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Bought this Nuc a while ago and only just finally setting it up.
After installing Windows 10 I connected a mechanical USB hard drive. I opened the drive folder in explorer and my wired USB mouse froze for about 1.5 seconds then resumed.
Thought it was a one time glitch then it kept happening.
Transferring files from a mechanical USB hard drive OR flash USB drive causes the issue consistently, without fail. If a file copy is initiated, it causes the mouse to periodically freeze for about 1.5 seconds over and over and over until the transfer is complete. Browsing file directories will randomly cause the freeze to happen as well.
When the mouse freezes, it is as if the connection to the wired mouse has dropped.
The cursor pauses on the screen, but when it resumes, it is in the same state as when it froze. If I am dragging a window and keep the left mouse button clicked, when it resumes the mouse button is still actively clicked. If I let go of the button while the mouse input is frozen, it unclicks only after resuming input. The tracked position seems to still be moving while the cursor is not updated since the cursor jumps to a new location onscreen once the mouse unfreezes.
The system itself is fully responsive while the mouse input has dropped.
USB keyboard input continues uninterrupted - I can type via usb keyboard while the mouse is frozen. File copies continue without pause or lagging.
_______________________
Hardware:
The wired mouse I am using is a Logitech G703. It has wireless capability but I have been using it wired. I tried the wireless dongle and had the same issue. I am not using any Logitech software, only the onboard memory manager. I have tried lowering the poll rate from the default of 1000hz all the way down to the minimum of 250hz with no change. Switching DPI makes no difference. There are NO cpu spikes on any core when the mouse input freezes. CPU usage during a file copy never goes over 9%.
The mouse works 100% perfectly on 2 older Windows 7 computers. I'm surprised a slow outdated 10+ year old pc has no mouse freezing but this much more powerful Nuc does.
The USB hard drives I have tested are:
500GB Western Digital MyPassport (2.5" mechanical hdd)
2TB Western Digital MyPassport Ultra (2.5" mechanical hdd)
5TB Western Digital Elements (2.5" mechanical hdd)
3TB Western Digital MyBook (3.5" mechanical hdd)
I also tested a QNAP TR-004 DAS with a variety of 3.5" mechanical hard drives (Western Digital Red and White drives in varying capacities).
ALL drives cause the same issue via USB.
Also tested with a 128GB Samsung Fit flash drive, the issue remains, so it does not matter if the USB drive is flash or mechanical.
All 6 USB ports exhibit the same exact behavior. I have tried switching the keyboard, mouse, and USB hard drive in many different port configurations and the behavior is the same regardless.
________________________
Windows 10 is fully up to date.
I will not be using Windows 11 and won't be testing it. Windows 10 is a compatible OS and the Nuc was purchased to use with Windows 10.
All drivers are up to date (I even updated some that the Nuc software studio said were up to date but were not).
I have updated to the most recent bios which did not help. Bios settings are all stock and unchanged. I did turn off the 'fan off' option due to the annoying start/stop noise, but adjusting that setting did not affect this issue.
I even tried the USB firmware fix for drives that disconnect themselves (the update failed the first 3 times but finally worked). There was no change.
_________________________
I've tried every troubleshooting adjustment I could find.
If I do a fresh install of Windows and do absolutely nothing but connect a USB drive and try to access it, the freezing occurs right away. This is literally a fresh install with nothing else - no chipset drivers, no video card drivers, no drivers at all and no windows updates.
Doing all the driver updates and windows updates doesn't help, the problem remains.
I've tried disabling all power saving settings on all USB devices through the device manager - mouse still drops periodically.
I've tried uninstalling all USB hubs/devices and letting windows reinstall them - mouse still drops periodically.
I've tried disabling all windows explorer graphical enhancements - mouse still drops periodically.
I've tried forcing dwm.exe Desktop Windows Manager to use the RTX2060 - mouse still drops periodically.
I've tried enabling and disabling Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling - mouse still drops periodically.
