Magic Mouse jumpy after being left idle

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Level 1

5 points

Magic Mouse jumpy after being left idle

Hi there

I received a Magic Mouse for Christmas to replace my broken wired Mighty Mouse, and it pairs perfectly fine with my iMac and MacBook. After connecting it, it also tracks, clicks and scrolls perfectly. However, if I leave the mouse alone for a bit, even if it's just leaving it to type a short sentence on the keyboard, when I start moving it, the cursor starts jumping around the screen and sticking in position. This happens exactly the same on both computers, which leads me to believe it's the mouse that has issues.
I have checked all the usual, i.e. OS X updates, the Wireless Mouse Update, interference and battery life, but all these are up to date and working fine. Heavy disk/network usage seems to have no effect on the issue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

iMac 2 GHz Intel Core Duo, MacBook Late 2008 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.6.2), Magic Mouse firmware 132

Posted on Dec 27, 2009 4:15 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

azpc

Level 1

10 points

Jan 15, 2010 8:05 AM in response to jobbogamer

Humm,

I wonder if you are having a variation of this problem:

After a year of problems with a jumpy mouse (see videos below) *I purchased a Magic Mouse to see if the Magic Mouse would solve the jumpiness issue. It did but the tracking speed was very slow. Therefore, I installed MouseZoom to increase the tracking speed. After installing MouseZoom I started noticing the jumpy mouse problems again.*

_*This finding is very interesting!*_

_*It implies that the faster the mouse movement the more likely one is to see an erratic mouse with the pointer making unrequested jumps around the screen.*_

My hypothesis is that the operating system or processor is not allocating enough resources to the mouse if the tracking speed is set to a high level.

_*The "jumpy mouse" problem seems to be far worse when the hard disk is running - either copying or downloading a large file*_. Some users are reporting that watching a high resolution flash video will also cause the mouse to skip and jump.

I am certain the problem is software related because the same exact mouse works perfectly in Bootcamp 2.1 and Bootcamp 3.0 in Windows XP SP3.

_*Youtube now has two videos showing the problem*._ You can view the videos here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxLY3-pH-rs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBzisliiVpg

If you are suffering from similar problems may I suggest three actions:

* Use the Quicktime X screen recording function to record a video of the problem.

* Post the video to YouTube.

* Contact Apple Care and share your video problem description with them.

* Send a note referencing the video and description to www.apple.com/feedback

Category: Mac OSX Feedback
Feedback Type: Bug Report
Feedback Area: Peripheral/Device Support

I will update this video to let you know if the problem has been solved. I am hopeful that Apple will be able to find the source of the problem and solve it quickly. I really like my Mac and I can hardly wait for the problem to be resolved.

Here is hoping that 10.63 will resolve this issue once and for all!

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Answer 2

Jan 26, 2010 6:21 AM in response to jobbogamer

I started having this problem today with my lovely new magic mouse, it would skip randomly and at random intervals. Checking my running processes I found the epson printer driver was using 98% of my system resourcesprocessor. Killing this fixed the issue and all is Mac again.

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Answer 3

jobbogamer Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 17, 2010 2:57 PM in response to jobbogamer

I took the mouse back to the Apple store, where I was told that 'it was probably an issue with the mouse, because that's the most common problem'. They exchanged it for a new one with no hassle and it's worked perfectly ever since.

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Answer 4

Adam F

Level 3

612 points

Mar 8, 2010 9:41 AM in response to azpc

One of the YouTube videos has comments mentioning the problem is related to a second monitor being plugged in. I just noticed the problem when I hooked up the second monitor. Unplugged it after reading the comments - the problem is GONE.

Somehow, having a second monitor connected is directly related to the mouse issue. I hope it gets resolved soon!

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Answer 5

Mar 8, 2010 4:13 PM in response to Adam F

I've noticed the exact same problem. Mouse on it's own with MBP, fine. MBP with new 24" cine display is now jumpy.

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Answer 6

azpc

Level 1

10 points

Mar 17, 2010 8:24 AM in response to Adam F

I don't doubt there is a problem with a second monitor. However, I can assure you that the problem exists with one monitor also. I have an Imac which of course only has one screen.

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