Mouse Tracking Skips With Matrox DualHead2Go

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16 points

Mouse Tracking Skips With Matrox DualHead2Go

Hey guys!

JUST got a brand spankin' new MacBook Pro. Fully loaded. i7, 8gb RAM, the works.

Yesterday I hooked it up to a brand new Matrox DualHead2Go and two Dell U2410 Displays. Worked like a dream. It's kind of annoying that the MBP sees the two displays as one because everything pops up in the center (middle of the two) by default, but I'll get over that. (unless you have a solution)

The real problem is my mouse tracking. I've tried it with my Magic Mouse, and with the trackpad, and with both, the tracking skips. I'll move the cursor in a circle and it'll skip ahead and sometimes move erratically. As soon as I unplug the displays, the tracking is perfect again. The weird thing is that yesterday it was working perfectly fine. I've tried rebooting with then plugged in, plugging them in after boot, unplugging and then plugging in while booted.

I can't for the life of me figure out what's wrong and it's driving me nuts. Any help is super greatly appreciated. 🙂

MBP 17" i7, Mac OS X (10.6.4), 8GB RAM

Posted on Jul 9, 2010 8:29 AM

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Answer 1

HELLYES Author

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Jul 9, 2010 9:12 AM in response to HELLYES

So, I just thought I might have fixed it, but I didn't. I thought I should ensure I was not running the built in discreet Intel gpu. It was, but I unchecked the auto box in Energy Saver (removing the ability to switch on the fly was a huge oversight) rebooted, and now it's running on the nVidia card. It's better, but it's not fixed. it's still skipping often enough to notice, where yesterday it wasn't skipping at all.

I checked with a coworker who has an identical setup but with a 15" MBP, and he hasn't been having any issues at all.

Also probably worth mentioning, I replaced the batteries in the Magic Mouse this morning, so I don't think that's it.

M!

Message was edited by: HELLYES

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Answer 2

eww

Level 9

53,052 points

Jul 9, 2010 9:37 AM in response to HELLYES

Does the skipping get any worse if you have a bunch of apps running at the same time, or printing going on, or anything else placing heavy demands on the CPU or GPU? When it was working fine yesterday, was there very little running on the computer?

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Answer 3

HELLYES Author

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Jul 9, 2010 9:40 AM in response to eww

Hey! Thanks for the response! 🙂

No, I'm not running anything crazy and I'm running everythign I was running yesterday. It's literally exactly the same. Nothing extra. I also always have Activity Monitor open and I'm constantly keeping an eye on it. Nothing is going crazy. Also made sure in System Profiler that the Nvidia GPU was th eone being used, and it is. :/

M!

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Answer 4

HELLYES Author

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16 points

Jul 9, 2010 11:12 AM in response to HELLYES

So, I tried killing one process at a time to see if any made a difference. I found the culprit. It's iTunes. Really??? An approximately $6k setup can't handle 2 displays and iTunes?? Does anyone have any suggestions for what I can do?

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Answer 5

eww

Level 9

53,052 points

Jul 9, 2010 11:50 AM in response to HELLYES

What was iTunes doing when the problem occurred? Does the problem vary at all with what iTunes is doing, or does merely having iTunes open, displaying your personal music library (not playing anything, not displaying any Store content or downloading anything else) cause the problem?

I'm fairly confident that your setup can indeed "handle two displays and iTunes," but because it's a fairly complex hardware configuration that not very many people here are likely to have personal experience with, figuring out exactly what the problem is may take a fair amount of troubleshooting and some time.

Create a new user account, log into it, and see whether the problem also occurs when iTunes is opened in that account. Post back with results.

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Answer 6

HELLYES Author

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16 points

Jul 9, 2010 12:52 PM in response to eww

So, after posting I tested by popping into Safe Mode and opening iTunes. When in safe mode, it doesn't act erratically, it works fine.

I called Apple and they said you're not supposed to use two external displays with a MBP (figured). But he was very helpful. He directed me to call Matrox and see what's up on their end and get back to him. If Matrox can't find a fix he said he'd forward on to iTunes engineers.

Meanwhile, though, I also saved the processes that were running in Safe Mode and compared to the processes that run when I boot into my login. There were quite a few differences on both sides. Safe had some things that werent running in my boot and vice versa. I killed everythign but background processes for 1Password and Little Snitch. Those two just pop back open after killing the process. Everything else running was Apple signed, yet the cursor was still acting erratically with nothing but iTunes open.

I have a feeling it's on Matrox's end, but if that's the case why is iTunes the only culprit?

Thanks again for your help!

M!

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Answer 7

HELLYES Author

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Jul 9, 2010 1:18 PM in response to eww

Oh, forgot to answer your question. No, iTunes is doing nothing at all. Just sitting there. Even tried creating a new library and still no good.

M!

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Answer 8

eww

Level 9

53,052 points

Jul 9, 2010 1:38 PM in response to HELLYES

So now let's test the hypothesis that your success in Safe Mode means the problem is some kind of a software incompatibility or interaction in your everyday account, involving iTunes and something else that's not active in Safe Mode. Create a new account, log into it, and see whether the problem persists when you open iTunes in that account. If it doesn't, then clearly there's a software problem that's limited to your normal account. If it does, the problem is systemwide instead, but whatever is causing it doesn't run in Safe Mode. Either way, this may be slow progress, but it's progress.

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Answer 9

HELLYES Author

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Jul 9, 2010 1:49 PM in response to eww

Okay, still does it. Safe mode is the only place it doesn't do it. The only thing is, Little Snitch runs system wide, so it was running in the new account, too. I'm going to try uninstalling that and trying again.

Thank you so much for all your help!!!

M!

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Answer 10

HELLYES Author

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Jul 9, 2010 1:59 PM in response to eww

Okay, with Little Snitch uninstalled it still does it in both my account and the fresh one. The fresh one is hardly running anything at all, all of it Apple signed.

M!

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Answer 11

HELLYES Author

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Jul 9, 2010 3:01 PM in response to HELLYES

Looks like I'm not the only one with this issue. The last post in this thread, the guy notes the same exact thing.

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11296960#11296960

M!

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Answer 12

eww

Level 9

53,052 points

Jul 9, 2010 3:26 PM in response to HELLYES

Sure enough — that's interesting. I'm not sure where you go from here. Other than not running iTunes, of course.

Message was edited by: eww

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Answer 13

HELLYES Author

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16 points

Jul 9, 2010 3:45 PM in response to eww

I was afraid you'd say that. I guess all there is left to do is call Apple back and see what they say. Thanks again for all your help!

M!

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Answer 14

Sep 24, 2010 7:16 AM in response to HELLYES

same deal here. dual display with apple mdp to dvi adapter. theres another thread on here that is closed but with no solution. all the experiences have shown that its the adapter as when it is unplugged the problem goes away. the only "solution" apple has offered is to swap it out for a MDP to VGA connector....totally unacceptable IMHo.

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Answer 15

axlaxl

Level 1

4 points

Oct 30, 2010 1:24 PM in response to HELLYES

I have exactly the same issue. When testing in safe mode it works but I cannot get the same high resolution in safe mode so I guess the problem has to do with iTunes when running in max resolution on the external output.
I have asked both Matrox and Apple but no solution yet.

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