Problem diagnostics
(scroll down for solutions/walkarounds)
What we know so far about the mouse cursor skipping (jumpy, jittery, erratic movement) bug / problem of Mac OS X portrayed in the video above (when the source of knowledge is not specified, the source is me):
- It occurs mostly with gaming and “high-precision” mouses, confirmed the following:
- Logitech G5, first edition and second edition,
- Logitech RX1000,
- Razer DeathAdder 3G ”Mac edition”,
- Logitech G3 (source and source),
- Logitech G9x (source),
- Razer DeathAdder (source),
- Razer Copperhead (source),
- Razer Lachesis (source),
- Razer Salmosa (source: comment below by h4rg),
- Saitek GM3200 (source: comment below by Matt),
- Razer ProClick (source: comment below by Slim),
- Logitech MX510 (source: comment below by hz),
- Logitech G500 (source: comment below by Ali — can be fixed in a similar way to Razer, see the comment),
- Razer Imperator (source: comment below by DrLex),
- Kensington Optical Elite (source: comment below by Paul),
- Logitech Performance MX (source: comment below by eric),
- Microsoft Sidewinder X8 (source: comment below by Benjamin Grundy),
- … (please suggest more in the comments).
- It occurs on Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard”, 10.6 “Snow Leopard” and I don’t know about 10.4 “Tiger” 10.4 Tiger too.
- It does not occur on Windows with the same mouses.
- It occurs right after installing the operating system, when no other 3rd party software is installed, so it’s most likely software independent.
- It’s computer independent. I’ve seen it on various Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and even on a Hackintosh.
- If you connect both “normal” and “jittery” mouses together to the same computer, “normal” will remain “normal” and “jittery” will remain “jittery”.
- Regardless of what some Google search results say, the bug occurs no matter with or without an external display.
- Regardless of what some Google search results say, the bug is not gone when you turn off Bluetooth “search for input devices…” option or turn off Bluetooth entirely.
- Regardless of what some Google search results say, reflashing Logitech G5 (neither of the editions) does not fix the bug.
- Booting without Ethernet cable plugged in does not help (source).
- USB Overdrive, SteerMouse or ControllerMate do not fix the bug (update: SteerMouse addresses the issue for Logitech mouses, see below).
- The problem is very likely to be related to USB polling rate setting of the mouse. Mouses with 125 Hz polling rate don’t experience problems with Mac OS X (for example, Logitech MX518 which has a 125 Hz polling rate is working fine with Mac OS X, although it is considered a gaming mouse). My personal assumption about the nature of the bug (proven with USB Prober): the USB driver of Mac OS X does not adjust its polling rate to the polling rates of such mouses.
- It seems that the problem occurs even after “downclocking” the polling rate of a mouse to 125Hz. It simply becomes less noticeable (see the video provided by user hz).
Known solutions & walkarounds
- There is a sort of a walkaround for Razer mouses. Install official Razer drivers (obtainable from the official support site), connect your Razer mouse and set the polling rate to 125 Hz. Once you do that, the mouse will work fine on any Mac you connect it to since the setting is stored in the internal memory of the mouse. You can do the described procedure on either Mac OS X or Windows, but I personally recommend to do that on Windows, because unfortunately (as for November 2009) Razer Mac driver will not uninstall itself correctly from your Mac if you tell it to do so.
- According to some reports, SteerMouse fixes the problem for various Logitech mouses. Unfortunately you can not fix the problem for Logitech mouses in a similar way to Razer. Logitech SetPoint on Windows won’t store the polling rate setting in the internal memory of a mouse.
It seems to me that the bug is very common — just happy Macintoshers either don’t notice or tend to ignore it. I have reported it to Apple (problem ID: 7675662) and even wrote to Steve Jobs about it… If you as well experience the same problem and you want to have it fixed by Apple, please fill a bug report to Apple Developer Connection (ADC), include your system profile and refer to cases #8023844, #7675662, #7826519, #8097819, #8102684. After that you can as well leave your own bug report identification number in the comments below, so others could refer to it. If you don’t have an ADC account, registering is free or you can as well try to use your Apple.com/iTunes account. Submitting is easy and won’t take you much time.
