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.
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
by Christopher Maurer,Solvedanswer
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.
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.
Posted on Feb 10, 2011 8:18 AM