Mouse cursor skipping (jumping) bug in Mac OS X

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SmoothMouse, the long-awaited fix for mouse problems in OS X, has been released.

Further discussion about pointer jumping bug continues in the SmoothMouse Forum.

* * *

* * *

SmoothMouse, the long-awaited fix for mouse problems in OS X, has been released.

Further discussion about pointer jumping bug continues in the SmoothMouse Forum.

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This entry was posted in Bugs and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

384 Responses to Mouse cursor skipping (jumping) bug in Mac OS X

  1. MartynasJ says:

    I experienced such a bug with my deathadder. Now i’m quite confused about what mouse to get for autocad use. Deathadder was probably the most comfortable mouse i’ve ever had in my hand. Then i tried mx518, but the scroll wheel was so uncomfortable and hardly to push. Anyone could suggest me a wired mouse with good scroll wheel and middle button for cad and photoshop use? (i’m not considering of trackballs or tablets) :)
    BTW any news from apple about the fix?

    • Dae says:

      Thanks to Razer drivers you can fix your DeathAdder to work perfectly with Mac OS X, see point 12 above.

      So far Apple asked me to provide my system profile, so the only good news is that they did not ignore my ticket.

      • stephanie says:

        hi – i have a different problem with the deathadder and my imac, since i’ve updated to leaopard i receive:
        …USB device drawing too much power from your computer….USB devices have been disabled.
        My deathadder won’t work now :( are you able to help me?
        I have the latest download from the link u provided and set the polling rate to 125Hz.
        Is there something else I should be doing?
        S

        • Dae says:

          Hi Stephanie,
          this problem occurs when you connect a device which needs more power to USB hub or keyboard with a USB hub. Such devices should be plugged directly in the computer.

          Or is it already plugged directly?

          • stephanie says:

            hiyas,
            plugged directly – doesn’t seem to matter if i use the one at the back of the imac or side of keyboard etc. Also just tested with my macbook, same problem.
            ?
            s

          • Dae says:

            Then it looks like a problem of your DeathAdder mouse. My DeathAdder doesn’t invoke any warnings when I plug it directly into any Mac. Perhaps Tiger (I assume you had Tiger before upgrading to Leo?) did not have this kind of check built-in.

  2. MartynasJ says:

    Looks like things are moving forward :)
    What about death adder non mac edition? Could it be customized to work on mac as great as it does on windows? I’m thinking about getting this one, because i cant find the mac edition razer in my country :)

    • Dae says:

      Yes, I’m pretty much sure you can configure non-Mac DeathAdder in the same way, although I don’t know about availability of the Mac driver for it. However, I wouldn’t recommend using the Mac driver anyway, it doesn’t seem decent to me — just configure your mouse once using the Windows driver, and use it with the default Mac driver or SteerMouse/USB Overdrive/ControllerMate — if you need to assign special functions to the buttons or reduce the acceleration.

      BTW I encountered the same situation with DeathAdder Mac edition in my country (Russia), so I had to order it from British eBay. While waiting for the parcel I found out that the local computer part stores here actually do have some of those, but they list them as “DeathAdder with white gleam” or just “DeathAdder 3G” allowing clients to pick the desired color themselves.

  3. BoshFlimshaw says:

    Hey Dae, I was over on the controllermate website and I read that you had something similar to the windows curve. REALLY REALLY hoping you could send me the .cmate file for that. You say it won’t fix the problem but I’m on an mx518 and it feels funny to me, since you said it works with mac, I’m hoping something simple like that will just clear it up.
    Email is Moxorop34@gmail.com and again it would really be great, I’m at my wits end.

  4. h4rg says:

    I can confirm the problem.
    I own a Razer Salmosa and i can set manualy the polling rate to 125Hz or 500Hz or 1000Hz via a switch below the mouse.
    No problem at 125Hz but it’s jittering at 500Hz and 100Hz.

  5. Matt says:

    Saitek GM3200 suffers from the same issue — it’s a pain to deal with when trying to do 3D modelling.

  6. Slim says:

    I can confirm that this fix works for the Razer ProClick, their unofficial mac mouse. I personally found it much more erratic than the demonstration. Thanks Dae!

  7. hz says:

    i have razer death adder 1800dpi and the issue is here..
    125hz fix works, but with low polling rate i can’t move mouse fast for a long distance (i use low sensitivity).. i mean of course i can move my mouse but cursor doesn’t follow it.

