I'm not totally sure of the exact type we were using at the time. Mine was the kind that had a USB dongle that plugged in to the laptop while his was the type that rested in a USB powered cradle that recharged it. Basically the same technology I think but I cannot remember if we tried to fix it. His wireless mouse kicked the bucket so I went back to a wired mouse on his desktop until such time that I replaced both keyboard and mouse (yet to be done - I'm still shopping for a gaming/illuminated keyboard)