Mighty Mouse jumps to a corner

Question

Level 2

211 points

Mighty Mouse jumps to a corner

My Mighty Mouse (wired) cursor occasionally jumps to a corner and freezes for a split-second.

This does not happen with my Belkin Bluetooth mouse. Both mice are used on a quality plasticised mouse mat. I do not have Expose/Dashboard hot corners turned on.

Other users have posted the same problem, but I can't find a definitive solution.

Anyone else had this problem and found a solution?

iMac G5, MacBook, Mac OS X (10.4.7), 1GB RAM, iSight

Posted on Aug 26, 2006 4:29 AM

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Answer 1

Dah•veed

Level 9

64,801 points

Aug 26, 2006 7:49 AM in response to Anthony Seng

The Mighty Mouse doesn't "see" too well on light-colored or light multicolored surfaces, like wood grain desktops. Many of us have experienced this problem and it is easily solved by placing a dark, preferably not highly reflective, surface under the mouse.

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Answer 2

Anthony Seng Author

Level 2

211 points

Aug 30, 2006 4:47 AM in response to Dah•veed

Thanks for the suggestions, but the Mighty Mouse is on a dark(-ish) blue mouse mat.

The "move to a corner and freeze" problem only happens once in an hour or so. I'm sure it's not the mat...

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Answer 3

Dah•veed

Level 9

64,801 points

Aug 30, 2006 7:47 AM in response to Anthony Seng

MMs, as all optical mice, have no need of a mouse mat. The mouse mat is a hang over from the days of mice with rollballs. The mouse mat was designed to give traction to the rollball so that it actually rolled instead of sliding across a surface. Secondly it provided a "clean" rollspace so the rollball didn't pick up dirt and trash as quickly to gum up the mechanism inside.
Optical mice do need a surfce that reflects the optical light back into the optics. A surface with slight irregular pattern or variation is needed so the optics can actually "see" that the mouse has moved. If the surface is higly reflective, it overcomes the optics or "blinds" the mouse.

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Answer 4

Anthony Seng Author

Level 2

211 points

Aug 31, 2006 3:58 AM in response to Dah•veed

Thanks for taking the time to reply, especially now that I realise that I've posted in the wrong forum (the MM jumps on the iMac G5, works perfectly on the MacBook. There should be a MM forum...!)

I always throw away the cheap mouse mats at work because optical mice won't track properly on them. But at home I have one of those gel-filled wrist-rest mouse mats. The MM works flawlessly on it all the time - almost. Other optical mice have tracked properly with it. To rule out the mat as the cause of the problem, I've stopped using it to see if the "mouse skipping" keeps happening.

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Answer 5

Sep 9, 2006 8:09 AM in response to Anthony Seng

I've been having some frustrations with my Wireless MM too with tracking. It jumps all over the place. At first I thought it was the driver that came with it, which I tried uninstalling (there's no easy way to do it), and subsequently had to re-install my whole system with archive+install. But the WMM continued to track erratically even with a fresh system WITHOUT the driver. I also have a dark blue, non-reflective mouse mat which I love and which has worked flawlessly with other optical mice. However, I read that the IR laser in the WMM is much more sensitive and finnicky, so I tested it on the grey aluminum surface of my MacBook Pro and found that it tracked properly. I compared it against the blue mouse mat, and also my desk (which has a wood grain finish) - and noticed that the IR laser doesn't seem to like textured surfaces either. I'm going to to try to find an untextured, dark monochromatic surface like a plastic kitchen cutting mat to see if it works, and if so, will try re-installing the WMM driver.

I find it a bit annoying that we have to do this, since the purpose of a wireless mouse is supposed to be portability, meaning it should work on a multitude of different surfaces, but it doesn't. Why did Apple go with the IR laser instead of the usual optical mechanism? Lighter? More accurate? I'm still not convinced about the accuracy part.

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Answer 6

Sep 9, 2006 10:53 AM in response to Anthony Seng

I hope I dont get this problem with my might mouse on my new 24" imac

I had a MM which i used with my old g4 ibook and xp pc and it worked flawlessly. Ive used it on all sorts of different surfaces such as my leg, 3-4 mouse mats (darky colours but not black), a sofa, a desk..

It worked fine until I thought at my wall....

do you have another PC/Mac to try it on? If you try it on another mac it will help the debugging process.

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Answer 7

Anthony Seng Author

Level 2

211 points

Sep 9, 2006 11:09 PM in response to Adam Croot

For the past week I have used my wired Mighty Mouse (with iMac G5) without a mouse mat on my light wood-grain desk. There have been no tracking problems.

I've also used the same MM with my MacBook for short periods on a dark wood-grain desk and haven't noticed any problems.

I've started using the dark-blue mouse mat again to see if the cursor-jumping problem starts again - and it just happened. The USB Mighty Mouse seems to have problems with this colour/style of mouse mat. Other optical mice work properly with the same mouse-mat.

The weird thing is that the MM works well on the mat most of the time but occasionally the cursor jumps and the mouse seems unresponsive for a second or so.

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Answer 8

Anthony Seng Author

Level 2

211 points

Sep 6, 2008 4:05 PM in response to Anthony Seng

The wired Mighty Mouse works consistently well on patterned surfaces. Single-coloured surfaces such as some mouse pads occasionally cause mis-tracking and cursor jumping.

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