How to stop random keyboard input lag in Windows 8?

February 5, 2013 8:46 PM

How to stop random keyboard input lag in Windows 8?

My keyboard/mouse worked fine under XP and 7. But under win8, every now and then (few times a day) the keyboard won't respond for several seconds. Then suddenly a stream of keystrokes that was buffered during the lag flows out onscreen. So this means the keyboard is communication to the PC, but the Win8 simply does not respond during this time, however the mouse works fine.

I'm using Logitech MK260 wireless keyboard & mouse, under Windows 8 Professional.

Keyboard issues seem to be common under win8, but I haven't found anything specifically like this.

I saw a trick about opening up On-screen Keyboard during lag to 'reactivate' the keyboard somehow, but it doesn't work for me.

posted by gttommy to Technology (2 answers total)

The most likely reason this is happening is that some other task is going CPU-bound and has a lock on some OS resource. Try opening up the Task manager, switch to "show everyone" in the "processes" tab , and keep it open on screen where you can see it. Next time your keyboard locks up, look quick to see what's chewing up the system.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:00 PM on February 5, 2013

I'd guess that Windows isn't communicating with your keyboard as some sort of power-saving maneuver, because this sounds a lot like the behavior I see from my optical and hard drives as Windows gets more aggressive on energy conservation. As for a fix, have you checked for an updated driver for the keyboard for Windows 8?
posted by zanni at 5:56 PM on February 6, 2013