More information on the issue is welcome in the comments.
I experienced such a bug with my deathadder. Now i’m quite confused about what mouse to get for autocad use. Deathadder was probably the most comfortable mouse i’ve ever had in my hand. Then i tried mx518, but the scroll wheel was so uncomfortable and hardly to push. Anyone could suggest me a wired mouse with good scroll wheel and middle button for cad and photoshop use? (i’m not considering of trackballs or tablets) :)
BTW any news from apple about the fix?
Thanks to Razer drivers you can fix your DeathAdder to work perfectly with Mac OS X, see point 12 above.
So far Apple asked me to provide my system profile, so the only good news is that they did not ignore my ticket.
Looks like things are moving forward :)
What about death adder non mac edition? Could it be customized to work on mac as great as it does on windows? I’m thinking about getting this one, because i cant find the mac edition razer in my country :)
Yes, I’m pretty much sure you can configure non-Mac DeathAdder in the same way, although I don’t know about availability of the Mac driver for it. However, I wouldn’t recommend using the Mac driver anyway, it doesn’t seem decent to me — just configure your mouse once using the Windows driver, and use it with the default Mac driver or SteerMouse/USB Overdrive/ControllerMate — if you need to assign special functions to the buttons or reduce the acceleration.
BTW I encountered the same situation with DeathAdder Mac edition in my country (Russia), so I had to order it from British eBay. While waiting for the parcel I found out that the local computer part stores here actually do have some of those, but they list them as “DeathAdder with white gleam” or just “DeathAdder 3G” allowing clients to pick the desired color themselves.
Hey Dae, I was over on the controllermate website and I read that you had something similar to the windows curve. REALLY REALLY hoping you could send me the .cmate file for that. You say it won’t fix the problem but I’m on an mx518 and it feels funny to me, since you said it works with mac, I’m hoping something simple like that will just clear it up.
Email is Moxorop34@gmail.com and again it would really be great, I’m at my wits end.
Please check your e-mail.
I can confirm the problem.
I own a Razer Salmosa and i can set manualy the polling rate to 125Hz or 500Hz or 1000Hz via a switch below the mouse.
No problem at 125Hz but it’s jittering at 500Hz and 100Hz.
Thanks, added Razer Salmosa to the list.
Saitek GM3200 suffers from the same issue — it’s a pain to deal with when trying to do 3D modelling.
Thanks!
I can confirm that this fix works for the Razer ProClick, their unofficial mac mouse. I personally found it much more erratic than the demonstration. Thanks Dae!
i have razer death adder 1800dpi and the issue is here..
125hz fix works, but with low polling rate i can’t move mouse fast for a long distance (i use low sensitivity).. i mean of course i can move my mouse but cursor doesn’t follow it.
afaik lower polling rate = lower sensivity
thus, after decreasing polling rate, you need to increase sensivity accordingly
or do you feel difference between higher polling rate / low sensivity and lower polling rate / high sensivity?
under sensitivity i mean tracking speed. do u mean the same? : )
in my case decreasing of polling rate to 125hz causes increasing of tracking speed. but this is not what i’m talking about..
i took a video where u can see my cursor’s behavior when i move my mouse fast left to right..
http://ipradio.ru/files/125-500hz_mm_test.mov
>do u mean the same? : )
Yes.
>i took a video where u can see my cursor’s behavior when i move my mouse fast left to right..
I think I remember that now… Try to decrease the dpi resolution. Looks like some sort of a bug.
yep. fast moves become better with resolution decreased to 450dpi.. better, but far from perfect.
anyway i bought this mouse to be able to do fast(polling rate here) and precise(dpi) moves so i wanna use maximum of its capabilities : )
we have to make apple do something with it!
maybe publish our problem here http://discussions.apple.com/ so other victims of this bug would join us and apple would hear us? : )
Ага :-)
Думаю, есть смысл отправить баг в Apple Bug Reporter (http://bugreport.apple.com), но для этого было б неплохо определиться, не возникает ли он при схожих настройках на Винде, а также не связан ли он с установленными драйверами мыши. Еще не понятно, не вина ли это Razer — ибо у моей Logitech MX518 на максимальной настройке DPI (меняющейся с помощью кнопок на самой мыши) все нормально с быстрым движением.
Если получится, я на днях потестирую.
Кстати, репорт про баг с “прыганием”, отправленный мной в Apple Bug Reporter 25 февраля и о котором пост, так и не был “закрыт” (просто обычно все известные баги помечаются как дубликаты и репорт закрывается), что может говорить о том, что Эппл о баге попросту не знала…
попробую сегодня на видновом компьютере свою мышь. проверю и прыгание, и срывы на больших скоростях : )
на самом деле я негодую сильно, т.к. только купил себе нормальную мышь, большой ковер, и тут на тебе такая х[*]{4} : (
а может эпл это специально? протекционирует свои мыши..
на винде прыганий не будет, хотя на ней, кстати, тоже порядочно проблем, связанных с мышью, но других по характеру. я сейчас занимаюсь кривой ускорения на Маке, пришлось разбираться и в механизмах винды
жду результатов
ну это я так, заодно. на всякий случай.. у вас же нет срывов в макосе, а у меня есть, так что кто его знает.. : )
а кстати, эта кривая.. с ней дествительно какая-то проблема? я только вчера увидел, что людей многих что-то в ней не устраивает.. то есть за все время использования макоса я как-то и не задумывался : )
Да, человеку, пересевшему с Винды, кажется, что при ускорении мыши курсор замедляется. Характер движения мыши другой, менее плавный, более скачкообразный. К этому можно привыкнуть, но есть мнение, что дело не только в привычке. Например, один форумчанин, кажется, с MacRumors, рассказал о том, что его препод в университете, никогда не работавший с Виндой, тоже испытывает очень похожие трудности с движением мыши. Я сам заметил, что людям, плохо знакомым с компьютером вообще, поначалу довольно сложно адаптироваться к движению указателя на Маке и совершенно никаких проблем у них не вызывает Винда.
Как бы то ни было, я переучиваться не хочу только по той причине, что мне приходится постоянно работать с Виндой и Линуксом, у которых ускорение мыши иное. Если поработав пару дней и чуть-чуть привыкнув к мыши на Маке, затем я пересаживаюсь на Винду на полчаса, то эти два дня на Маке идут коту под хвост — приходится привыкать заново. Кроме того, из-за таких проблем у меня начинают болеть мышцы в запястье.
и так.. я проверил.
на винде никаких срывов при быстром движении на 125герц. подергиваний тоже вроде нет..
проверил на всякий случай на хакбуке – та же история что и на моем.
стоит, наверное, сказать для чистоты эксперимента, что у меня хакинтош на интеле q6600..
мак ос – везде 10.5.8.
: )
кстати, на счет подергиваний.. на 125 гц мне кажется только уменьшается их амплитуда, но они не исчезают полностью..
еще получен репорт о таком же поведении (речь только о подергивании, не о срывах) logitech mx510 на макбуке у моего друга..
спасибо
для чистоты эксперимента, мне кажется, нужно попробовать записать настройку 125 Гц и максимальный DPI в память мыши (то есть в драйвере сохранить настройку в профиль 1, например) и подключить мышь к Макоси без фирменных драйверов Рейзера
это поможет определить, не глюк ли это конкретно маковских драйверов Рейзера. Если не глюк, то тогда будет смысл написать в баг репорт Эппла
>на 125 гц мне кажется только уменьшается их амплитуда
во, у меня точно такие же ощущения
да, это оказалось неплохой идеей : )
действительно, без разеровских драйверов срывов нет..
но подергивание и на 125 все же есть и очевидно..
насколько они сильные? как на моем видео или буквально на один пиксель?
запишите видео, я сравню со своим deathadder’ом
да, не очень сильные..
http://ipradio.ru/files/125hz_1800dpi_1.mov
вроде бы отражает суть верно : )
а вот кусок последней линии попиксельно:
http://ipradio.ru/files/125-1800_line_seg.png
Эппл выпустила апдейт Снежного барса, в числе изменений которых значится:
>- improve the reliability of 3rd party USB input devices
Проапдейтиться смогу только завтра, жду сего с замиранием сердца xD
ага :)
жду результатов!
no luck :-(
f*ck.. : (
упс.. оказывается тут и на русском можно? : )
I just bought a Logitech G500 for my Mac. I found it pretty jerky, but launched SetPoint inside my Windows VM and was able to drop the polling rate down to 125Hz in there. Seems a lot smoother now.
A shame that Logitech can’t support this from within Mac OS X. And a shame that Mac OS X seems to have problems with anything higher than 125Hz – I’m guessing I’m not making the most out of the hardware by dropping the polling rate down so low.
Does anyone know if Apple publish a list of supported/recommended polling rates? There are loads of polling rate options for the G500 ranging from 125Hz to 1000Hz.
Did you hear back from Apple?
>launched SetPoint inside my Windows VM and was able to drop the polling rate
So did your pointer stop jumping in Mac OS X at all? If so, this is a news to me! I thought that the Logitech mice do not keep that stuff in their internal memory.
>Did you hear back from Apple?
No. They requested my system profile, I submitted it to them and since then there were no news. The only good sign is that they did not “close” the report as a duplicate (like with most of my other reports), meaning that they did not know about the problem. (If you wonder why it is a good sign: it is definitely not the case of Apple’s “think different” behavior).
I’m seriously thinking of writing to Steve Jobs about all of those mouse problems. They’re driving lots of people crazy for many years. This particular bug we’re talking about, existed on 10.4 Tiger and even possibly earlier.
It seems to have fixed it, but I’ve only briefly been setting it up on my laptop at home so not been using it for any precision work yet! I’ll let you know for sure when I’ve started using it properly, I’ll be bringing it into work with me this week.
The G500 has on board memory, so when you set it to 125Hz in Windows, it remembers it when you switch it over to your Mac.
You can set up multiple profiles on the G500 and switch between them using 2 of the mouse buttons. I’ll set up a few with different polling rates, so I can quickly compare them side by side, and see how I get on.
Correction, you can only switch between DPIs without going into SetPoint – not polling rates unfortunately.
Definitely a lot smoother at 125Hz – and jerking at 1000Hz even when I move the mouse along a straight surface.
I’ve been using the mouse in work, set to a high DPI (1000 I think) and a low polling rate (125Hz) with no noticeable issues. Let me know if you hear anything from Apple though, would be great if they fixed this. I reckon there are loads of people our there with jittering mice that don’t have a clue what the problem is and just live with it.
Sure, I will.
Must be the same issue as experienced here:
http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Mice-With-Mac/G9-quot-skips-quot/m-p/372085#M2090
yep!
although it’s not Logitech’s fault at all
Thank you so much for this post. I recently replaced my MX518 with the Razer Death Adder 3500dpi and ever since then it was skipping up to 5-10 pixles on my Mac. I did the suggested 125Hz poll rate and now it works fine. This was very frustrating in Photoshop and I am a designer so you can only imagine how I felt when trying to do diagonal lines…
I’m glad it worked! Thanks for feedback.
Just got a Razer Deathadder 3500 dpi. Running Mac Snow Leopard. Plugged and installed Razer drivers (currently v2.01). When I first plugged the mouse into the usb port, I started to experience the same issue. Settings were at polling rate 500Hz, dpi at 1800.
I changed these settings to 125Hz, and 900 dpi. The random jittering / jumping slightly goes away. It’s less obvious now. Does this mean my mouse that I purchased is defective or is this more on the OS? i.e. if I plug the mouse into a Windows OS (XP, Vista, etc), will this issue still come about?
I am wondering if I should exchange it for a different mouse, same model.
Will usb overdrive or updating firmware solve this issue?
As I stated in the post above, it’s a bug of Mac OS X. I believe that it occurs with any mouse, and it’s most noticeable with high-precision or gaming mouses which run at a polling rate of higher than 125Hz.
Therefore, the problem will not occur on Windows.
Therefore, exchanging your mouse won’t help.
USB Overdrive, SteerMouse or any other programs do not solve the issue (as I stated in 10th list item). I believe it’s a USB driver level problem which has to be fixed by Apple. And updating firmware does not solve this issue either.
I had the same issue with my XAI on a Macbook. I set the polling rate to 125Hz and the tracking issue is gone.
Does anyone know if you can set a little higher rate or is it just 125?
I believe that “jumping” occurs even on 125 Hz, it’s just becoming less noticeable as you reduce the polling rate
Yea definitely less noticeable. Still randomly moves about, but only when you do the “Photoshop test” as see on the youtube video. Otherwise, for day-to-day tasks, you hardly see it happening.
Wish however, that this issue would go away entirely. Wonder if Apple knows and will do anything about this in the time to come
I hope so. I filled a bug report in February which I update with the new information and wrote a letter to Steve Jobs a few days ago.
Thanks Dae, your effort is without a doubt useful
Logitech Performance Mouse MX seems not to have this problem. I have found that it matters which driver you use and more time than not, the mac drivers seem to have less jump than the microsoft or logitech control panels. I use steermouse to set buttons.
Are you sure about Microsoft and LCC? I heard recently, only a few days ago, that Steermouse fixes this issue for a small number of Logitech mouses (and just them).
You can add the Razer Imperator to the list. I have one and it exhibits exactly the same problem. I think it’s safe to conclude that any mouse with a polling rate higher than 125Hz will have this problem. If you can set the polling rate to 125Hz the problem is “solved”. Of course it’s not really solved because the higher polling rate is one of the reasons why some people buy mice like these. Setting it back to 125Hz is like buying a race car and never actually racing it on a track after noticing that its steering wheel starts shaking at high speeds.
I too submitted a bug report to Apple on April 4 (ticket 7826519). I got a response asking to try booting without Ethernet plugged in, but that did not help. At least it shows that they’re looking into the problem, but there hasn’t been any further response in a month. Anyone who has an ADC account should submit a bug report too (include your system profile), and refer to bugs #7675662 and #7826519.
Thanks for information, DrLex! I updated the post above with your mouse and a reminder about posting to ADC Bug Report.
I had troubleshooted this very same issue on my own and came up with the exact diagnosis. Nice to hear that I’m not the only person in the world who is bothered by this simple issue. I am surprised that it has been prevalent for so long.. perhaps I’m not a true Mac user since I find this issue quite displeasing, especially since it has been existent for so long. I like to use very responsive input devices.. so perhaps Apple is telling me in subtlety that I need to go back to Windows. I will definitely be going back soon if this is not resolved, as I can only stand the crappy mouse response for so long, and this dual boxing windows is getting old fast.
Reported bug via ADC #8023844 referring #7675662 and #7826519.
Thank you, Joe.
What mouse are you using?
Using Razer Salmosa.
I actually think the mouse continues to skip at 125hz, it just skips less pixels so it’s not noticable.
I have literally had it up to here with all the shit I’ve tried trying to make a mouse not suck in OSX. It’s depressing.
Reporting bug as well.
forgot to mention: i also noticed the skipping when i disabled steermouse. i think it’s quite simply that the mouse is so unreliable with the default OSX acceleration, and most mice having a low polling rate, that no one notices the mouse jumping (which is tiny at a low polling rate).
After days, weeks, months of frustration here is the proof that it’s not me. I’ve been fighting with this issue for almost a year, then I gave up and went back to a basic Microsoft optical mouse. It’s funny that I’ve came to the same conclusion on my own.
Since 2007 and my first iMac, I unsuccessfully looked for a method to resolve this mouse issue. I tried different mouses, different OS ( 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6 ), different hardwares ( iMac 20, Macbook unibody, Imac 27 ), different softwares ( steerMouse, USB Overdrive, ControllerMate ) but no way !
I use my Macbook every day at work, and I feel very uncomfortable: I can’t use my wrist anymore in the evening. The best walkaround for me, is using a Microsoft Standard USB Mouse with ControllerMate and a custom acceleration curve ( like in Microsoft XP ). But even that, is not good enough.
