New Mouse having...seizures...

[TheDevilsJester]

After reading hundreds of posts about mouse issues on these forums I still wasnt able to find an answer that works for me.

I purchased a new mouse, Its a Logitech MediaPlay (Wireless USB) and everything seemed fine for awhile (a couple hours) and then it started stuttering while moving, and sometimes jumping across the screen. I have tried with multiple kernels and multiple xorg configs. I have tried the drivers that make use of all of the buttons and drivers that dont, and still havent been able to get it to stop.

I doubt this is a issue with it being wireless, its not but 3 feet from the PC and it has a 10 foot radius, there isnt anything here to interfere with it either

The mouse pad is one solid color, its non reflective, and neither the pad or the optical lens are dirty. There are no other USB devices hooked up either to conflict with this.

I dont need all the extra buttons to work (although it would be nice) what I need is to stop it from having seizures.

Does anyone have any ideas?


My old conf file (and the one I am using right now), without support for all of the extra buttons (it has...12 I think) is as follows:

Code: Select all

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Mouse0"
        Driver      "mouse"
        Option      "Protocol" "auto"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/mouse"
        Option      "Buttons" "5"
        Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

My current kernel is 2.6.9-r9, I am running the latest Gnome and xorg.

[GatoVolador]

You mention you've read a lot of threads on it, so you may have tried this, but how about new batteries in the mouse? This sounds a lot like what happens when the signal isn't good. Despite the fact it is a new mouse, it's possible the battery in it is weak and this is the source of your problems. I've seen this happen a few times with wireless mice, though admittedly I've never been so unlucky so as to have this happen with a new mouse.

If you have a second machine, how about trying it with that machine. If you don't, how about taking it back to where you bought it (if you can) and asking them to test it. They should be happy to help you.

I don't think this is a software problem, though. If it worked fine for a couple of hours and then suddenly stopped, I don't see how it could be software unless you changed your configuration or updated something.

Good luck.

[TheDevilsJester]

I havent tried new batteries, these were brand new Duracell batteries and I am fairly certain that they work fine...

My other PC has USB problems, and test stations at the stores run windows.

I set the sensitivity to maximum and it hasnt done it since...dont know if its actually fixed.

Another problem I noticed is, I have to set the mouse speed to very low in my gnome settings because its insanely fast, however these settings dont effect GDM so the mouse is super fast and hard to control in GDM...any ideas?

[gentsquash]

I concur with GatoVolador --and note that even new batteries
can have a bad connection within the mouse. I had some AA
batteries which looked normal, were fully charged, but the
"shoulder" of the battery was a fraction of an inch higher than
standard. These batteries intermittently failed in about half
the devices that I used them in (the worse offender being the
electric toothbrush). Even rotating an individual battery about
its axis-of-symmetry sometimes made the difference between
good-contact and intermittency!


Off topic, there is another reason to use rechargeable batteries:
I use them in my cordless mice and kbds, and part of the reason
is that I have never seen a rechargeable leak.

[ctford0]

Try adding a resolution option to your input device section.

Code: Select all

Option     Resolution     "1000"

I usually end up setting mine to around 1000 to speed the mouse up however you can play with the numbers until you find something that is acceptable.

chris

[rasmussen]

The mouse pad is one solid color, its non reflective, and neither the pad or the optical lens are dirty.

I had similar problems with the same mouse. In my case, the surface material of the mouse pad was the problem.

[davecs]

The mouse pad is one solid color, its non reflective, and neither the pad or the optical lens are dirty.

I had similar problems with the same mouse. In my case, the surface material of the mouse pad was the problem.

If you have an optical mouse, and the pointer is jumping about irregularly or not responding, always suspect the mousepad. It should be rough, there should be a constant change of colour, no areas of single flat colour. Failing that and irregular reflective surface (canvas-like) will help. Otherwise how does the mouse correctly detect movement?

[TheDevilsJester]

My mousepad is a solid blue color, wetsuit-like material, (a standard mouse pad).

Using rechargeables is bad for multiple reasons, the most important reason being they are always a lower voltage than their alkaline equivelents, this can (and usually does) result in a weak signal which can cause these very problems. Most mice (and many other electronic devices) will have a warning on them about using rechargables. Some do however suggest rechargeables (although very few)

[davecs]

My mousepad is a solid blue color, wetsuit-like material, (a standard mouse pad).

Great with a standard mouse, no good for optical.

[ctford0]

I've found that a sheet of printer paper works good in a pinch. Maybe you could try that and eliminate the mouse pad as the cause of the problem...

chris

[Mo6eB]

I have the same problem with my mouse. Only it isn't cordless. And it works just fine under windows. I will try some more configs, but you might want to look at

/usr/src/linux/Documentation/input/input.txt
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/usb/hiddev.txt

and change your xorg.conf to

......
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/usb/hiddev0"
Option "Protocol" "usb"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
......

I cannot try that, because there's no /dev/usb on my system, but it might work for you.

Also, I have had the same problem with a genius NetScroll+, which is a PS/2 wheel mouse, so I'm doubtful, that the problem is usb-related.