I used LatencyMon to see if there are any spikes when the mouse connection freezes... there are no latency spikes (oddly, simply opening chrome spikes to 1500 for no reason but I don't see any performance issues).
No errors appear to be logged in the event viewer when the mouse freezes.
I have tried disabling every piece of non-essential hardware in the device manager such as bluetooth, iris xe gpu, rtx2060gpu, audio devices, and others but I have not found anything that will keep the G703 from dropping.
I have tried ending all non-essential windows tasks in the task manager but I have not found anything that will keep the G703 from dropping.
Windows power settings are set to "Ultimate Performance" - USB Selective Suspend is turned off - Hard drives are set to turn off never.
I probably left out some of the things I tried.
_________________________
The only things that worked so far:
** My old USB 2.0 mouse with a 125hz polling rate works with NO freezes that I have noticed!! **
** If I restart into safe mode, the G703 has NO freezes!! **
** If I have other CPU activity, even just playing a video on youtube in the background, the G703 NEVER freezes during USB drive access or file copying!! **
_________________________
What is going on here and how do I fix it?
The mouse freezing is driving me crazy.
I thought the mouse should be one of the highest priority devices. 10+ year old, much less powerful, hardware doesn't even have this issue. I'm surprised to see any mouse freezing issues at this stage of hardware and software development.
Please advise.
Thank you.
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I posted the text below in THIS thread describing a similar issue:
'I have a NUC11PHKi7 (NUC 11 Enthusiast) and when using a hard drive (old style 3.5" desktop spinning platter, 8TB drive in a powered USB caddy) as my back-up destination, I used to get intermittent drops from the USB ports, all of them. Since ditching it and using an 8TB SSD as my back-up solution I have never had an issue.'
Not exactly the same issue but similar enough to highlight it for you. As I stated, since removing the mechanical hard drive as my back-up and replacing with an 8TB SSD, not a single occurrence. I can't explain it and haven't got the time or inclination to investigate further.
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Sorry to hear you were having an issue too.
Thanks for the link! I was hopeful there was a solution in that thread... Darn.
If it was financially feasible I would convert all my mechanical HDDto SSDs but that would cost me thousands of dollars.
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this must be something different, because you say that you get same issue with a flash drive / USB thumb drive?
I cannot reproduce this problem with my system with new ( >200MB/s) and old USB2.0 flash drives plugged into the front bottom USB3 port. I copied files from/to usb device to internal nvme drive.
Keyboard and mouse are connected to the both lower usb3 ports on the back of the system (system stands vertically in the stand).
I have not tested mechanical harddrives yet.
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Yes, I get the same issue with just a USB 3.0 flash drive plugged in.
I copied from the drive to itself and have constant mouse freezing.
I don't have a lot of data on the drive, but I just tried copying from the flash drive to an internal NVME and did not notice the issue (yet). None of my tests before have involved transfers to internal NVME storage - it's all from/to the same USB connected drive, or from one USB connected drive to another.
Just browsing file directories on a USB connected mechanical hard drive causes the issue though - however I have not seen it with browsing file directories of a USB flash drive (yet).
I'm wondering if my mouse is just incompatible if no one else has the issue. It took me a long time to find a mouse that fit my hand just right.
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I don't have a mouse that has a higher polling rate than the default 125hz und you wrote that you can't reproduce this with other mouse. It is also strange that you needed several attempts to update the USB firmware. Was the G703 connected at the time?
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Yes, the Logitech G703 was connected when the USB firmware update kept failing. I didn't save the error message but I believe it was that one of the two updates had a crc mismatch (same error each time). On the fourth attempt the update completed successfully.
I'll try and get a third mouse to test this weekend and see if there are any issues.
Polling rate shouldn't be an issue. A 1000hz polling rate wasn't an issue on Windows 7 running on 10+ year old hardware so I can't see how it would be an issue now with faster hardware and Windows 10. It's not like there is some cpu spike when the mouse freezes.
Really seems like there is some process halting and taking precedence over the mouse input, I just can't narrow down what it is. The G703 has no issues in safe mode, but that of course has a ton of things disabled.