    • Dae says:

      afaik lower polling rate = lower sensivity

      thus, after decreasing polling rate, you need to increase sensivity accordingly

      or do you feel difference between higher polling rate / low sensivity and lower polling rate / high sensivity?

      • hz says:

        under sensitivity i mean tracking speed. do u mean the same? : )
        in my case decreasing of polling rate to 125hz causes increasing of tracking speed. but this is not what i’m talking about..
        i took a video where u can see my cursor’s behavior when i move my mouse fast left to right..
        http://ipradio.ru/files/125-500hz_mm_test.mov

        • Dae says:

          >do u mean the same? : )
          Yes.

          >i took a video where u can see my cursor’s behavior when i move my mouse fast left to right..
          I think I remember that now… Try to decrease the dpi resolution. Looks like some sort of a bug.

          • hz says:

            yep. fast moves become better with resolution decreased to 450dpi.. better, but far from perfect.
            anyway i bought this mouse to be able to do fast(polling rate here) and precise(dpi) moves so i wanna use maximum of its capabilities : )
            we have to make apple do something with it!
            maybe publish our problem here http://discussions.apple.com/ so other victims of this bug would join us and apple would hear us? : )

          • Dae says:

            Ага :-)

            Думаю, есть смысл отправить баг в Apple Bug Reporter (http://bugreport.apple.com), но для этого было б неплохо определиться, не возникает ли он при схожих настройках на Винде, а также не связан ли он с установленными драйверами мыши. Еще не понятно, не вина ли это Razer — ибо у моей Logitech MX518 на максимальной настройке DPI (меняющейся с помощью кнопок на самой мыши) все нормально с быстрым движением.

            Если получится, я на днях потестирую.

            Кстати, репорт про баг с “прыганием”, отправленный мной в Apple Bug Reporter 25 февраля и о котором пост, так и не был “закрыт” (просто обычно все известные баги помечаются как дубликаты и репорт закрывается), что может говорить о том, что Эппл о баге попросту не знала…

          • hz says:

            попробую сегодня на видновом компьютере свою мышь. проверю и прыгание, и срывы на больших скоростях : )
            на самом деле я негодую сильно, т.к. только купил себе нормальную мышь, большой ковер, и тут на тебе такая х[*]{4} : (
            а может эпл это специально? протекционирует свои мыши..

          • Dae says:

            на винде прыганий не будет, хотя на ней, кстати, тоже порядочно проблем, связанных с мышью, но других по характеру. я сейчас занимаюсь кривой ускорения на Маке, пришлось разбираться и в механизмах винды

            жду результатов

          • hz says:

            ну это я так, заодно. на всякий случай.. у вас же нет срывов в макосе, а у меня есть, так что кто его знает.. : )
            а кстати, эта кривая.. с ней дествительно какая-то проблема? я только вчера увидел, что людей многих что-то в ней не устраивает.. то есть за все время использования макоса я как-то и не задумывался : )

          • Dae says:

            Да, человеку, пересевшему с Винды, кажется, что при ускорении мыши курсор замедляется. Характер движения мыши другой, менее плавный, более скачкообразный. К этому можно привыкнуть, но есть мнение, что дело не только в привычке. Например, один форумчанин, кажется, с MacRumors, рассказал о том, что его препод в университете, никогда не работавший с Виндой, тоже испытывает очень похожие трудности с движением мыши. Я сам заметил, что людям, плохо знакомым с компьютером вообще, поначалу довольно сложно адаптироваться к движению указателя на Маке и совершенно никаких проблем у них не вызывает Винда.

            Как бы то ни было, я переучиваться не хочу только по той причине, что мне приходится постоянно работать с Виндой и Линуксом, у которых ускорение мыши иное. Если поработав пару дней и чуть-чуть привыкнув к мыши на Маке, затем я пересаживаюсь на Винду на полчаса, то эти два дня на Маке идут коту под хвост — приходится привыкать заново. Кроме того, из-за таких проблем у меня начинают болеть мышцы в запястье.

          • hz says:

            и так.. я проверил.
            на винде никаких срывов при быстром движении на 125герц. подергиваний тоже вроде нет..
            проверил на всякий случай на хакбуке – та же история что и на моем.
            стоит, наверное, сказать для чистоты эксперимента, что у меня хакинтош на интеле q6600..
            мак ос – везде 10.5.8.
            : )

          • hz says:

            кстати, на счет подергиваний.. на 125 гц мне кажется только уменьшается их амплитуда, но они не исчезают полностью..

            еще получен репорт о таком же поведении (речь только о подергивании, не о срывах) logitech mx510 на макбуке у моего друга..

          • Dae says:

            спасибо

            для чистоты эксперимента, мне кажется, нужно попробовать записать настройку 125 Гц и максимальный DPI в память мыши (то есть в драйвере сохранить настройку в профиль 1, например) и подключить мышь к Макоси без фирменных драйверов Рейзера

            это поможет определить, не глюк ли это конкретно маковских драйверов Рейзера. Если не глюк, то тогда будет смысл написать в баг репорт Эппла

            >на 125 гц мне кажется только уменьшается их амплитуда
            во, у меня точно такие же ощущения

          • hz says:

            да, это оказалось неплохой идеей : )
            действительно, без разеровских драйверов срывов нет..
            но подергивание и на 125 все же есть и очевидно..

          • Dae says:

            насколько они сильные? как на моем видео или буквально на один пиксель?

            запишите видео, я сравню со своим deathadder’ом

          • hz says:

            да, не очень сильные..
            http://ipradio.ru/files/125hz_1800dpi_1.mov
            вроде бы отражает суть верно : )
            а вот кусок последней линии попиксельно:
            http://ipradio.ru/files/125-1800_line_seg.png

          • Dae says:

            Эппл выпустила апдейт Снежного барса, в числе изменений которых значится:
            >- improve the reliability of 3rd party USB input devices

            Проапдейтиться смогу только завтра, жду сего с замиранием сердца xD

          • hz says:

            ага :)

            жду результатов!

          • Dae says:

            no luck :-(

          • hz says:

            f*ck.. : (

          • hz says:

            упс.. оказывается тут и на русском можно? : )

  8. Ali says:

    I just bought a Logitech G500 for my Mac. I found it pretty jerky, but launched SetPoint inside my Windows VM and was able to drop the polling rate down to 125Hz in there. Seems a lot smoother now.

    A shame that Logitech can’t support this from within Mac OS X. And a shame that Mac OS X seems to have problems with anything higher than 125Hz – I’m guessing I’m not making the most out of the hardware by dropping the polling rate down so low.

    Does anyone know if Apple publish a list of supported/recommended polling rates? There are loads of polling rate options for the G500 ranging from 125Hz to 1000Hz.

    Did you hear back from Apple?

    • Dae says:

      >launched SetPoint inside my Windows VM and was able to drop the polling rate
      So did your pointer stop jumping in Mac OS X at all? If so, this is a news to me! I thought that the Logitech mice do not keep that stuff in their internal memory.

      >Did you hear back from Apple?
      No. They requested my system profile, I submitted it to them and since then there were no news. The only good sign is that they did not “close” the report as a duplicate (like with most of my other reports), meaning that they did not know about the problem. (If you wonder why it is a good sign: it is definitely not the case of Apple’s “think different” behavior).

      I’m seriously thinking of writing to Steve Jobs about all of those mouse problems. They’re driving lots of people crazy for many years. This particular bug we’re talking about, existed on 10.4 Tiger and even possibly earlier.

      • Ali says:

        It seems to have fixed it, but I’ve only briefly been setting it up on my laptop at home so not been using it for any precision work yet! I’ll let you know for sure when I’ve started using it properly, I’ll be bringing it into work with me this week.

        The G500 has on board memory, so when you set it to 125Hz in Windows, it remembers it when you switch it over to your Mac.

        You can set up multiple profiles on the G500 and switch between them using 2 of the mouse buttons. I’ll set up a few with different polling rates, so I can quickly compare them side by side, and see how I get on.

        • Ali says:

          Correction, you can only switch between DPIs without going into SetPoint – not polling rates unfortunately.

          Definitely a lot smoother at 125Hz – and jerking at 1000Hz even when I move the mouse along a straight surface.

          • Ali says:

            I’ve been using the mouse in work, set to a high DPI (1000 I think) and a low polling rate (125Hz) with no noticeable issues. Let me know if you hear anything from Apple though, would be great if they fixed this. I reckon there are loads of people our there with jittering mice that don’t have a clue what the problem is and just live with it.

          • Dae says:

            Sure, I will.

  9. WAcreative says:

    Thank you so much for this post. I recently replaced my MX518 with the Razer Death Adder 3500dpi and ever since then it was skipping up to 5-10 pixles on my Mac. I did the suggested 125Hz poll rate and now it works fine. This was very frustrating in Photoshop and I am a designer so you can only imagine how I felt when trying to do diagonal lines…

  10. Chris says:

    Just got a Razer Deathadder 3500 dpi. Running Mac Snow Leopard. Plugged and installed Razer drivers (currently v2.01). When I first plugged the mouse into the usb port, I started to experience the same issue. Settings were at polling rate 500Hz, dpi at 1800.

    I changed these settings to 125Hz, and 900 dpi. The random jittering / jumping slightly goes away. It’s less obvious now. Does this mean my mouse that I purchased is defective or is this more on the OS? i.e. if I plug the mouse into a Windows OS (XP, Vista, etc), will this issue still come about?

    I am wondering if I should exchange it for a different mouse, same model.

    • Chris says:

      Will usb overdrive or updating firmware solve this issue?

    • Dae says:

      As I stated in the post above, it’s a bug of Mac OS X. I believe that it occurs with any mouse, and it’s most noticeable with high-precision or gaming mouses which run at a polling rate of higher than 125Hz.

      Therefore, the problem will not occur on Windows.

      Therefore, exchanging your mouse won’t help.

      USB Overdrive, SteerMouse or any other programs do not solve the issue (as I stated in 10th list item). I believe it’s a USB driver level problem which has to be fixed by Apple. And updating firmware does not solve this issue either.

  11. Dahlstroem says:

    I had the same issue with my XAI on a Macbook. I set the polling rate to 125Hz and the tracking issue is gone.
    Does anyone know if you can set a little higher rate or is it just 125?

    • Dae says:

      I believe that “jumping” occurs even on 125 Hz, it’s just becoming less noticeable as you reduce the polling rate

      • Chris says:

        Yea definitely less noticeable. Still randomly moves about, but only when you do the “Photoshop test” as see on the youtube video. Otherwise, for day-to-day tasks, you hardly see it happening.

        Wish however, that this issue would go away entirely. Wonder if Apple knows and will do anything about this in the time to come

        • Dae says:

          I hope so. I filled a bug report in February which I update with the new information and wrote a letter to Steve Jobs a few days ago.

  12. Chris says:

    Thanks Dae, your effort is without a doubt useful

  13. xgman says:

    Logitech Performance Mouse MX seems not to have this problem. I have found that it matters which driver you use and more time than not, the mac drivers seem to have less jump than the microsoft or logitech control panels. I use steermouse to set buttons.

    • Dae says:

      Are you sure about Microsoft and LCC? I heard recently, only a few days ago, that Steermouse fixes this issue for a small number of Logitech mouses (and just them).

      • Joyce says:

        I replace Logitech control panel with Steermouse for my Logitech VX Nano. The jumpy and stickiness is almost gone when I use the mouse mac os x, but the mouse feel alot smoother when I use it in bootcamp win xp (while having my monitor unplugged…my monitor won’t bootup in winxp for some reason). I use macbook pro with Acer X233H monitor.

        • Dae says:

          There’s a bug which makes mouse feel less smooth in OS X. I’m working hard on a fix, I’m pretty sure it will as well address the issue described in my above post.

          • Joyce says:

            Hi Dae, I want to get a new wireless mouse for my macbook pro. I don’t know which one to get. I just need a small mouse (like the logitech vx nano) for graphic design. Need at least 5 buttons (left & right buttons, middle button, and 2 thumb buttons, it would be good if the middle mouse can act as a button, instead of switching from normal scroll to power scroll). I just need a mouse that doesn’t have the jumpy mouse problem when plugged in with my external monitor. Please recommend me a few mouse, thanks.

          • Dae says:

            Hi Joyce,
            unfortunately I can’t recommend a wireless mouse because I just don’t like them. With the most wireless mice I’ve tried I could feel a delay and I just can’t stand it. I must admit though, that they all were cheap.

            You might want to try to use the latest preview version of Mac OS X Lion which does not have this jumping issue with any mouse at all.

  14. DrLex says:

    You can add the Razer Imperator to the list. I have one and it exhibits exactly the same problem. I think it’s safe to conclude that any mouse with a polling rate higher than 125Hz will have this problem. If you can set the polling rate to 125Hz the problem is “solved”. Of course it’s not really solved because the higher polling rate is one of the reasons why some people buy mice like these. Setting it back to 125Hz is like buying a race car and never actually racing it on a track after noticing that its steering wheel starts shaking at high speeds.

    I too submitted a bug report to Apple on April 4 (ticket 7826519). I got a response asking to try booting without Ethernet plugged in, but that did not help. At least it shows that they’re looking into the problem, but there hasn’t been any further response in a month. Anyone who has an ADC account should submit a bug report too (include your system profile), and refer to bugs #7675662 and #7826519.

    • Dae says:

      Thanks for information, DrLex! I updated the post above with your mouse and a reminder about posting to ADC Bug Report.

  15. Joe says:

    I had troubleshooted this very same issue on my own and came up with the exact diagnosis. Nice to hear that I’m not the only person in the world who is bothered by this simple issue. I am surprised that it has been prevalent for so long.. perhaps I’m not a true Mac user since I find this issue quite displeasing, especially since it has been existent for so long. I like to use very responsive input devices.. so perhaps Apple is telling me in subtlety that I need to go back to Windows. I will definitely be going back soon if this is not resolved, as I can only stand the crappy mouse response for so long, and this dual boxing windows is getting old fast.

    Reported bug via ADC #8023844 referring #7675662 and #7826519.

  16. dan says:

    Using Razer Salmosa.

    I actually think the mouse continues to skip at 125hz, it just skips less pixels so it’s not noticable.

    I have literally had it up to here with all the shit I’ve tried trying to make a mouse not suck in OSX. It’s depressing.

    Reporting bug as well.

    • dan says:

      forgot to mention: i also noticed the skipping when i disabled steermouse. i think it’s quite simply that the mouse is so unreliable with the default OSX acceleration, and most mice having a low polling rate, that no one notices the mouse jumping (which is tiny at a low polling rate).

  17. mike says:

    After days, weeks, months of frustration here is the proof that it’s not me. I’ve been fighting with this issue for almost a year, then I gave up and went back to a basic Microsoft optical mouse. It’s funny that I’ve came to the same conclusion on my own.

  18. Stephane says:

    Since 2007 and my first iMac, I unsuccessfully looked for a method to resolve this mouse issue. I tried different mouses, different OS ( 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6 ), different hardwares ( iMac 20, Macbook unibody, Imac 27 ), different softwares ( steerMouse, USB Overdrive, ControllerMate ) but no way !
    I use my Macbook every day at work, and I feel very uncomfortable: I can’t use my wrist anymore in the evening. The best walkaround for me, is using a Microsoft Standard USB Mouse with ControllerMate and a custom acceleration curve ( like in Microsoft XP ). But even that, is not good enough.
    As far I am concerned, I think that there is 2 issues. The first one concerns the bad acceleration curves of OSX, and the second one the bad USB polling rate. For example, I tried to make drawing curves with the same mouse on Paint on XP, and Paintbrush on Snow Leopard ( It is nearly the same softwares ). On XP, when you move the mouse rapidly, the drawing remains smooth. On the opposite, on snow Leopard, when you move the mouse rapidly, the curve is made with segments

  19. Leon says:

    I have exactly the same issue, and I am using Logitech MX Anywhere, I even tried my VX Nano, same issue.

    This is really a pain, the mouse cursor always get stuck for like 1-2 seconds when you move them around slowly. I have opened a new case “#8097819” for bug report, hope we can get something for this.

  20. Adam Carrano says:

    Hello,

    new macbook pro user, I’m annoyed by this mouse problem too.
    I called the Apple phone assistance twice about this.
    I reported it in the Apple Feedback form: http://www.apple.com/feedback
    I’ve sign this petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/MacMAcc/petition.html

    Now I’d like to report it in the ADC as you suggest.
    I’ve created my ADC profile, but I don’t understand how to report the bug.
    Could you please help me?
    What should I do precisely when I’m on the Bug Reporter Page?

    Thank you.

