Partial loss of mouse and keyboard controls

Technical Support
1

For a few months I have been experiencing a momentary loss of in-game controls (both mouse and keyboard) during matches. Below I will categorically explain my problem further because I need to provide as much information as possible.

1 - What exactly is happening?
I am partially losing controls of BOTH mouse AND keyboard during OW matches. This includes hero movement and abilities, esc menu, voice chat button and outside commands, such as alt+tab. The duration is variable, lasting from 1 to about 10 seconds.
I describe the phenomenon as partial because in most cases, the hero will keep executing an action I was previously engaged in, such as Moira’s Biotic Grasp or Baptiste’s Biotic Launcher, even after I have stopped pressing the button. So basically, it doesn’t simply shut down the commands, it sort of lags them.
Curiously enough, this problem appears more often and for longer periods on certain heroes. This is an interesting aspect of my issue that might help solve it. Below is a list of some of the heroes I play the most and how often the issue appears with them:
Moira: Extremely often
Winston: Rarely
Zarya: Extremely often
Lúcio: Somewhat often
Baptiste: Extremely often
Reinhardt: Rarely
Brigitte: Somewhat often
Mei: Somewhat often
McCree: Rarely
Reaper: Very rarely
Ana: Extremely often
Mercy: Somewhat often
Zenyatta: Rarely
As much as the problem happens, it’s not that game-breaking. In many occasions, the freeze occurs in between fights or while I am re-spawning. Thus, I have been able to keep on playing despite it, without any major performance (W/L ratio) impact.

2 - Have you looked for other people who have had the same problem?
Yes. I have googled using different words, and found several people having the same problem. I will go over the main solutions and explain exactly what I did.
a) When checking this post: Overwatch Forums
I tried all the solutions (without success) except for the mouse calibrating one, since my mouse is an off-brand gaming one. But since the loss of controls isn’t just from the mouse, I’m ruling out the chances that my mouse might be the problem.
b) Also looked at these ones:
Overwatch Forums
Overwatch Forums
Overwatch Forums
One of them cites Discord overlay. I have gone as far as completely uninstalling Discord then playing the game, but it didn’t solve the problem. Another one mentions that uninstalling Overwolf solved it. I don’t use Overwolf, but I have Streamlabs installed. However, I don’t run it simultaneously to Overwatch.

3 - What are your PC specs?
Lenovo Ideapad 330S laptop.
Intel Core i5-8250U
8GB RAM
1 TB HD
AMD Radeon 535 2GB
It’s far from a gaming PC, but runs Overwatch smoothly at 60 FPS on the low settings. This computer was acquired in October 2018, and I have been experiencing the aforementioned issue since then.
I also use a steady 30MB internet and my matches always sit between 36-40 ms of ping.

I would deeply appreciate any help you could get me. I love playing Overwatch and have finally learned how to perfectly manage my gaming sessions so I don’t get tilted or frustrated. This problem, though, has caused me many headaches, so much that I have completely abandoned Competitive matches, with the exception of 4 games to test out the role queue.

I put myself at your disposal to provide any additional information in regards to this problem.

2

Hi there, I’m a volunteer/fellow player, and I don’t work at Blizzard. Please include a DxDiag if you’d like members of the community to help you troubleshoot.

DxDiag instructions (click to expand/collapse)
  1. Press Windows Key + R.
  2. Type DxDiag and press Enter.
  3. In the DxDiag window, click Save All Information.
  4. Name the file “dxdiag” and click Save.

To add it to your reply here:

  1. Open the text file and copy all of the text.
  2. Paste the text in your reply.
  3. Highlight the pasted text and click </> on the post editor.

If your DxDiag does not fit in one message, you can post it on Pastebin.com and provide the hash code (the numbers/letters after the .com) in your reply.

If we don’t see any obvious issues in the report, the next step would be to look at a connection test or check for overheating.

3

Thank you for you reply!

The DxDiag report can be found at PasteBin with the code pkxqQnp7

Since my system is in Portuguese, there are a few terms that might need translation, but most of them are in english.

Thanks again for your help!

4

Your copy of Windows is a couple of versions out of date, so manually check for updates and apply them. However, I think this might be overheating because there’s not much else happening in the report.

Download HWMonitor from the link in my last post, run it for a while until you experience the issue, then take screenshots of the entire app. Upload them to Imgur and give the end of the link like you did for the dxdiag.

5

Hello again!

I manually updated my Windows as resquested (current version is 1903).

As for overheating, I have downloaded and installed HWMonitor. Despite not having executed Overwatch with it (the Windows update took a long while), the collumns of max temperatures showed around 60°C for the CPU (which is close to critical), even though the immediate temperature was around 40°C.

At first, overheating didn’t seem like a plausible answer. I have executed games that are more hardware-demanding than Overwatch, such as Mass Effect Andromeda and Deus Ex Mankind Divided without any issues command-related. But then, something happened that changed my views, though I can’t fully confirm it yet.

Yesterday I played a few matches of Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer. Just like Overwatch, it features a very fast-paced combat, creating situations in which I am required to type multiple keys at once, both mouse and keyboard. And the mouse and keyboard momentary control loss happened as well, often accompanied by FPS drops, just like in Overwatch. These moments were not experienced on the aforementioned single-player games, since I play them more calmly.

My question is: Can the excessive amount of input commands (keyboard and mouse) create an even worse situation for the already heated CPU/GPU? In a few situations on OW, when trying to restore the controls while they are being unresponsive by pressing multiple keys even more frequently, I would hear the system respond with 5 brief beeps (that sound a bit like when you call busy on the telephone) on the computer audio.

So, regarding the overheating issue, I have already sent my laptop to my local tech support to have it physically cleaned up, since it had already gathered up a significant amount of dust on the air spaces. I will then make a habit of doing so every few months. I am also providing a laptop cooling pad for future use. And because it’s an ultrathin laptop, I understand how it can overheat more than my previous one, that, even with lower specs, never gave me that problem for not being ultrathin.

Thank you so much for your help! With the problem in hand, I can now take the necessary procedures to solve it. If you have any other tips to keep my computer cool, I would greatly appreciate!

6

A cooling pad for an ultrathin would do you good :slight_smile: