L1025

Q: Mouse sputters every few seconds

I just got a brand new customized Mac Pro direct from Apple. Every few seconds, there is a delay in mouse input, but instead of just stopping, the cursor "jumps" across the screen. This would normally not be a huge problem, but in intricate tasks like 3D art or gaming, it's an incredibly serious issue. I've tried a wireless USB mouse, a wired USB mouse, the "Magic Mouse", and several different mousepads. It happens regardless of whether I'm connected to the internet. How can I figure out what the problem is? Does this issue affect anyone else?

SPECS
Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 3.2 GHz
6 GB RAM

Thanks in advance...I really need this fixed soon.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.5), 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 6 GB RAM

Posted on Dec 22, 2010 5:24 PM

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Q: Mouse sputters every few seconds

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  • by Biltan-Wales,

    Biltan-Wales Biltan-Wales Dec 24, 2010 12:33 AM in response to L1025
    Level 2 (340 points)
    Dec 24, 2010 12:33 AM in response to L1025
    Hi L1025,

    Probably a silly question, but have you checked the "Mouse" settings in "System Preferences"?

    i.e System Preferences - Mouse

    and System Preferences - Universal Access - Mouse

    Regards,

    Bill
  • by Greg Reyna,

    Greg Reyna Greg Reyna Dec 24, 2010 11:24 AM in response to L1025
    Level 1 (90 points)
    Notebooks
    Dec 24, 2010 11:24 AM in response to L1025
    Call Apple. If you bought it within something like the last nine months you have support. If it's a problem that won't go away you'll have to ship it to them for repair.
  • by Christopher Maurer,

    Christopher Maurer Christopher Maurer Feb 9, 2011 12:18 PM in response to L1025
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Feb 9, 2011 12:18 PM in response to L1025
    Having a similar issue with a number of the "Mid-2010 MacPros". Did you ever find a solution?
  • by Christopher Maurer,Solvedanswer

    Christopher Maurer Christopher Maurer Feb 10, 2011 8:18 AM in response to Christopher Maurer
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Feb 10, 2011 8:18 AM in response to Christopher Maurer
    After some troubleshooting I have determined that the monitor was causing the issue.

    Running Activity Monitor showed me that on systems that were experiencing the mouse lag the "kernel_task" process would fluctuate between 7 and 14 percent. On systems that were not experiencing the lag the "kernel_task" would max at about 6 percent but usually was settled in below 1 percent.

    A co-worker and I began disconnecting devices and watching the "kernel_task" cpu usage. When we disconnected the monitor I observed the computer with ARD and noticed that "kernel_task" dropped to a sub 1% range. When we reconnected the monitor it shot back up.

    We swapped the monitor with one that was connected to a system not experiencing the issue. Once we connected the monitors to their new systems BOTH systems were stable. This led us to power. We determined that turning the monitor off and back on did not help the issue, but actually disconnecting the power from the monitor did restore "kernel_task" to a happy, stable state. This solution has now been repeated on the remaining symptomatic computers and it "fixed" all of them (not sure if it is a permanent fix or if this is going to reoccur)

    Specs: Mid-2010 Mac Pro, Radeon 5870. Connected to a Dell SX2210b via DVI cable.
  • by jdmcs,

    jdmcs jdmcs Feb 12, 2011 4:38 PM in response to Christopher Maurer
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 12, 2011 4:38 PM in response to Christopher Maurer
    I've been seeing this problem the past few weeks... I would have never suspected my monitor! (Of course I only have just the one monitor, so swapping it out with another would mean buying a new monitor.)

    Sure enough, the kernel_task on my Mac Pro was running at 5% idle state. I just unplugged the power from my Acer X213H monitor (connected using DVI, running at the monitor's native resolution of 1920x1080), waited a few seconds, and plugged it back in. Now kernel_task is running between 1.1% - 2% idle state, and the mouse cursor jumpiness is gone.

    +Perhaps I should have suspected the monitor. Once about every 6 weeks, when I power the Mac Pro on, I get multi-colored static that starts about the time the desktop is drawn and the login screen appears. Putting the Mac Pro to sleep and waking it back up always fixes the problem... with no other reasons (besides this rare startup issue) to suspect my Radeon 5870 graphics card. I wonder if unplugging the monitor would fix this boot issue, too?+