Kensington Trackball drivers won't work with Lion.

Question

Level 1

19 points

Kensington Trackball drivers won't work with Lion.

I have lost my varourite input device! My Kensington Turbo Mouse is now no more than a simple mopuse:one click and motion, no mutliple clicks, no click and drag, and no speed!.

With difficulty I got through to somebody to speak to, after failing to get the Kensington site to recognise that they had ever produced a Turbo Mouse, and he told me that the drivers had not been updated - I had found that out for myself, as I re-downloaded the latest, which told me that it could not find a suitable device, and that as it was a discontinued device (3 years old!) Kensington may not develop new drivers .

So what to do? Elsewhere, www.boastr.de/, www.plentycom.jp/en/steermouse, www.usboverdrive.com, have been suggested, but they all seem to be pointed more at mice than Track Balls.

Any other ideas. The Kensington web site is hopeless.

iMac 2.66 4MB, MacBook 2.2 4MB, Mac OS X (10.7), Epson 1290, Lyson cis,Epson 220

Posted on Jul 21, 2011 12:03 PM

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Answer 1

Asatoran

Level 4

2,532 points

Jul 21, 2011 2:21 PM in response to art Harris

Reply to your other post.

Despite you buying the mouse in 2009, the Turbo Mouse was originally released in 2000 or 2001 so is a 10 year old model and replaced by Kensington with the Expert Mouse.

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Answer 2

Jul 27, 2011 10:30 AM in response to art Harris

Mouseworks does not work with Lion, but Kensington posted Trackball Works beta on their site and I have full control of my beloved trackball just as before the OS upgrade. I even like the new software better. My mouse is an Expert Mouse so I don't know if the older input devices will work with new software, but I'm guessing they do. I hope so, I wish I still had my Turbo Mouse, but it died. I don't know why Kensington support is misleading people. I installed the new software, rebooted, and it was all golden. The only problem was that the Mouseworks Preference pane was still present and caused some brief confusion. It needs to be deleted manually. Hope this helps.

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Answer 3

art Harris Author

Level 1

19 points

Jul 27, 2011 10:58 AM in response to brodenborn

When I try the new Trackball Works beta, I am told that there is "No supported Kensington trackball found. Please connect your Trackball to configue it".

So the Turbo Mouse IS dead with lion.

As I have said earlier, I still have Snow Leopard on another HD, so can continue to use it, when I really need it, but it is a pain to be continually retarting.

So - " Kensington, DO SOMETHING, Please"

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Answer 4

tonefox

Level 6

9,362 points

Jul 27, 2011 11:19 AM in response to art Harris

Thank you. Really. SO refreshing to read a post that doesn't finish with "Apple, DO SOMETHING, Please".

May your camels multiply, and your tents increase. 🙂

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Answer 5

Jul 27, 2011 1:31 PM in response to art Harris

I tried USB Overdrive and everything works with my USB Turbo Mouse except "chording". I also sent an email asking about chording in USB Overdrive but haven't gotten any response. Maybe if we all send him emails about how much we desparately want this feature he'll work it into the software. I found an old post about possible future upgrades to USB Overdrive where he mentions adding chording, but he never added it in. Here's his email: support@usboverdrive.com

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Answer 6

art Harris Author

Level 1

19 points

Jul 27, 2011 2:55 PM in response to Brandon Walter

Yes, USB overdrive will allow the use of Most TurboMouse actions, but it also takes over the control of the Apple TrackPad, which is annoying, as I use the TrackPad for other, special and unique actions.

I can't see any way of stopping that. If it is possible, all my problems, with the TurboMouse, would be cured.

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Answer 7

macrls

Level 1

10 points

Jul 27, 2011 6:45 PM in response to art Harris

My wireless Expert Mouse Trackball (64329) also does not work with Lion. After several emails and phone calls to Kensington, I got the following responses which are sort of contradictory.

"Thank you for contacting Kensington Technical Support. We would like to inform you that the Wireless Trackball model # 64329 is an older version Trackball, discontinued long back and is not compatible on new Mac 10.7 Lion OS. Moreover, we would like to inform you that the Mac 10.7 Lion OS is a new operating system and Kensington is developing a new software for the Expert Mouse Optical Trackball model # 64325. In this regards, we request you to please check the website on a regular basis for the new updates of the software, as we do not have an exact time frame."

And another one: "TrackballWorks. TrackballWorks is compatible with Lion with the following TrackballWorks. 1> Expert Mouse model # 64325. 2> Kensington SlimBlade Trackball model # 72327. 3> Orbit(TM) Optical Trackball model # 64327. 4> Orbit(TM) Trackball with Scroll Ring model # 72337. 5> Kensington Orbit™ Wireless Mobile Trackball model # 72352."

It looks like Mouseworks has been replaced by TrackballWorks. Hope it supports the buttons and scroll wheel.

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Answer 8

macrls

Level 1

10 points

Jul 27, 2011 8:58 PM in response to macrls

GOOD NEWS. I bit the bullet and picked up a 64325 from my local MicroCenter; didn't want to wait several days for an Amazon delivery, although it would be somewhat cheaper. I installed TrackballWorks and YES, YES it works like it used to. Too bad I have several "obsolete" trackballs that are no longer supported, but they are old and I got lots of use from them.

All buttons are programmable, the scroll wheel can change direction, and can be programmed for inertia. Kensington should post instructions on this subject that clearly states the current software compatability with Lion.

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Answer 9

Jul 29, 2011 2:07 PM in response to art Harris

Steermouse does allow adjustment of the tracking. It’ll do me for now for testing purposes. It has an “Analyze Device” mode accessed from the About Box. Worth looking into—it lets you try it out for 30 days.

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Answer 10

Aug 14, 2011 9:10 AM in response to art Harris

You might want to try Mouseworks Again. I posted a response based on what I saw on my Macbook Pro 2.2 GHz Core2 Duo where Mouseworks would not run. I have an iMac of the same era and oddly, the Mouseworks Preference pane works on it. When I select it from the System Preference Pane it gives the standard message that it needs to exit and when it reappears it has (32 bit) in the header of the Mouseworks Panel (see the atttached image). I don't know if this achitecture specific, the version of Mouseworks (3.0) or if there was a change in the OS X Lion to allow it to run. In any case, it's worth trying out if you want to use Mouseworks instead of Trackball Works or a third-party driver.

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Answer 11

art Harris Author

Level 1

19 points

Aug 15, 2011 12:52 AM in response to brodenborn

Thanks for your comment.

I should say that I had tried to get an upgrade from Kensington when I first updated to Lion, but there was nothing there then; this morning, following your suggestion, there was what you describe, so Kensington did issue something.

Unfortunately, I had swallowed my pride and bought an Expert Mouse (which I like), and then removed the MouseWorks drivers from my system, as superfluous. When I tried to re-instal the MouseWorks drivers this morning, to check your suggestion, the installation failed, twice, so I cannot check to see if your observation applies to my current set-up.

So in a way I am glad, as my investment in the replacement ExpertMouse wasn't a complete waste, and I will never know if I could have saved the expense by waiting a bit. I will give the old Turbo Mouse to my wife to use on her Mac Mini, still running an old OS 6.?

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Answer 12

Jun 25, 2015 1:20 PM in response to art Harris

I had the same issue when I upgraded my 2007 iMac to OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite. I downloaded Trackball Works and it does the trick for the Kensington Orbit Optical Trackball.

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