# Why do I keep getting mouse and keyboard lockups?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-keep-getting-mouse-and-keyboard-lockups/150393>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 23, 2003, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-keep-getting-mouse-and-keyboard-lockups/150393 "2003-01-23T06:21:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jukeball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@Jukeball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jukeball)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-keep-getting-mouse-and-keyboard-lockups/150393/1 "2003-01-23T06:21:18Z")

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It happens at least once a day. And the funny part is while my mouse and keyboard stop working I can surprisingly hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and the close program window comes up , and hitting it again I can restart my computer. It’s just very annoying.

Any suggestions?

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**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-keep-getting-mouse-and-keyboard-lockups/150393/2 "2003-01-23T06:59:34Z")

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Have you added any hardware lately, like a network interface card? If so, it may be conflicting with your keyboard. Check **Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information** , and open **Hardware Resources/Conflicts-Sharing**. This will tell you the devices that are sharing IRQ’s. Chances are, some device is sharing with your keyboard, and they don’t play well together. Move the offending device to a new slot, hopefully it will be assigned a new IRQ that doesn’t conflict with something else. If it does, try another slot. Note that this will not work on WinXP, as many devices share IRQ 9 (why this doesn’t create problems of its own, I have no idea).

If that doesn’t work, open **Display Properties** (right click on the desktop, and select **Properties** ), and select **Settings/Advanced/Performace** , and turn **Hardware Acceleration** down to **Basic Acceleration**. Some systems don’t run well with Hardware Acceleration turned all the way up.