Re: USB keyboard disconnects after a while

["Steven M. Bellovin" <smb%cs.columbia.edu@localhost>]

On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:56:21 -0500
"Martin S. Weber" <Ephaeton%gmx.net@localhost> wrote:

> 
> When saying "disconnected" I mean, "stops working without notice in
> dmesg".
> 
I've never seen it with a keyboard, but I don't regularly use USB
keyboards.  I frequently see it with a USB trackball -- but there's
more to the story.

Very frequently, if I plug something else in -- a power brick for a
gadget into the UPS, an iPhone into a USB port, etc. -- my trackball
stops working.  I have to unplug it and plug it back in.  Perry
suggests that the problem is really some sort of static discharge or
other electrical upset.  Indeed, sometimes using the vacuum cleaner
nearby can do it.  Also -- and perhaps relevant to your timing comment
-- it's more frequent in the winter when the air is try than in the
summer.  In other words, if you're seeing the same phenomenon I am it
may not be 4.99.73 versus 5.99.3 as much as the change in seasons.

                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb