Level 4

1,282 points

Mouse moves randomly

My mouse cursor moves randomly around the screen, usually all the way across and almost always to one of the screen corners, in which I have hot corners enabled. I had this issue occasionally had this issue in Leopard, but now in Snow Leopard it's more common (maybe 5-10 times an hour). Any suggestions/solutions?

iMac 2.66 GHz standard configuration (April 2008), Wired keyboard & Mighty Mouse, Mac OS X (10.6), iPod Touch 1st Generation OS 3.0, D-link DIR-625 router, iLife 09, iWork 09

Posted on Sep 8, 2009 3:50 PM

142 replies

musicwind95 Author

Level 4

1,282 points

Oct 9, 2009 3:08 PM in response to kisuke3

1. How do I get to safe mode?
2. Like I said, the mouse jumps are not predictable. Sometimes I go for a whole week without seeing one, other times I see several an hour. I would have to work exclusively in safe mode for a while to see if it does happen.

However, someone who seems this problem very frequently can try this.

Oct 17, 2009 4:51 AM in response to musicwind95

This happens on my macbook pro... and i don't have a mouse attached!

Go figure - any advice?

musicwind95 Author

Level 4

1,282 points

Oct 18, 2009 4:09 PM in response to Darren Connor

This supports my belief that it is a software issue, not hardware. It seems that the mouse drivers in Snow Leopard (and even Leopard) may be at fault.

Does anyone have a mouse that required its own driver, to be installed manually? Does that mouse have this issue?

Oct 22, 2009 5:05 PM in response to musicwind95

This issue is also happening to us. However we narrowed it down to it only doing it with Dual Display enabled. If we unplug the second display, the mouse stops acting up. We thought it was a hardware issue as well, but when we downgraded to 10.5, that issue was resolved. Obviously we don't want to downgrade, we want to keep SL... any ideas?

musicwind95 Author

Level 4

1,282 points

Oct 23, 2009 4:06 AM in response to Camneely9

For me, I only have one display. This did happen in Leopard, but in Snow Leopard the issue is more prominent. Eventually Apple will pay attention.

rob_06

Level 1

6 points

Nov 13, 2009 2:43 AM in response to musicwind95

I am seeing the same problems and thought it maybe my mouse at first but after I tried three different ones all less than 6 mths old. The problem was with them all.

I saw the issue on the odd occassion under leopard but since snow leopard the problem has been pretty much always there.

tcris

Level 1

0 points

Nov 14, 2009 10:51 AM in response to rob_06

I am also experiencing this more than annoying problem. Only now it's getting down right dangerous. While saving a file (doesn't matter which app) I selected my Desktop folder from the save dialog, and before I could release the mouse button, the mouse moved completely out of the dialog box and deleted my Desktop folder from the finder sidebar.

For situation, it all started after loading Snow Leopard. I had a bluetooth mouse whose middle click had stopped working prior to upgrade, although I had continued to use it for a week after the upgrade. I brought my mouse back to Apple and they replaced it. I happily set up my new mouse and withing a few minutes, while reading a document on screen (Preview) the mouse started moving down the page without being touched. I lifted the mouse up, and it stopped moving. I put it down and it started moving again. So, back to the Apple store and they replace it once more. Got the new mouse set up and again, the mouse is moving without being touched. It happens with every application I have loaded. Now, the strange thing, if I move the mouse closer to the actual computer, it behaves normally. But since the mini is further back on my desk, I have to really stretch to get the mouse close enough to behave properly. Sometimes the mouse tracks normally in its original position. Sometimes it won't (seems to misbehave more when lots of apps are running.) But moving closer to the mini always makes it behave correctly.

djkharsh

Level 1

0 points

Nov 22, 2009 5:43 PM in response to tcris

I have been having the same problem as well my macbook pro as well. Sometimes the mouse just randomly moves, highlights, right clicks, and deletes. Anyone find a fix yet?

Nov 23, 2009 7:28 AM in response to musicwind95

I have the same problem. I've never posted before now, so if you're counting, there's enough of us complaining to fix this!

I'm also running dual display, but before attaching the second monitor it happened just as frequently (for 2 weeks)

Now with the external display connected, the mouse vanishes -- to be found in the upper-left of the MBP display (MBP sits to the right of the external display).

Apple: please update us!

djkharsh

Level 1

0 points

Nov 27, 2009 7:23 PM in response to creativecomponent

Anyone have any answers for this yet?

Dec 22, 2009 5:04 AM in response to deh2k

I got a new mouse and there is no change. IT does it often and sometimes the mouse pointer just disappears and reappears. Other times it rockets across the screen. I stopped looking at this because there is no answer here and Apple is in denial.

Dec 25, 2009 8:42 PM in response to musicwind95

My mouse (actually 2 of them, both wireless) had been acting up lately with all kinds of weird erratic behavior. Other than updating to SL the only other new thing was the edition of an external hard drive. I'm not totally convinced that the erratic mouse behavior isn't SL related, but once I blocked the hard drive's blue, power-on light my wireless mouse started working correctly again. I'm wondering if the power-on light from the hard drive was interfering with the the wireless signal receiver on the mouse somehow...

I'm not sure this is everyone else's situation, but I just wanted to offer my 2¢ since it had been driving my nuts.

musicwind95 Author

Level 4

1,282 points

Dec 31, 2009 9:40 PM in response to musicwind95

Problem seems to be slowly fading away over time. Hoping the Magic Mouse won't have this issue...

Jan 7, 2010 4:23 PM in response to musicwind95

I started having problems with my Logitech RX Revolution a few days ago (it's RF, not BT) on a fairly new iMac 27". It started to behaving more and more erratic and actually, now that I think of it, it's been acting somewhat sketchy since I got the machine which had SL on it of course. I never had this problem on my MBP, though, but it was running 10.5.x the whole time.

Anyway, today I turn on an external drive and "poof" there goes mouse control completely. In my troubleshooting I moved the mouse from the tray to the desktop just a few inches away and it starts working again. I'm talking about moving it from maybe 18 inches away from the receiver to maybe 12 inches away. That's it. It worked fine.

I turned off the drive and "poof" I get full mouse control again from 18 inches away. It's still a little erratic, but at least it works. No idea why the firewire drive have anything to do with an USB RF dongle in the iMac or if it's putting out some kind of interference or whatever. This has to be the strangest problem I've had since owning Mac's.

Jan 7, 2010 5:06 PM in response to Anthony Curcione

Apologies - I meant MX not RX.

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Mouse moves randomly