As I mentioned before, I got a new gaming PC a few months ago. Since it sits below my TV, I also bought with it a new wireless keyboard and mouse, the Logitech K360 and M510, respectively. I'm used to Bluetooth mice and keyboards, but it seems that in the PC world Bluetooth is not as commonplace as in Macs, so the standard is to use some dongle. Luckily, Logitech use a "Unifying Receiver" so that both the keyboard and mouse can share a single USB receiver, freeing an additional port. In addition, the Alienware Alpha has a hidden USB 2.0 port underneath it, which seems to be the ideal place for the dongle and freeing all the external ports.
My luck stopped there though. Playing some first-person shooters, I noticed that the mouse was quite imprecise, and from time to time the keyboard would lag for a second or so. Is that why "PC gaming purists" swear by wired mice and keyboards? I moved the dongle to the back or front USB ports, and the issue remained. As a test, I plugged in my wired Logitech G500 mouse with the help of a ridiculously long 3-meter USB cable, and it seems to have solved that problem. But I remained with this half-working wireless keyboard, and with that USB cable an annoying setup.
I couldn't figure out what was wrong, and willing to absorb the costs, until I found this post on the Logitech forums. Essentially, it doesn't play well with USB 3.0. I'm not talking about issues when you plus it the receiver in a USB 3.0 port, since that would have been a non-issue with the USB 2.0 port I was using underneath the Alpha. Nope. Just the mere presence of a USB 3.0 in the proximity of the receiver creates "significant amount of RF noise in the 2.4GHz band" used by Logitech. To be fair (and they insist on mentioning it), this seems to be a systemic issue with all 2.4GHz devices, and not just Logitech.
So I did a test. I took this really long USB cable and connected the receiver to it, making the receiver sit right next to the mouse and keyboard at the opposite side of the room where the TV and Alpha are located. And that solved the issue. Of course, to avoid that new "USB cable across the room" issue, I used a combination of a short half-meter USB cable and a USB hub with another half-meter cable to place the receiver at the opposite side of the TV cabinet. Again, the interference was removed.
OK, I guess all is fine and my mouse and keyboard are fully functional, but what about those new laptops with USB 3.0 on each port? Oh well, next time I'll stick to Bluetooth.
Published on May 3, 2015 at 17:48 EDT
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