Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1620 0 @ 3.60GHz 3.60 GHz
Improve this question
4
  • If it works in safe mode then the simplest answer is to perform a fresh installation of Windows 10.
    – Robert
    Oct 20, 2021 at 21:22
  • 2
    Since it works in Safe mode, there might be an application that interferes with the keyboard or other devices in "normal" mode. Use Microsoft's (Sysinternals) Autoruns to check what applications run at startup. docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Oct 20, 2021 at 22:25
  • @DrMoishePippik After running Autoruns, I turned off all Drivers to see what was affecting it. All drivers off and nothing is wrong, but as soon as I plug something in to a USB 3.0 the two drivers tiufilter and tilfilter enable themselves and the problem returns. These are Texas Instrument drivers, the 'Upper Filter' and 'Lower Filter'.
    – Ashton French
    Oct 21, 2021 at 23:35
  • @AshtonFrench, the comment above states "applications", not "drivers". Look for an application that might cause issues -- compare the lists from Autotruns of those running in SAFE mode with those in normal mode.
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Oct 22, 2021 at 20:06

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

This sounds like a hardware problem to me. One means to test for this, and potentially resolve the issue, is purchase a PCIe card with USB ports. If this solves the issue then maybe keep using it this way and ignore the onboard ports, or see if you can get some kind of fix from the dealer or manufacturer now that you've shown there is not a software issue.

The benefit to putting in a PCIe card with USB ports is you can move up to the newer version of USB, 3.1, 3.2, or 4, maybe get USB-C ports if you like. The down side is the card is not free, it takes a slot, and leaves part of the computer still broken. The up side is not bad, newer and faster ports, perhaps some feature you didn't have before like USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP). There's plenty of options available, such as a card with 6 USB-A ports if you want a near equivalent to what is in the computer now. There are cards with USB-A and USB-C. You may need two cards to make up for all the USB ports you lost but it should be a simple and easy fix. Again, it's not free but your time and sanity is worth something, is it not?

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .