os x mouse problems

July 28, 2005 6:10 PM

having made the switch to a mac mini, 1gb ram, 80gb hdd, wireless options and running tiger, i bought a labtec usb optical mouse to go with my machine. after a while i found that it does it's own thing, and will occasionally lurch over to he left side of the screen for no apparent reason.

have tried swapping mice, with less, still with occasional problems, but the labtec is better for the way i use the mouse (i know this sounds strange but i use the mouse upside down...works perfectly fine for me as it was the way i first picked it up, but freaks people out...) and other mice seem to hurt my wrist. anyone know the issue here? have googled to no immediate avail.

posted by spyke23 to computers & internet (15 comments total)

use a different mouspad, or none at all.
posted by angry modem at 6:32 PM on July 28, 2005

What is the mouse plugged into? If it's plugged into a keyboard, try plugging it directly into the back of the machine and see if that changes things. Sometimes the built-in USB hubs on keyboards can be a little flaky, although it's fortunately far less of a problem than it used to be.
posted by xil at 6:47 PM on July 28, 2005

yeah, sometimes if i accidentally nudge my mouse a bit, the cursor will just start creeping over towards the left side of the screen. just moving the mouse around a bit solves it instantly, and it's not a big problem. does the problem go away when you move the mouse again, or does it just constantly persist? if it's the former, i'd just try to live with it.
posted by jimmy at 6:51 PM on July 28, 2005

the mouse is plugged into an external unpowered hub, it sometimes persists for a few seconds. thnx for your suggestions will give them a go
posted by spyke23 at 7:35 PM on July 28, 2005

Some optical mice act wacky if they're on a surface which has variations in colour and brightness, like a mousepad with a fancy logo on it. My Mac mouse used to act quite erratically until I switched to a plain black mousepad, and it's been flawless since.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 7:42 PM on July 28, 2005

What angry modem said: use a different mousepad, or none at all. Optical mice can be very picky about the surface on which they are used.
posted by Rothko at 8:06 PM on July 28, 2005

ahah! so my mousepad with the a sacred heart jesus might be causing the gyp!! will change immediately!
posted by spyke23 at 10:56 PM on July 28, 2005

How do you use it upside down?

Do you use it against the underside of the table?

Do you hold it in your palm and move your thumb over the sensor?

HOW?
posted by blasdelf at 11:25 PM on July 28, 2005

please for the love of god tell us how
posted by Juliet Banana at 1:45 AM on July 29, 2005

perhaps he just means he has turned the mouse in the same plane on the table 180 degrees, not turned it over.
posted by cahlers at 4:05 AM on July 29, 2005

I once spent a lot of time with an eMac that did the same thing. Stock Apple Optical Mouse Pro and keyboard. It wasn't the surface it was on. I tried dozens of substrates, and sometimes it would do it without being moved at all. I tried bypassing the keyboard hub. It would usually leap to one corner or another, which was highly annoying if any of the corners were "hot".
posted by loquacious at 5:50 AM on July 29, 2005

Hmm, I'm in the same situation as you (OP) - my wired optical mouse does this too; it's plugged into a powered hub, and is used on a plain black mat.
The wheel sometimes does a big jump, too - and then settles down and scrolls properly.

I just put it down to quirks with MacOS...
posted by Chunder at 6:36 AM on July 29, 2005

OS X also uses a different mouse acceleration algorythm than Windows. You can change it to be more like the Windows mouse movement in System Preferences.
posted by blasdelf at 10:51 PM on July 29, 2005

sorry i didn;t reply re: using upside down, as cahlers said i use the it 180 degrees, with mouse buttons at back. essentially this means when i move left, the cursor goes right, and forward on mouse means cursor goes back. works for me....and as fast as anyone i know with a mouse.

a friend also mentioned the mouse lurch as quirk of os x, which i find difficult to believe...but all the same.
posted by spyke23 at 5:05 PM on July 31, 2005

I've been using a Logitech Marble Mouse and never experienced any problems using it on an eMac (running Tiger) or iBook (running Panther). The Marble Mouse is ergonomically designed and I've never experienced any pain from using it. Provantage is currently selling them for $11.76 plus shipping.
posted by plokent at 11:09 PM on August 22, 2005