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Kevenly Author

Level 1

25 points

Major mouse issues in Lion

After installing Lion, I'm having very bizarre mouse behavior. Basically the cursor randomly shoots across the screen or disappears and re-appears in the corner. It's a huge hassle. I thought my mouse was going bad, but I boot into Windows and it's just fine, business as usual.

I found several threads on other forums with people describing the same issue after installing Lion, with all kinds of different mice. So this is not unique to my system by any means. Personally I use a Targus Bluetooth Mouse for Mac, as I have for three years. It's a great mouse and I love it, as it has lots of buttons and a round touchpad area in the middle. It works for scrolling all directions and has always worked like a charm. However, with this mouse in Launchpad also when I try to side scroll, it only goes right. I swipe the mouse's scroll conrol the the left, it scrolls right. Any sideways scrolling just goes to the right. However it scrolls properly everywhere else (finder, iTunes, Safari, etc).

While that issue may be unique to this particular model of mouse, the wild flitting about of the cursor is again being widely reported in other forums, but I'm not seeing anything here about it. One fellow at MacRumors said an Apple engineer has requested various logs about it and is working on the problem. I hope that's true because this is pretty awful so far, making it very difficult to use the computer.

MBP 2.8 i7, Mac OS X (10.7), iPod Touch 2nd Gen

Posted on Jul 23, 2011 1:38 AM

149 replies

effimero

Level 1

0 points

Oct 31, 2011 2:24 AM in response to josephfromcalabasas

I have the same problem too. Both with usb mouse and magic trackpad. When I'm looking for a film in itunes using full screen and I switch to window the mouse pointer is missing. I clik up the screen in the menu area and mouse pointer comes back. IMac 24 with osx 10.7.2

Oct 31, 2011 5:09 AM in response to effimero

Please submit feedback to Apple. Hopefully, it will get resolved.

(I've given up adding "soon".)

axcurtis

Level 1

10 points

Nov 3, 2011 5:48 AM in response to Kevenly

Well, now it's November and the mouse problem continues. I got a new mouse and no change for the better. Using 10.7.2 on a MacPro. This is nuts!

Nov 3, 2011 7:39 AM in response to axcurtis

I just realized that I have not seen this in a while. I'm wondering if some of the things I have done may have resolved it?

System Preferences:

Mouse:

Scroll Direction Natural: On

Secondary Click: On (right)

Smart Zoom: Off

Tracking: 4 ticks from the right. (Fast)

More Gestures: All On

System Preferences:

Universal Access:

Mouse Keys: Off

Mouse Options:

Double-Click Spped: 3 ticks from the right

Scrolling Speed: 2 ticks from the right

Scrolling: On, with inertia

I've also:

Re-installed 10.7.2 Combo.

Booted in Safe Mode. (that does a variety of things)

Resett PRAM

Nov 3, 2011 8:36 AM in response to Kevenly

All -- i have achieved success, although i dont know why -- here is what i did:

reset PRAM - failed to help

uninstalled istat and rebooted - failed to help

exasperated, with a jumpy mouse, i disconnected one of my two screens -- and the mouse movement was smooth!!

plugged the other monitor back in, and it has been smooth ever since. running on several days now, even works when coming back from sleep mode. this has been a problem for 3 full months now -- not a day of peace since the "upgrade" -- until now.

I wish I could be more helpful.

2008 Mac Pro

dual monitor setup

wireless trackpad

wired mouse

wired keyboard

Nov 3, 2011 8:42 AM in response to Kevenly

As I reported earlier - the thing that helped me was unplugging my second monitor. That was before 10.7.2. When I would plug it back in problem would come back. Just now in 10.7.2 I tried to recreate the problem with both monitors in and can't get it to jump. Not saying it won't but at least 2 of us in this forum seem to have found the problem related to the second monitor so hopefully others will play around with that and get some things fixed.

iMac 27" i7 with second monitor being a projector via minidisply to HDMI adapter.

cwilburt

Level 1

0 points

Nov 3, 2011 5:29 PM in response to Kevenly

I was having jumpy mouse issues with Snow Leopard too and read somewhere that the issue was fixed with Lion, so I installed Lion and for ONE day my mouse was normal, now it is back to having a mind of it's own and I think I am going to SCREAM! I have a Kensington Slimblade trackball mouse and a 17" MBP. I can't do what I do with the trackpad, i NEED my mouse.... going to trying going back to my usb mouse until Apple fixes the problem but from what I am reading that may not help. Guess I will keep checking back to see if anyone finds a fix before Apple does....