As far I am concerned, I think that there is 2 issues. The first one concerns the bad acceleration curves of OSX, and the second one the bad USB polling rate. For example, I tried to make drawing curves with the same mouse on Paint on XP, and Paintbrush on Snow Leopard ( It is nearly the same softwares ). On XP, when you move the mouse rapidly, the drawing remains smooth. On the opposite, on snow Leopard, when you move the mouse rapidly, the curve is made with segments
I have exactly the same issue, and I am using Logitech MX Anywhere, I even tried my VX Nano, same issue.
This is really a pain, the mouse cursor always get stuck for like 1-2 seconds when you move them around slowly. I have opened a new case “#8097819″ for bug report, hope we can get something for this.
Thank you, I updated the post above with your case number.
Hello,
new macbook pro user, I’m annoyed by this mouse problem too.
I called the Apple phone assistance twice about this.
I reported it in the Apple Feedback form: http://www.apple.com/feedback
I’ve sign this petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/MacMAcc/petition.html
Now I’d like to report it in the ADC as you suggest.
I’ve created my ADC profile, but I don’t understand how to report the bug.
Could you please help me?
What should I do precisely when I’m on the Bug Reporter Page?
Thank you.
Hello Adam, this particular bug has nothing to do with Mac OS X mouse acceleration. Personally I hate it as well, but frankly speaking it is not a bug. I agree, however, that it won’t hurt to fill a bug report.
After logging in to the Bug Report, find the button “New problem”. There you can describe the problem. Obviously you need to select “Problem:” Mac OS X, version/build number — whatever Mac OS X you use, classification: “serious bug” or “ui/usability”. Apple advises to use the following template:
They give a detailed explanation on what do these fields mean if you click “description format” link above the text field.
For the above problem, my own bug report was:
Hello Dae,
Thank you for your answer.
I’ve now reported the “jumps” bug.
My report is N° 8102684
Now how must I refer to cases as you suggest ?
PS: I have also reported the acceleration curve problem, report N° 8102815
Thank you! Normally people simply mention that the problem is the same as #8023844, #7675662, #7826519, #8097819. That allows Apple to identify and classify the report faster, and as well (I hope) realize that it is a serious problem.
Even after you submitted a report, you can update it with the new information.
I will write my own report regarding acceleration and I’ll refer to yours.
ok thanks, I’ve updated my report.
Hi Dae,
It looks like I found a solution, check following URL:
http://forums3.armagetronad.net/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3364&sid=c4901cdd7e79b53b648aad314431652a&start=15
The fix from Jonathan works like a charm, my MX Anywhere works great right now, without SteerMouse, I used his fix with Logitech LCC3.30, will keep you posted with my further usage.
Leon
The fix, which is supposed to deaccelerate the mouse, also fixes the jumping cursor issue, is that right? (because it’s strange) I’ll try it then.
Yes, I doubt it at the first beginning. But after I ran the script, the mouse is faster than before, but it don’t jump any more. After play a while, I am good with the new speed, at least I don’t need to wait for 2-3 seconds time to time. Till now, it looks like it did solve the problem for me. Anyway, I will keep an eye on it, if I can still experience the problem, I will report back.
This mouse issue is really killing me, I am wondering to buy another mouse, but not sure it will fix the issue or not. MX Anywhere is good enough, cannot believe Apple did nothing on this:(
I also tried it now without SteerMouse. Seems very good (dont know about jumping though, I’m talking about the handling/feeling).
I’ll contact Jonathan, it seems that he found a hook to control mouse acceleration curve. My friend knows how to decode it, and I have the Windows acceleration curve.
Thank you very much!
Just tried: it doesn’t mix the “polling rate” / jumping bug for my Logitech G5, unfortunately.
I am back with some feedbacks…
After use that small scripts for few days, I think the problem get resolved by some means.
1. Looks like the trick for running in login item is not working. I still need to run the app and hit the button time to time.
2. The fix is not promising. Every time I feel the lag/jump, I have to re-run the app and hit the button.
3. At least, after run the app and hit the button, the mouse seems fine, I am using LCC3.30 now.
4. It looks like if I use Parallels Desktop with MAC OS, the problem get worse. Everytime I ran win7 in parallels, mouse start jump time to time. I have to switch to vmware, seems better now.
Really annoying, but really out of control, at least have some partial fixing now.
