Peripherals Freezing/Restarting w/ Dell Optiplex 7000

qJake · January 27, 2025, 9:17pm

KVM Model:

Triple DP, dual-PC KVM (new model - 10Gbps USB-C)

USB Interface (5-gigabit or 10-gigbit):

10Gbit

Problem:

At a high level… my USB peripherals seem to be acting up. Here’s what I’m noticing:

Keyboard will freeze and repeat the last letter pressed (as if it’s held down in Windows) - if I unplug and re-plug the keyboard, it starts working again
Mouse will stutter/freeze for 0.5-1s at a time (seemingly randomly?)
Webcam (Logitech BRIO) sometimes resets / cuts out, or the audio from the mic becomes garbled after some use (~15 mins into a Teams call).

This is only on one of the connected PCs (a company-issued tower) - a Dell OptiPlex 7000. (yeah, I know, I didn’t choose it… )

(Side node: I also had display issues with this tower… and ultimately replaced the POS AMD Radeon RX 970 with an Intel Arc A770 and the display issues went away… )

The other PC (a custom-built machine with a Z790-D4 / i7-12700K) works
flawlessly with the onboard USB-C port, no issues whatsoever.

Peripheral List:

Mouse: Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard: Keychron Q6 w/ Knob (w/ latest firmware)
Webcam: Logitech BRIO 4k
Alternate microphone: Fifine A6T USB-C Microphone
1x Alienware AW3423DWF @ 3440x1440 / 100 Hz + 10bit / HDR
2x Dell U2412 @ 1920x1200 / 60 Hz

Other Notes:

I have tried/troubleshooted this thing to death…

Replaced the USB-C cable with a certified 10Gbps USB C-to-C 3.2 cable.

Added a StarTech PEXUSB312C3 to my tower to use that instead of the onboard USB-C interface.

Tried using a secondary USB 3 hub connected to the KVM instead of directly plugging in peripherals.

Tried using USB Tree View to both “Restart Device” and “Restart Port”, which doesn’t seem to fix the problem.

Replaced the DP cables with certified 8K 40Gbps cables from Ugreen (I know this probably has nothing to do with the USB interface but I wanted to rule everything out).

I disabled C-states in the Dell BIOS (I read that can cause issues…). I also disabled Intel AMT (I work from home and definitely don’t need it).

Here is my current USB configuration - but believe me, I have tried nearly every combination/port/hub that I have available.

My Computer: OPTIPLEX7000 - Windows 11 Pro x64
|---ASMedia USB 3.1 eXtensible Host Controller - 1.10 (Microsoft) - USB xHCI Compliant Host Controller
|   \---USB Root Hub (USB 3.0)
|       |---[1-1]: USB 3.2 Gen 2 Hub
|       |   |SP-[1-1-1]
|       |   |SP-[1-1-2]
|       |   |SP-[1-1-3]
|       |   +---[1-1-4]: Realtek USB 3.2 Gen 1 USB Hub
|       |SS-[1-2]
|       |---[1-3]: GenesysLogic USB 2.1 USB Hub
|       |   |HS-[1-3-1]
|       |   |HS-[1-3-2]
|       |   |---[1-3-3]: ShareCall Virtual HUB
|       |   |   +FS-[1-3-3-1]: Keychron Q6 - 2× Keyboard, 3× HID, Mouse
|       |   |   |---[1-3-3-2]
|       |   |   |---[1-3-3-3]
|       |   |   |---[1-3-3-4]
|       |   |   |---[1-3-3-5]
|       |   |   +FS-[1-3-3-6]: Sonicbox Virtual HID - Keyboard, Mouse, 2× HID
|       |   |   \---[1-3-3-7]
|       |   \---[1-3-4]: Realtek USB 2.1 USB Hub
|       |       +FS-[1-3-4-1]: Shenzhen Xunweijia Fifine Microphone - Audio, HID
|       |       +HS-[1-3-4-2]: Logitech BRIO - Image, Audio
|       |       +FS-[1-3-4-3]: Logitech G502 LIGHTSPEED - Keyboard, Mouse, 7× HID
|       |       |HS-[1-3-4-4]
|       |       +HS-[1-3-4-5]: Alienware Realtek HID Device - HID-compliant vendor-defined device
|       \HS-[1-4]
\---Intel(R) USB 3.20 eXtensible Host Controller - 1.20 (Microsoft) - USB xHCI Compliant Host Controller
    +---USB Root Hub (USB 3.0)

Any ideas on what could be going on here? I’m really hoping the answer isn’t “Dell sucks, get a new work tower.”

thetazman · January 27, 2025, 11:07pm

Well first obvious questions are:

bios updated to latest?
drivers updated to latest?
os fully patched?

Level1_Amber · January 28, 2025, 2:55am

Hmmm the problem is only on one machine and not the other…

Do you have any of logitech’s USB software installed on either PC?

qJake · January 28, 2025, 5:39am

Yes, yes, and yes, especially on the Dell since that’s company policy. (Don’t get me started on Dell’s awful firmware though… ugh. At least they push out regular updates.)

I do, yeah. I have G HUB installed on my custom PC but nothing on the Dell. I wrote my preferred settings for my mouse to its onboard memory so it carries between both PCs. Since it’s using onboard mode for its configuration, I’m not sure how much of the software it’s even using. I don’t have any specific DPI profiles, RGB, or game settings - I just leave it at the same setting 100% of the time.

I can try adding and/or removing this from either PC if you think that might be the issue?

RagdollMeow · January 28, 2025, 11:55am

These are the exact same systems I experienced with a company-issued Surface laptop. In my case, I have an identical personal laptop of the same model which doesn’t exhibit the USB issues.

My problematic laptop requires shutting down and back on to behave, otherwise the sticky keyboard problems persists even in the Bitlocker unlock prompt.

The USB problems only get triggered for me after switching away and back to it.

What I can say is it’s not due to the KVM because the same thing occured with two different TESmart KVMs before I bought the Level1Techs. And no USB hub solved it either.

thetazman · January 28, 2025, 2:58pm

No arguments from me on this!

qJake · January 28, 2025, 3:21pm

This is pretty much the same thought process I’m having, too. A custom-built PC with zero issues, versus an off-the-shelf cookie cutter PC… yeah.

If anyone has any suggestions on things I can try on the Dell (I have administrative rights and our IT department is very lax on things like BIOS changes, mods, etc), then I’m willing to try anything at this point besides getting a new work tower.

mathew2214 · January 28, 2025, 3:37pm

Can you recreate this issue on Linux? Dmesg logs and stuff would be useful to find a problematic component to blame.

Level1_Amber · January 28, 2025, 5:29pm

We’ve definitely had issues with one PC working but not the other when g hub is installed and whatnot… I would try uninstalling it from the custom PC, rebooting both systems, then power cycle your KVM. Leave the KVM off for like 5 minutes to make sure the capacitors are depleted.

snackattack · February 2, 2025, 6:44am

I am experiencing very similar problems on my recently purchased USB-C KVM, which is connected to my desktop via a Nvidia RTX 2070 on a ROG STRIX Z690-A Mobo. The problem only seems to appear on this desktop and not my second computer (a laptop).

I tried several different keyboards/mice, they all frequently freeze/disconnect, sometimes repeating the last letter pressed. Tried both the USB/HID and USB3 ports. Happens on both Windows and Arch Linux, but the problem is worse on Linux. Unfortunately, neither dmesg nor journalctl show any messages when the freezing/disconnects occur.

Curiously, the problem seems to go away when I actively monitor USB events using libinput debug-events /dev/input/eventX. Maybe some weird USB idling/power management thing happening? I tried disabling USB autosuspend but it didn’t solve the problem.

My current guess is something is wrong with the USB-C port/drivers on the Nvidia 2070. I’ve ordered the USB-C Combiner in the hopes of circumventing the problem, fingers crossed.

qJake · February 5, 2025, 3:28pm

I have more or less come to the conclusion that this is a Dell firmware / power management issue that I can’t control, and my only course of action would be to replace the tower with a ~~different~~ better one.

If I do end up stumbling across a solution that resolves my issue, I’ll post back here!

mathew2214 · February 5, 2025, 7:36pm

if you find out how to fix Dell firmware powerplay issues, i would very much be interested in hearing your solution.