I've also tried 3 different monitors with multiple refresh rates to see if that had any impact, but the problem remained. Disconnecting the USB keyboard also made no difference. Running a bluetooth keyboard also resulted in no change.
Hopefully someone from Intel can offer some insight? NUC's are pretty standard across the board so I'm surprised this isn't a widespread issue, unless it is related to a specific incompatibility with my particular mouse. Or perhaps no one else is using mechanical hard drives connected via USB, thus not seeing the issue even though it exists.
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Was able to try another mouse, a Logitech G305. It also has a 1000hz polling rate.
Unsurprisingly, it has the exact same issue as the G703 on my Phantom Canyon NUC.
I don't have a mouse from a different manufacturer to try, unfortunately.
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Hello thx1139,
Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities. I am sorry to know that you are having issues with your Intel® NUC 11 Enthusiast Kit - NUC11PHKi7C.
I will proceed to check the issue internally and post back soon with more details.
Best regards,
Deivid A.
Intel Customer Support Technician
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Hello thx1139,
Thanks for your patience. You mentioned that you used 2 mice, Logitech G305 and Logitech G703, both are wireless. Is there a chance that you try a wired mouse, even if is a Logitech mouse?
Please let me know if is possible for you to test a wired mouse.
Regards,
Deivid A.
Intel Customer Support Technician
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Thanks for getting back to me.
As I said, the G703 is only used in wired mode (but I tried wireless and the issue remains). So that should count as a wired mouse.
The G305 I borrowed is indeed wireless only but exhibits the same problem.
The wired 20 year old USB 2.0 mouse I tried does not seem to have any issue, but also has a much lower polling rate. The scroll wheel is broken so I don't actually use it, I just pulled it out to test with.
I tried the G703 through an old USB 2.0 hub but that did not help.
I also disabled windows search and windows thumbnails just in case, but that didn't help.
Still think it is strange that playing a youtube video in the background will keep the mouse from freezing during USB drive access.
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Hello thx1139,
Thanks for the additional information. I will continue with the investigation in order to provide you with a better response.
I will let you know as soon as I have any details for you.
Best regards,
Deivid A.
Intel Customer Support Technician
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Hello thx1139,
I was reviewing the thread and I would like to know if you have tested these mice since I did not see this information in your posts.
Please let me know if you had the chance to test your Logitech with a different system.
Best regards,
Deivid A.
Intel Customer Support Technician
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Thanks for getting back to me! I already provided that information in the first post.
All the mice work fine on other systems. The person I borrowed the G305 from has no issues on Windows 10.
I would never post if the mice didn't work fine on other computers.
I'm just going to quote myself from the original post:
"The wired mouse I am using is a Logitech G703. It has wireless capability but I have been using it wired. I tried the wireless dongle and had the same issue. I am not using any Logitech software, only the onboard memory manager. I have tried lowering the poll rate from the default of 1000hz all the way down to the minimum of 250hz with no change. Switching DPI makes no difference. There are NO cpu spikes on any core when the mouse input freezes. CPU usage during a file copy never goes over 9%.
The mouse works 100% perfectly on 2 older Windows 7 computers. I'm surprised a slow outdated 10+ year old pc has no mouse freezing but this much more powerful Nuc does."
Let me repeat also that the G703 works totally fine on the NUC as long as USB storage is not accessed.
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Hello thx1139,
I am sorry for the inconvenience. I will proceed with the investigation with the information that you provided me. I will get back to you as soon as I have any details for you.
Thanks for your comprehension.
Best regards,
Deivid A.
Intel Customer Support Technician
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Appreciate the reply.
I think there is something buggy in the NUC11PHKi7C USB drivers.
Maybe it isn't a common issue if most users simply aren't using USB storage frequently.
The freezing issue is, however, 100% reproducible and happens without fail every 5 to 10 seconds (during a file copy on USB connected storage) when the previously mentioned Logitech mice are used via any of the 6 USB ports - it isn't a random or uncommon occurrence.