    • Dae says:

      Hello Adam, this particular bug has nothing to do with Mac OS X mouse acceleration. Personally I hate it as well, but frankly speaking it is not a bug. I agree, however, that it won’t hurt to fill a bug report.

      After logging in to the Bug Report, find the button “New problem”. There you can describe the problem. Obviously you need to select “Problem:” Mac OS X, version/build number — whatever Mac OS X you use, classification: “serious bug” or “ui/usability”. Apple advises to use the following template:

      
      Summary:
      
      Steps to Reproduce:
      
      Expected Results:
      
      Actual Results:
      
      Regression:
      
      Notes:

      They give a detailed explanation on what do these fields mean if you click “description format” link above the text field.

      For the above problem, my own bug report was:

      
      Problem Report Title: Cursor jumps randomly when high-precision mouse is used
      Product: Mac OS X
      Version/build number: 10.5.x, 10.6.x
      Classification: Serious bug
      Is It Reproducible?: always
      
      Summary:
      The pointer jumps randomly for a few pixels when a high-precision mouse is used.
      
      Steps to Reproduce:
      1. Connect a mouse, such as Logitech G5 or Razer DeathAdder 3G to a Mac
      2. Move the pointer slowly across the screen
      
      Expected Results:
      There should be no random jumping.
      
      Actual Results:
      The cursor randomly jumped for a few pixels from time to time.
      
      Regression:
      The problem is not hardware-dependent: it can be reproduced on all Intel Macs. The problem is not software-dependent either: it can be reproduced on a fresh system with no 3rd party software installed. I can certainly confirm that the problem exists on Mac OS X 10.5 (any version) and Mac OS X 10.6 (any version).
      
      The problem is not limited to a particular mouse model or manufacturer/producer. It appeared with the following mice: Logitech G5 (first edition), Logitech G5 (second edition), Logitech MX620, Razer DeathAdder 3G, Microsoft Sidewinder.
      
      Note that I did not use the 3rd party drivers supplied with those mice.
      
      The problem goes away when I change the setting called "USB polling rate" in the mouse driver to 125 Mhz. I only managed to do so with the Razer mice. Apparently Razer mice store the setting in their memory, because once the setting is changed, those mouse behave as expected on any other Mac computer.
      
      Notes:
      I recorded a video to illustrate the problem:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k0iBmhzoFM
      
      In the video I used the brush tool of Adobe Photoshop to trace the pointer movement.
      
      I will readily provide more information if required.
  21. Adam Carrano says:

    Hello Dae,

    Thank you for your answer.
    I’ve now reported the “jumps” bug.
    My report is N° 8102684
    Now how must I refer to cases as you suggest ?

    PS: I have also reported the acceleration curve problem, report N° 8102815

    • Dae says:

      Thank you! Normally people simply mention that the problem is the same as #8023844, #7675662, #7826519, #8097819. That allows Apple to identify and classify the report faster, and as well (I hope) realize that it is a serious problem.

      Even after you submitted a report, you can update it with the new information.

      I will write my own report regarding acceleration and I’ll refer to yours.

  22. Leon says:

    Hi Dae,

    It looks like I found a solution, check following URL:
    http://forums3.armagetronad.net/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3364&sid=c4901cdd7e79b53b648aad314431652a&start=15

    The fix from Jonathan works like a charm, my MX Anywhere works great right now, without SteerMouse, I used his fix with Logitech LCC3.30, will keep you posted with my further usage.

    Leon

    • Dae says:

      The fix, which is supposed to deaccelerate the mouse, also fixes the jumping cursor issue, is that right? (because it’s strange) I’ll try it then.

      • Leon says:

        Yes, I doubt it at the first beginning. But after I ran the script, the mouse is faster than before, but it don’t jump any more. After play a while, I am good with the new speed, at least I don’t need to wait for 2-3 seconds time to time. Till now, it looks like it did solve the problem for me. Anyway, I will keep an eye on it, if I can still experience the problem, I will report back.

        This mouse issue is really killing me, I am wondering to buy another mouse, but not sure it will fix the issue or not. MX Anywhere is good enough, cannot believe Apple did nothing on this:(

        • Dae says:

          I also tried it now without SteerMouse. Seems very good (dont know about jumping though, I’m talking about the handling/feeling).