Nov 3, 2011 5:38 PM in response to Kevenly

I'm starting to think that a 100% fresh installation might be a solution. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

I'm considering installing Lion from scratch (non-upgrade) and then incrementally working applications/perhipherals into the mix. Unfortunately the affected machine is at my office -- a place where I often have to be productive.

I'll report back in the future.

Nov 3, 2011 5:43 PM in response to Kevenly

For incredimike this might help. When I installed Lion 10.7.0 I did do a clean install (erased my hard drive, installed the OS, then all the apps, then copied my files over from my external drive. The mouse issue was there regardless. Installing fresh from 10.7.2 might be different - but I don't know.

Nov 3, 2011 6:35 PM in response to Kevenly

From the FWIIW (For What It Is Worth) department.

This issue has cleared up on me about 3 weeks ago. I do not know what it was but it was not the latest OS updates. As a developer, I am using the iTunes Beta for Music Match and it makes me wonder if this is an iTunes issue?

Nov 3, 2011 6:37 PM in response to Steven Noyes

I am rarely running iTunes and experience the issue often.

Nov 3, 2011 7:10 PM in response to Kevenly

I had major issues with the jumpy cursor actions on our MBP. This was regardless of whether a usb mouse was used, or what version of OS X, did not matter one iota. I tried to reset anything that is able to reset, I tried to disable every setting in the trackpad preferences,etc. Sometimes it worked for a day or two, then bam, almost impossible to use the lap. I have been following this thread, along with other sites and forums on the net, and what actually makes the most sense is the suggestion from many people that the BATTERY is the culprit, because it has been brought to light that the battery has a tendency to swell ever so slightly, causing pressure on the trackpad to give the cursor its erratic behaviour. So, I'll tell you all what I DID to fix the problem FOR ME.........SO, short of sending the unit back to Apple (which still might be a good idea...maybe later) What I did was to CARFULLY tweek the aluminum casing of the main body (not the screen section) I literally tried to cause the casing in general to move almost an immeasurable amount, in the hopes of possibly relieving any pressure on the trackpad component. And guess what? Since I did that, not a single issue of erratic behaviour, not one. And it has been a couple weeks now.

Obviously, majorly serious damage can be done if one "tweeks" the casing too much, but I was VERY careful, and so far so good.

Nov 3, 2011 7:17 PM in response to Kevenly

Folks...

This is a software issue, not one with hardware. We've all reported that things were working fine under Snow Leopard, but started acting up under Lion. Since I shut down my Bluetooth capability on my new 27" iMac and went to Logitech's 2.4GHz wireless keyboard and mouse, I've not had any problems.

Apple's failure to address this issue is highly disappointing. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised; after all, the company says, "A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices." That admission came only after hundreds of customers complained, and media reports starting publicizing the issue.

Don't expect Apple to do anything unless the media decides this is worth covering as well.

Nov 3, 2011 7:32 PM in response to Steve Friedberg

I respectfully disagree, at least when we are talking about the laps. Any other machine you could be correct. I never had issues at all no matter what itaration or version of OS X, in fact I had SL in it when all my issues started, upgraded to Lion, issues STILL there. Erratic behaviour was just that, erratic. I would do a reinstall, I would do resets, I would do a myriad of things suggested by many participants in this forum and other forums, but nothing seemed to fix the issue, at least for longer than a day or two.

It has been a verified issue with batteries "swelling" in MBP's and causing problems. Again, for me it WAS NOT A SOFTWARE ISSUE AT ALL. I think in my case, I somehow relieved some kind of "pressure" or something in our machine, and it is now working as it should with all the exact same software it had when it was acting so erratic that it was impossible to use.

So for now, we are happy things are working wonderfully........

Nov 3, 2011 7:34 PM in response to Vinster777

Mea culpa, Vinster. I should have said it's been a Lion-related problem for most of us.

Major mouse issues in Lion