I have found a workaround while you are working on a solution:
I tried a friends Apple Thunderbolt to USB adapter. Plugging the wired Logitech G703 into the adapter and using a Thunderbolt port instead of a USB port enables the mouse to work without freezing. There are absolutely no mouse related issues when accessing USB storage while using the G703 via the Thunderbolt interface.
I don't have my own adapter at this time, but it works.
To summarize, these are the only workarounds I have found:
- Booting into safe mode allows the wired G703 (and wireless G305) to function without freezing. Unfortunately safe mode is not a viable option for actually using the NUC.
- Leaving a youtube video playing in the background allows the wired G703 (and wireless G305) to function without freezing. Leaving a video permanently streaming isn't really a viable option for using the NUC either. Maybe the USB driver thinks the mouse is sleeping when there is less system activity?
- Using a Thunderbolt to USB adapter allows the wired G703 (and wireless G305) to function without freezing. This is a viable workaround for actually using the NUC, but should not be necessary.
I will look into purchasing my own adapter (unless Intel wants to send me one!) while you are hopefully able to resolve the issue with the USB chipset drivers.
Looking forward to hearing back from you.
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Hello thx1139,
Thanks for the additional information. We are going to escalate this issue to a higher level for further investigation, however, we will need a couple of information:
1. Run the Intel® System Support Utility (Intel® SSU) to gather more details about the system.
- Download the Intel® SSU and save the application on your computer: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/18377/intel-system-support-utility-for-windows.html
- Open the application, check the "Everything" checkbox, and click "Scan" to see the system and device information. The Intel® SSU defaults to the "Summary View" on the output screen following the scan. Click the menu where it says "Summary" to change to "Detailed View".
- To save your scan, click Next and click Save.
2. Is it possible for you to test a different brand of a wired mouse? This is to provide all the details for the issue replication.
Best regards,
Deivid A.
Intel Customer Support Technician
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(1) Sure, I saved the scan. I don't see an option to send a private message with the text file attached. Please let me know how I can send it instead of posting it publicly.
(2) I tested all hardware I have available. As you can tell by my thorough posts I have tried everything I can think of. If I had additional hardware to test, it would have already been tested and the results posted. I would not have left available hardware untested. I would need to purchase a new mouse to do what you are asking which I am not planning on doing.
Also, I tried swapping the wired G703 and the USB attached storage (such that the hard drive was connected via the USB-to-Thunderbolt adapter, and the mouse was connected to one of the 6 normal USB ports) - the result is the same as connecting the mouse to the Thunderbolt port via adapter - absolutely no issue, no freezing.
So the mouse functions totally fine with no freezing as long as one of the devices is NOT connected to an actual USB port.
I can only guess that there is an unresolved issue with the USB firmware or the USB chipset drivers.
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Hello thx1139,
Thanks for the information provided. I will send you an email to the e-mail address associated with your community profile to collect the report.
Best regards,
Deivid A.
Intel Customer Support Technician
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Thanks for the reply.
Report has been submitted.
I'm not sure how my Nuc could be different from other units, so it seems like the problem should be widespread. But again, maybe people are just not using USB connected storage, without which there are no USB mouse issues.
My "test suite" to easily reproduce this issue was refined to:
- Initiating a file copy of a ~10GB file from a connected USB drive, with the destination being the same exact drive.
- After the copy started, move the copy progress window with the mouse in a never ending 360 degree circle around the screen.
- Every ~10 seconds (the time is slightly variable) the mouse input drops and resumes a couple seconds later, and the copy window resumes circling the screen.
That made it easier to quickly test if a change I made resolved the issue instead of waiting for random freezing while browsing file directories or doing normal tasks while a copy was progressing.
Looking forward to hearing if you can reproduce the issue and a possible fix so I don't need to get and use a Thunderbolt to USB adapter.
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Hello thx1139,
I do appreciate the information and the steps provided. I will continue with the investigation as mentioned before and I will get back to you as soon as I have any information for you.
Thanks for your comprehension.
Best regards,
Deivid A.
Intel Customer Support Technician

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