Mouse Not Tracking Smoothly

Hi, Tom -

I can't see why the surface would cause these problems, though.

It can, though, and often does.

A shiny or glossy surface gives poor results, as does one that is light and/or patterned.

The best surface for an optical mouse is a dark blue or black matte-textured surface - strangely, an old-style fabric-covered mouse pad works very well.

Some years ago I tried hard-plastic mouse pads from EverGlide - they're black, matte finish, and washable; and they work very well.

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There is another possibility. The original Apple Pro mouses in particular have a problem where the wires inside the cbale can fray at the point the cable leaves the mouse body. This results in random open and/or short circuits, giving bizarre cursor behavior. The test - try using a different, known-good mouse. If this is the case for you, replacing the mouse is the effective solution.

Another possibility, one which I deal with all the time - I have cats, and their fine hairs can get lodged in the lens opening on the underside of the mouse; this makes the cursor skip, stand still, or move on its own. Cleaning them out is the solution.

I have heard of a few people that had problems with wood grain and tracking.

I use an old mouse pad as I find it gives the best 'Glide' (Besides I can't part with my Blue Apple logo mouse-pad 🙂 )

As Don said there is sometimes a problem with the Pro mouse of wires fraying. Its the lack of a strain relief where the cable comes into the mouse body, so sometimes the wires fray there.

The three position adjuster on the bottom is to set the click force.

--Spire