Surface Book 3 - external keyboard and mouse

I have the same keyboard disconnect issues. I saw in this thread that a CPU load stops the USB lag/drop. I can confirm that having a constant CPU load stops my lag/drop issue too. Rather than install another app, I wrote this little powershell one liner, and it works. I set the sleep in there to stop the CPU temp rocketing up. If it still lags for you, decrease the sleep time

while ($true) {$i = 1+1;sleep(0.4)}

Note that you must use the inbuilt keyboard, or the touch screen keyboard to enter your password, and open powershell and execute this one-liner, as the USB keyboard is not going to behave until this is running. If you want, you could add this as a scheduled job to start with windows, or your own login, to bypass this issue.

I hope MS fixes this soon. If the next patch does not fix this, my SB3 will be returned for full refund (my third SB3 return since November... This will be the last.

This issue is well documented with wireless keyboards and USB3 connections. It is not unique to the the SB3. S I noted on the thread or can be resolved by putting the keyboard receiver on an extension to take the dongle away from the USB3 socket.

I am not using wireless keyboard or mouse. It is USB.

David

Microsoft Support - which is actually a 3rd party company - tell me I need to re image the SB3 because my image is not standard.  It is a standard image but I have installed applications so I can work.  I have asked if Microsoft or they will pay for my time if re imaging does not fix the problem, guess what?  They won't guarantee it will fix the image and they won't pay for my time.

I have offered to test a clean SB3 in my environment but they won't arrange to loan me one.

At the moment, I don' see the stutter too often but I do if I use USB serial devices such as Arduinos or some tools like USB logic analysers.that stream a lot of USB packets.  I have told Microsoft support this but they don't actually try to reproduce user issues.

My impression is that Microsoft Support is there to shield the Microsoft developers from the real world problems and essentially waste users time until the users walk away or a fix happens to turn up.  If only I was able to speak to someone that is in a team that actually wants to fix problems rather than an external team that is targeted on closing tickets as soon as possible, has no access to know faults (or says they don't) and has a mantra of reinstall everything/turn it of and back on again etc..

I have experienced the 0.19 GHz CPU throttle, apparently not a known problem and other faults reported here none of which are 'known' to Microsoft Support. 

Microsoft have a potentially wonderful product that is failing instead of excelling.  So disappointing.

David

I am having a few issues and cannot find a solution. I've already checked all drivers, re-installed the OS using a fresh image, completed all my windows updates, run the surface diagnostic toolkit, and run system file checker. This issue happens all the time and my machine cost over $3000.

The laptop frequently freezes and the cursor stops moving/I am not able to use the keyboard for 2-5 seconds each time. When this happens, the screen is still refreshing. For example, my mouse has stopped working multiple time while typing this, but on-screen animations such as the blinking cursor while typing are still moving. I am using a Logitech mouse and keyboard with a USB dongle that worked perfectly with my previous system and still do (I tested over the past week). This issue also happens when I use my laptop's trackpad, so it is not the mouse and keyboard itself that are causing this. I have plugged the USB dongles into both the Surface Dock 2 that is connected to my Surface Book 3 and to the laptop itself. This issue is still happening, so it is not the Surface Dock 2 that is causing this. I have also unplugged the laptop from the Surface Dock 2 with the USB dongles attached to the laptop and this issue is still happening.

The second issue that I am seeing is that, when attached to an external monitor via USB-C to DisplayPort, sometimes my laptop screen stops working while the attached monitor continues to work. For example, about 15 minutes ago my cursor stopped moving on my laptop screen and I assumed that it was frozen because of the first issue I explained above, but when I dragged the cursor to the external monitor it was still working completely fine. Additionally, if I drag something like a browser window from the external monitor to the laptop screen it will not show up until the computer has unfrozen. I have disconnected all peripherals from the laptop and tested this issue is still happening. I have also tried a USB-C to HDMI cable and this issue is still happening. I have also tried an old Surface Dock 1 with a display port to mini display port connection and it is still happening.

The freezing cursor issues (first one explained above) is happening more frequently than the monitor issue, but both are interrupting my productivity and meetings. For example, I could not take myself off of mute when asked a question during a call because my cursor just stopped working all of a sudden (trackpad didn't work either).

I have followed all the standard troubleshooting steps such as: run the Surface Diagnostic tool, install the Surface Book 3 drivers msi package, re-install the OS using a clean image and the Windows 10 media creation tool, make sure that all windows updates are installed, run the Windows 10 system file checker, and monitor the task manager for any processes that are causing spikes in CPU or memory utilization (none were found).

Is anyone else having issues like this? If so, any idea how we can get support without stores being open?

Specs:

Windows 10 Version 2004, i7 1065G7 CPU, 32GB RAM, 1660Ti Max-Q GPU