Precision 5530 and TB16 dock - mouse and keyboard freeze

Hi,

first; I feel your pain. Dell has completely stopped doing any resemblance of QA on the TB3 docks, and it's just unbelievable how they continue to not get their **bleep** together. I've been through the same issues on several revisions of XPS and Precision laptops. As for your issue, first, I'd try another keyboard/mouse combo and check if you experience the same issues. If you do, I've found that another "magic" driver is the Intel Management Engine Interface driver - double check that you have installed the latest version of this one. Why this is not delivered via Windows Update is beyond me. Same goes for newest version of BIOS, ASMedia, Realtek network controller, Thunderbolt firmware, Thunderbolt driver... and the list goes on. :|

Hey there,

Tried all that....still nothing. Tried new wireless mouse, seemed to work for a while, then it started acting up again.

It sometimes goes away, other times comes back. It's so unpredictable that it makes it hard to pinpoint the exact source of the problem.

The only workaround was to connect an external USB hub and have the mouse and keyboard connected to that hub and connect the hub to the laptop directly and not via the dock.

I am suspicious about one thing, that another colleague has problems with also....He has USB headphones, and I have an external USB sound card. Those might be the culprits. It's still not acceptable and Dell should recognize the issue and find a fix.

I don't know if the issue is of the laptop or rather of the dock. 

Has anyone tried using a Dell Precision or XPS with a thunderbolt dock made by a different manufacturer? I would likely ditch the Dell TB16 for something else if that would fix the problem.

I have the same problem with my new 5530 precision machine. this doesn't make any sense to me given the high price range paid for this engine.

I am seeing the same thing with multiple examples of both XPS 15 9570 and Preciaion 5530 laptops, The USB - A ports seem to have a bug which causes this freezing and "key stuck" behavior.

Note this also occurs with Vision TEK USB 4k Universal docking stations and the Dell D3100 dock as well as the TB16 and WD15. The common thread seems to be the USB Type A ports on the laptop have SOMETHING plugged in. It doesn't matter if its a Dock or a Flash drive, as soon as the USB type A is used on the laptop... this freezing issue occurs.

Note : None of the docks mentioned have this issue if used with other model laptops, this seems exclusive to the XPS 15 9570 and Precision 5530... which appear to share a common motherboard

If somone from DELL could pass this info on to the appropriate teams ittd be appreciated!

Thanks!

Also having this same issue with the same symptoms.  Keyboard and microphone on my headset randomly stop working no matter what USB port in the dock or port on my USB hub (that is plugged in to the dock). 

Start working again for a few minutes if unplugged and plugged back in but always stops again.  Always works when plugged in directly in to the laptop.  Jabra headset and Corsair mechanical keyboard. 

So far so good. This is looking promising.

I have been using my system as usual, with C States disabled and no glitch so far.

I still have to try out a few more things, because I moved all of my USB peripherals to an external USB hub. I will move them back to the dock and work with it for a week or so more to see if the problem surfaces again.

But this could be it....

Disabling C States appears to have fixed the issue for me.  I have moved all of the problem devices back to the dock and not had an issue in over 24 hours now.  Before it usually took less than 10 minutes to have the issue again.  

Thanks a ton sfortin!

Have been using the system with C states turned off without issue for a couple of weeks now, and I'm confident in saying that this is the solution and marked your reply as such.

Thank you very very very much

I have exactly the same problem and also been looking for solution in many places.

I'm still about to test this solution, but I'm a little bit concerned about battery life. I guess C states are there to save energy, so have you guys experienced any problems with battery and time you can work without power supply?

I agree it's great to find a working solution, but I'm quite disapointed in the overall design of what is supposed to be a top of the line product, an issue which has obviosuly been marked solved earlier by Dell addressing a BIOS update in 2016 is continuosly re-appearing, latest in in the fourth quarter of 2018 on TB16/XPS models, and noticably on every single one of them, not just a subset of installations. And the solution is to turn off the powersaving CPU C states in BIOS when using USB solutions?

To me, this solution sounds a bit like asking someone to bypass all the fuses, because the fuse-box is malfunctioning. Not an acceptable solution at all. I will expect Dell to address and fix this issue.

@AspCom I agree with every word in your comment.

BTW - In the meantime I've disabled c-states in bios and in fact usb problems are gone, so I can confirm this workaround works. Still it is quite disappointing...

BTW #2 - since some users of 5530 + tb16 may watch this thread - I still have issues with one of monitors. I have three connected and sometimes the third one (connected with big display port) is not starting after I get back to computer after some break (and monitors got disabled by windows). The only way to have it back is to turn monitor off and on. Quite annoying...

 @adameq Regarding BTW #2: I can confirm your observations. I have two identical setups at home and at work. Three monitors, two Samsung Syncmaster 2443BW on VGA and DVI , a Dell U2713H on the Displayport (Computer is Dell XPS 15 9570 on Core i9. At home, the monitor on displayport behaves correctly. At work, I have to turn it on/offf as you described. I also tried searching for the source on the monitor, but it detects no output from the dockingstation. I actually thought it was an issue with the monitor.

I have noticed though, there is an update for the TB16 which has been released this morning.