          I’ll contact Jonathan, it seems that he found a hook to control mouse acceleration curve. My friend knows how to decode it, and I have the Windows acceleration curve.

          Thank you very much!

        • Dae says:

          Just tried: it doesn’t mix the “polling rate” / jumping bug for my Logitech G5, unfortunately.

          • Leon says:

            I am back with some feedbacks…

            After use that small scripts for few days, I think the problem get resolved by some means.

            1. Looks like the trick for running in login item is not working. I still need to run the app and hit the button time to time.
            2. The fix is not promising. Every time I feel the lag/jump, I have to re-run the app and hit the button.
            3. At least, after run the app and hit the button, the mouse seems fine, I am using LCC3.30 now.
            4. It looks like if I use Parallels Desktop with MAC OS, the problem get worse. Everytime I ran win7 in parallels, mouse start jump time to time. I have to switch to vmware, seems better now.

            Really annoying, but really out of control, at least have some partial fixing now.

            Not sure if the Razer Orochi issue get same problem or not, heard the new Razer driver can change the polling rate and might fix the issue, anyone can share the experience?

            Really don’t wanna goto Magic Mouse, Might Mouse hurt me once…

          • Dae says:

            Leon, I think your problem is different to the one described here. I believe it’s related to CPU or the video card. I heard about it in Hackintosh forums, they advise to remove some kext to fix it and it’ll be fine.

            I just bought Razer Imperator, gonna try the driver in a few moments.

  23. Leon says:

    Thanks Dae, I am not using a Hackintosh, I am using a brand new MBP024 with i7 CPU and 17″ screen. I installed two Intel X25 160G SSD, and upgraded to 8G memory. The configuration is pretty good. I was using the SSDs for RAID0, and I have removed the raid0 last night. See if I can find any difference .

    The issue I met is: if I move the mouse slowly, the cursor may stopped, for about 2 or 3 seconds, and then move again if I keep moving it, so it “jumps”, or lag.

    Looking forward to see your comments on new Razer driver.

    • Dae says:

      Hi Leon, sorry for the delay.

      I didn’t mean that you’re using a Hackintosh, the problem, however, might be more known in their community as it might be related to a CPU or GPU. Do other mouses lag? Does the touchpad lag? Do you notice any lags with the other applications? (Not mouse, in general).

      Speaking of Razer driver, the one which comes for Imperator is outdated, the Windows one is far more advanced. The mouse feels as bad as any other mouse, and the pointer indeed jumps from time to time. I changed the polling rate to 125 Hz in the driver and jumping vanished as expected.

      In other words, nothing new. I could change the polling rate for DeathAdder in the Mac driver in autumn 2009, the same thing I can do now for my new Imperator.

      • Leon says:

        Hi Dae,

        Thanks a lot for your reply.

        When my mouse lag, nothing else is abnormal, the trackpad is working just fine.

        Anyway, I’m also tired of that as well, I just bought a Magic Mouse, though the feel of this mouse is not as good as the Logitech MX Anywhere, but anyway, the mouse lag issue is not there any longer.

        It looks like I have to get used to this new mouse, at lease, it don’t jump….

    • I get this too, on a stock mac mini (c2d 2.26ghz, 2GB RAM), using a MS optical mouse. I’ve tried two different MS optical mice, they both do it, and they’re also both fine on a Win7 PC. Driving me nuts! The three second pauses infuriates my wife, too.. :(

  24. Chris says:

    Same jumpy issue with Evoluent VerticalMouse2. They do not have official Mac drivers so there is nothing to do about the fact that Apple’s driver is polling the mouse at a lower rate than the mouse is sending out at, or whatever the first post said. Sigh… :S

    • Chris says:

      Sorry, I misreported the name. It’s the latest model, the Evoluent VerticalMouse3.

      I don’t know its native polling rate, but I do see the cursor jitter in OS X 10.6.4. It isn’t like that under Windows at all. I do believe you’re right about the poll rate. If OS X reads the mouse position 125 times per second (125 hz) and the mouse updates its position faster than that, you would get choppier movement.

      It lets you switch dpi from 2600 to 1800 to 1300 to 800 via button under the mouse, this is a hardware setting which requires no drivers, but unfortunately it does not improve things.

      So I can’t draw with this mouse at all, and doing quick moves across the screen can be a bit annoying since the jitter is worst when you move quickly.

