Microsoft 5050 keyboard fails intermittently

Hi Bill,

If it does happen again, go to Device Manager and find your keyboard and right click > Uninstall Device.

If you get a pop up box, check the box to also "uninstall driver software for this device".

Then close down Device Manager and reboot your computer.

Your keyboard will be automatically reinstalled upon reboot. This should automatically reinstall the latest driver for it too.

In the meantime, I hope you have no more issues.

Kindest regards,

Neil

Hi William, my name is Neil, and I'm a Windows 10 user like you.

Sorry you're having this intermittent trouble with your Wireless Comfort Keyboard 5050.

The most obvious troubleshooting would start with your batteries. The first is to make sure they are the Alkaline type (other types do not provide the necessary sustained power needed and can cause errors like you described) and to make sure they have enough charge. The easiest way is to replace the batteries with 4 new Alkaline batteries.

If you've already done this then that's fine, but it is a valid troubleshooting step which does solve a lot of issues.

Are you using the Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center? You can download this from here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/mouse...

The Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center offers a common unified driver for all Microsoft Mice and Keyboards. So if you have been using a different driver, this will replace that driver.

You will likely need the 64Bit download, but please check first that your system is 64Bit and not 32Bit.

You can check this by Right clicking on "This PC" on your Desktop and clicking on 'Properties'.

As regards the Dongle. Sometimes interference from nearby devices, such as cordless telephones and wireless routers, can cause sporadic issues. Other times it might be the USB socket. Try plugging the Dongle into a different USB socket and see if the issue continues.

Since you have already replaced the keyboard, I don't think the issue is with that.

Try the methods above and see if these help at all.

Let me know how you get on.

Kindest regards,

Neil

Hi Neil,

Actually the term "docking station" is a little grand. It's really just a USB hub with USB C power and HDMI video inputs that has a USB C output.

In any case, I looked in Device Manager and found that the keyboard's device driver comes from Mouse and Keyboard Center and is dated 9/10/2020. I don't know if Mouse and Keyboard Center was installed on my machine before I just installed it, and if so, what version was on there. (It could have been updated through Windows Auto Update). We'll see what happens. My instinct is that the device driver starts to fail after a while because of some memory leak, and removing/replacing the USB dongle causes the driver to restart and then run again until the same thing happens again. We'll see.

• bill.

Hi Bill,

I thought you would have already changed the batteries, but like I said, it's better to check than go through loads of fixes and find out it's just the batteries. It's happened :D

As soon as I heard docking station I thought ha ha!! Then when you said you have plugged it into the laptop directly, and it made no difference, then my hopes drained. Docking stations are notorious for causing these types of errors. Hence my initial suspicion that it could be this, but if it still happens when plugging in the dongle directly to the laptop, then this is not the cause.

However, having too many USB devices plugged into your laptop might cause an issue, but you'd have to check and try and eliminate USB devices through trial and error if this is the cause.

The only thing I can really find about the Mouse and Keyboard Center is this "The Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center app allows you to customize how your devices work and it installs essential drivers for them"

I think you have to open the Mouse and Keyboard Center and then configure your keyboard within the program.

I don't know at what point the driver is installed, but it is meant to be a unified driver so I presume it would install with the program and then apply this driver once you have setup your device within the program. Have you setup you keyboard with the program?

I normally reboot as a matter of course when installing Apps or hardware, just to make sure any drivers are installed properly.

After doing this, you could always check Device Manager and see if there are any Driver updates, just in case the driver wasn't installed with the program.

Let me know how you get on and if your issue has resolved.

Kindest regards,

Neil

Hi, thanks for the quick reply.

First thing I tried was changing the batteries, it had no effect.

It's not the USB socket. The dongle is plugged into a USB C docking station with multiple USB inputs. Moving it to another input on the docking station made no difference. Plugging the dongle directly into the laptop instead of the docking station makes no difference, and other devices plugged into the docking station (e.g. webcam) behave normally.

I just tried installing Mouse and Keyboard Center. As much as I dislike this type of crapware, if it has a different device driver, that might be worth a try. One question I have is does installing Mouse and Keyboard Center install the new device driver automatically, or does that require separate action (or a reboot)?

Thanks again,

• Bill.