What do these messages in syslog mean (stops my trackball working)?

[Chris Green]

On Sat, Oct 12, 2013 at 08:44:59AM +0100, Colin Law wrote:
> On 11 October 2013 11:32, Chris Green <cl at isbd.net> wrote:
> > I have a Logitech wireless trackball that I use with my Acer Aspire
> > netbook running Xubuntu 12.10.  It works for quite a while (random
> > amounts of time) and then stops, the following messages appear in syslog
> > when it stops:-
> >
> > Oct 11 11:24:06 acer-aspire kernel: [ 7812.377726] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: 
> >host controller process error, something bad happened! 
> > Oct 11 11:24:06 acer-aspire kernel: [ 7812.377751] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: 
> >host controller halted, very bad! 
> > Oct 11 11:24:06 acer-aspire kernel: [ 7812.377781] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: 
> >HC died; cleaning up 
> >     Oct 11 11:24:06 acer-aspire kernel: [ 7812.378030] usb 3-1: >USB disconnect, device number 2
> >
> > An identical Logical trackball works perfectly with Xubuntu 12.10 on my
> > desktop machine.
> 
> I would initially suspect a hardware fault.  Swap the trackballs
> between the machines (including the receivers).  That will tell you
> whether it is the machine or the trackball that is faulty.  Also try
> different USB ports to see if it is a fault with one of the ports.
> 
I originally saw the fault when I used the trackball from my desktop
machine on the laptop, so both trackballs do it on the laptop and
neither does on the desktop.

The trackball will work again if I plug the 'dongle' into the other port
on the laptop but it fails again after a similar random period and then
the only way to restore working is to reboot.

-- 
Chris Green