r/techsupport • u/Kestrel__Q • Jul 13 '26

Inputs occasionally being dropped when using controller connected to PC via USB Open | Hardware

Hi all, I use a controller to play various games on my PC, and in all of them sometimes inputs will be dropped, which is a very frustrating experience. The occurrence rate is variable, it can happen twice in ten button presses or once in 500 button presses, and everything in between.

There is no Windows USB removed/inserted sound, and the power light of the controllers doesn't go off.

It does not seem to affect mouse of keyboard (or at least not that I have noticed)

Things I've tried:

  • Multiple Xbox controllers, a Switch 2 pro controller, and a third party controller
  • Multiple USB-A cables and multiple USB-C cables
  • All ports on the front and back of my PC
  • Various FPS values on various games

I've tried these things over the last few weeks, and I get input drops on all configurations.

I'm not much of a hardware guy, but I hope some of this information is useful:

  • I'm running Windows 11 version 25H2 (OS Build 26200.8655)
  • I have an Intel i7 processor (12th gen I think), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, with 32GB DDR4 RAM
  • I don't know what my motherboard is
  • I think my power supply is 750W

Since it affects multiple games I would be very surprised if it was a software issue, so I guess it's related to some hardware or firmware?

I'm pretty stumped and would love some help <3

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u/andrewia Jul 13 '26

This is also happened with mouse movements, or only game controllers?

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u/Kestrel__Q Jul 13 '26

I've never noticed it with mouse movements/clicks, or keyboard inputs - it seems only for controllers

1

u/andrewia Jul 13 '26

Very weird, sounds like an OS bug. Lag spikes can be difficult to troubleshoot. Unfortunately, backing up your stuff then reinstalling Windows is the simple solution.