Techniques for polling an input/output (I/O) device are described herein. The techniques include polling a device for data from the I/O device, and receiving the data from the I/O device at the host device as a result of the polling. The techniques include determining whether the data received is the same as data received at a previous polling of the I/O device. Upon determining the data received is the same, the techniques include decreasing the polling rate if the data is the same, and if it is not the same. Upon determining the data is not the same, the techniques include increasing the polling rate if the data is not the same.