Yesterday, I booted up my 10+ year old Dell XPS 15 laptop (Windows 10 Pro – which I use mostly for music, not my primary system). Shortly after logging in with a password (I mention this to demonstrate that the USB keyboard was working just fine at first boot), I noticed that the indicator lights on the keyboard where off and no inputs were being received by the system.
I disconnected the keyboard from the laptop and reconnected it – that did not resolve the issue. So, I opened the Device Manager and discovered that the ‘Renesas USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller – x.x (Microsoft)’ driver was showing as non-functional. Before panicking, I rebooted the system. After clicking ‘restart,’ the computer began the reboot process, but stalled after the initial shutdown. I had to force power-off the system, and then power on again. The system restarted normally at this point and the USB keyboard was functioning.
I then went back to check on the driver and noticed that the driver date is 01/13/2023. Now this is strange as this is a 10+ year old laptop which stopped receiving driver updates several years ago. Even stranger, clicking on the ‘Events’ tab shows the latest driver update was from 06/17/2020. There was also no indication of a driver update in the ‘view updates’ section of Windows Update. (I am assuming the temporary keyboard issue was due to the driver not installing completely while I was actively using the system.)
Next, I checked my main personal laptop (another Dell, about 5 years old) – the same driver had been updated silently and stealthily with the same driver date.
Then, I checked my brand-new work system (another Dell, a State government issued laptop – so I have no ability to update it; most updates are pushed through InTune or need an admin password which I don’t have). Same driver updated with same driver date.
Finally, I looked at my son’s laptop – a Razer gaming system running Windows 11 – same issue, though the driver date was 01/19/2023.
It looks like Microsoft may be updating drivers without any trace that the driver has been updated.
Has anyone else seen this?
