Mouse Freezes When I Attach an External Drive to My MS Surface Book 2

I have a new MS Surface Book 2 with Windows 10 Pro version 1803.

It has a persistent problem. With one exception (a more than 10-year old 2 GB pen drive), when I attach any of my USB drives it freezes the mouse, and I have to use the touch pad (which I dislike using). I've tried this with 5 or 6 drives, and in most cases the mouse freezes and stays frozen until I disconnect the drive. In other cases the mouse works intermittently, but only hesitantly. I've tried three different wireless mice (all Logitech, two of which use the same software, although they're different models), with the same result in all three cases.

Two friends thought that my problem may have resulted from the “fact” that the Surface is "notorious" for having "under-powered" USB ports, and that it could be solved by my using a powered USB hub. I ordered a powered hub, which arrived today, and it doesn't help.

I had one other problem, which may or may not be related: the button configuration for the mouse wouldn't stay fixed. That is, I'd change it to left handed, but after a re-start it reverted to right-handed. By Googling, I found that others had had the same problem, and that one person solved it by first changing the configuration, then detaching the USB connection, then rebooting and then reattaching the USB connection. Don't know why that would work, but it did, in both his case and mine. But again, I've no idea whether that's at all related to my freezing issue.

Can anyone give me advice on how to troubleshoot the freezing issue?

Thanks.

Already answered at AskWoody:

Mouse Freezes When I Attach an External Drive to My MS Surface Book

Not really.

The solution discussed at AskWoody was only a partial one. One person suggested that whenever I use an external drive, I first disconnect the dongle for the mouse, attach the drive only then, and then reconnect the mouse. That worked this morning for the single drive that I tried it on, as I reported at that other forum. But while I'm certainly happier living with having to disconnect and reconnect the mouse all the time, than with mouse that's always freezing when I use an external drive, it's not an ideal solution. On reflection, it seemed to me that in the long run it would be rather tedious -- akin to having to click extra times in order to use a piece of software, when everyone else has to click only once. My computer isn't supposed to work this way, and it's a petty annoyance to have to deal with it.

Where things were left this morning at AskWoody, it was hoped that updating my USB drivers would solve the remaining problem. But I checked and they already were up to date

Also, it now turns out that while the connect/reconnect partial solution worked for one particular USB drive, it doesn't work for at least two others. That is, I have other USB drives which cause the mouse to freeze, where the situation isn't changed by my disconnecting and reconnecting the mouse.

Also, the one USB drive for which the proposed solution worked this morning is now behaving differently. Right now it doesn't freeze the mouse at all, whether or not I go through the routine of disconnecting and reconnecting the mouse. I have no way of knowing how long that's going to last.

And then I have another drive (a new pen drive) for which the disconnect/reconnect mouse problem doesn't work, but where the problem is solved by using a powered USB hub. Yet using the hub doesn't affect the freezing problem for any of the other external drives that I've tried.

In short, problem not solved.

If I committed a faux pas by asking a question here that happened to also be pending on the AskWoody forum, I'll be happy to withdraw it here. I didn’t think that etiquette demanded such reticence. Otherwise, all I'm looking for is a complete solution to my problem. So if anyone has a suggestion in that regard, I'd appreciate hearing it.

Thanks.