Not sure if the Razer Orochi issue get same problem or not, heard the new Razer driver can change the polling rate and might fix the issue, anyone can share the experience?
Really don’t wanna goto Magic Mouse, Might Mouse hurt me once…
Leon, I think your problem is different to the one described here. I believe it’s related to CPU or the video card. I heard about it in Hackintosh forums, they advise to remove some kext to fix it and it’ll be fine.
I just bought Razer Imperator, gonna try the driver in a few moments.
Thanks Dae, I am not using a Hackintosh, I am using a brand new MBP024 with i7 CPU and 17″ screen. I installed two Intel X25 160G SSD, and upgraded to 8G memory. The configuration is pretty good. I was using the SSDs for RAID0, and I have removed the raid0 last night. See if I can find any difference .
The issue I met is: if I move the mouse slowly, the cursor may stopped, for about 2 or 3 seconds, and then move again if I keep moving it, so it “jumps”, or lag.
Looking forward to see your comments on new Razer driver.
Hi Leon, sorry for the delay.
I didn’t mean that you’re using a Hackintosh, the problem, however, might be more known in their community as it might be related to a CPU or GPU. Do other mouses lag? Does the touchpad lag? Do you notice any lags with the other applications? (Not mouse, in general).
Speaking of Razer driver, the one which comes for Imperator is outdated, the Windows one is far more advanced. The mouse feels as bad as any other mouse, and the pointer indeed jumps from time to time. I changed the polling rate to 125 Hz in the driver and jumping vanished as expected.
In other words, nothing new. I could change the polling rate for DeathAdder in the Mac driver in autumn 2009, the same thing I can do now for my new Imperator.
Hi Dae,
Thanks a lot for your reply.
When my mouse lag, nothing else is abnormal, the trackpad is working just fine.
Anyway, I’m also tired of that as well, I just bought a Magic Mouse, though the feel of this mouse is not as good as the Logitech MX Anywhere, but anyway, the mouse lag issue is not there any longer.
It looks like I have to get used to this new mouse, at lease, it don’t jump….
I get this too, on a stock mac mini (c2d 2.26ghz, 2GB RAM), using a MS optical mouse. I’ve tried two different MS optical mice, they both do it, and they’re also both fine on a Win7 PC. Driving me nuts! The three second pauses infuriates my wife, too.. :(
Could you make a video recording of it?
Same jumpy issue with Evoluent VerticalMouse2. They do not have official Mac drivers so there is nothing to do about the fact that Apple’s driver is polling the mouse at a lower rate than the mouse is sending out at, or whatever the first post said. Sigh… :S
Sorry, I misreported the name. It’s the latest model, the Evoluent VerticalMouse3.
I don’t know its native polling rate, but I do see the cursor jitter in OS X 10.6.4. It isn’t like that under Windows at all. I do believe you’re right about the poll rate. If OS X reads the mouse position 125 times per second (125 hz) and the mouse updates its position faster than that, you would get choppier movement.
It lets you switch dpi from 2600 to 1800 to 1300 to 800 via button under the mouse, this is a hardware setting which requires no drivers, but unfortunately it does not improve things.
So I can’t draw with this mouse at all, and doing quick moves across the screen can be a bit annoying since the jitter is worst when you move quickly.
One other thing I hate about OS X is the acceleration curve which is like a cliff, where low to moderate mouse speed uses a low speed, and as soon as you go over a small speed threshhold it SHOOTS UP and goes blazingly fast instead. It really is cliff-shaped. On Windows, Linux and everywhere else, Acceleration is a smooth curve which means that the faster you move the mouse, the faster the cursor moves.
OS 9 did not have this bad acceleration curve, it was in OS X that they screwed things up. That’s why it feels like you mouse through mud if you move the mouse slowly, and as soon as you put a bit of speed on it it shoots away. It feels bad and the only solution, short of Apple fixing their horribly broken acceleration CLIFF into a CURVE, is to use USB Overdrive or Steermouse’s alternate mouse drivers which do correct the curve. They don’t fix the jitter though, but they’re good if you want to fix the acceleration.
It sucks that Apple doesn’t just fix the curve. Pretty much everybody hates it the way it is now, and it wasn’t like this in OS 9.
Also, why should we have to pay $20 for those programs to fix the acceleration curve that Apple broke? Ugh.
There’s a free alternative to these paid ones, I can’t remember the name, but it’s not worth using because it only uses a public Apple API to slightly tweak the mouse, but it doesn’t actually CHANGE the cliff-acceleration, so the only REAL way to get rid of it is with Steermouse or USB Overdrive. :-/
I’ve been researching Mac mouse acceleration for several months now. I will post a report later.
I have reasons to believe that the acceleration curve is only one of the problems related to unusable-ness of mouse movement on OS X.
And if there was a fix for $200, I’d personally pay that price. But there are no fixes at all, and USB Overdrive / Steermouse devs are ignoring my letters.
I have a Kensington Optical Elite mouse (#72121) running on a Mac Pro with Snow Leopard (10.6.4). I’ve got this issue too. Looks like I’m the first to report on it happening with a Kensington….
I see, thanks for the report, updated the first post.
Does Kensington provide any means to change the polling rate of a mouse?
I can confirm this using Logitech G9 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.4).
I’ve also had the cursor jumping issue with several mice on Mac OS X Snow Leopard. First with a basic logitech mouse (can’t remember the model) which I already gave away, because I thought it just doesn’t work with a Mac. And then I’ve tested with two HP mice which I had borrowed from work, both had the same issue.
Now I’m looking for a new wireless mouse (non-bluetooth). So, a question: has anyone had issues with wireless mice? or does this only concern wired mice? Couldn’t recognise any wireless from the list above…
I’m having the same problem with my Razer Naga. It’s making WoW unplayable now. I’m very disappointed. I’m going to try exchanging the mouse tommorrow at Best Buy and see if that might help the problem.
You can fix the problem by changing the polling rate setting of the mouse, read above. Exchanging it to another Naga or any other Razer mouse won’t help, it’s an OS X problem.
What is the deal Mac? My Evoluent mouse won’t work, but the carpel syndrome-inducing bluetooth mouse works fine. Thanks Apple!
I’m experiencing the same problem with a MS Sidewinder X8 on OSX 10.6.4
The mouse works perfectly in Windows 7.
Thank you! I’ve updated the above post.
I experience this with Logitech G5 on the latest Snow Leopard 10.6.4
It does not occur with my Logitech Corded Mouse M500. Unfortunately this mouse is starting to die, and requires a good thump on the desk every 20 minutes or so. :(
With me it’s the other way around. The Logitech G3 works like a breese, smooth just after I plugged it in my iMac, with Snow Leopard.
But it’s terrible on Vista (2 laptops) and Windows XP (1 laptop). Strangely it works nicely on one Vista Laptop..HP Pavilion AMD, with almost bare Vista on it.
What is “terrible”?
Thanks! I changed my Naga razer to the lower Hz setting and no more skipping!
My Logitech Performance Mouse MX has had this issue for me as well
Thank you! I’ve added it to the above post.
I had this jumpy mouse problem on and off with the Magic Mouse, and I finally took the time to diagnose it. It turns out that the bluetooth adapter flakes out and even turns off when it doesn’t get enough power, and it appears to pull it’s power from the USB bus (it may be USB internally; I don’t know.) I can reproduce this problem easily just by plugging in more and more USB devices, and the mouse will freak out and/or the bluetooth adapter will shut down (click on the bluetooth icon and it says “Bluetooth not available”).
Unplug your USB & firewire stuff (which is what caused the issue on my MBP), shut down the machine, let it rest for a few minutes, then power it back up.
Peace,
Cameron.
It looks like a Blutooth adapter problem rather than what I described above. I’ve never had a single problem with a Magic Mouse myself (except of course awkward pointer reaction, which is typical for any mouse under OS X).
I’m experiencing the same exact issue described in your post using a Razer Mamba. Works perfectly fine in Windows 7, whereas on my primary Mac partition it jitters when moving diagonally, exactly as the video at the top demonstrates.
I’m running Snow Leopard 10.6.4 on a Mac Pro, early 2009 model.