      One other thing I hate about OS X is the acceleration curve which is like a cliff, where low to moderate mouse speed uses a low speed, and as soon as you go over a small speed threshhold it SHOOTS UP and goes blazingly fast instead. It really is cliff-shaped. On Windows, Linux and everywhere else, Acceleration is a smooth curve which means that the faster you move the mouse, the faster the cursor moves.

      OS 9 did not have this bad acceleration curve, it was in OS X that they screwed things up. That’s why it feels like you mouse through mud if you move the mouse slowly, and as soon as you put a bit of speed on it it shoots away. It feels bad and the only solution, short of Apple fixing their horribly broken acceleration CLIFF into a CURVE, is to use USB Overdrive or Steermouse’s alternate mouse drivers which do correct the curve. They don’t fix the jitter though, but they’re good if you want to fix the acceleration.

      It sucks that Apple doesn’t just fix the curve. Pretty much everybody hates it the way it is now, and it wasn’t like this in OS 9.

      • Chris says:

        Also, why should we have to pay $20 for those programs to fix the acceleration curve that Apple broke? Ugh.

        There’s a free alternative to these paid ones, I can’t remember the name, but it’s not worth using because it only uses a public Apple API to slightly tweak the mouse, but it doesn’t actually CHANGE the cliff-acceleration, so the only REAL way to get rid of it is with Steermouse or USB Overdrive. :-/

        • Dae says:

          I’ve been researching Mac mouse acceleration for several months now. I will post a report later.

          I have reasons to believe that the acceleration curve is only one of the problems related to unusable-ness of mouse movement on OS X.

          And if there was a fix for $200, I’d personally pay that price. But there are no fixes at all, and USB Overdrive / Steermouse devs are ignoring my letters.

  25. Paul says:

    I have a Kensington Optical Elite mouse (#72121) running on a Mac Pro with Snow Leopard (10.6.4). I’ve got this issue too. Looks like I’m the first to report on it happening with a Kensington….

    • Dae says:

      I see, thanks for the report, updated the first post.

      Does Kensington provide any means to change the polling rate of a mouse?

  26. Johan Svanberg says:

    I can confirm this using Logitech G9 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.4).

  27. Tom says:

    I’ve also had the cursor jumping issue with several mice on Mac OS X Snow Leopard. First with a basic logitech mouse (can’t remember the model) which I already gave away, because I thought it just doesn’t work with a Mac. And then I’ve tested with two HP mice which I had borrowed from work, both had the same issue.

    Now I’m looking for a new wireless mouse (non-bluetooth). So, a question: has anyone had issues with wireless mice? or does this only concern wired mice? Couldn’t recognise any wireless from the list above…

  28. Bobby says:

    I’m having the same problem with my Razer Naga. It’s making WoW unplayable now. I’m very disappointed. I’m going to try exchanging the mouse tommorrow at Best Buy and see if that might help the problem.

    • Dae says:

      You can fix the problem by changing the polling rate setting of the mouse, read above. Exchanging it to another Naga or any other Razer mouse won’t help, it’s an OS X problem.

  29. Carlos says:

    What is the deal Mac? My Evoluent mouse won’t work, but the carpel syndrome-inducing bluetooth mouse works fine. Thanks Apple!

  30. I’m experiencing the same problem with a MS Sidewinder X8 on OSX 10.6.4

    The mouse works perfectly in Windows 7.

  31. Ned Collyer says:

    I experience this with Logitech G5 on the latest Snow Leopard 10.6.4

    It does not occur with my Logitech Corded Mouse M500. Unfortunately this mouse is starting to die, and requires a good thump on the desk every 20 minutes or so. :(

  32. Martin Ambaum says:

    With me it’s the other way around. The Logitech G3 works like a breese, smooth just after I plugged it in my iMac, with Snow Leopard.
    But it’s terrible on Vista (2 laptops) and Windows XP (1 laptop). Strangely it works nicely on one Vista Laptop..HP Pavilion AMD, with almost bare Vista on it.

  33. Robert says:

    Thanks! I changed my Naga razer to the lower Hz setting and no more skipping!

  34. eric says:

    My Logitech Performance Mouse MX has had this issue for me as well

  35. Cameron says:

    I had this jumpy mouse problem on and off with the Magic Mouse, and I finally took the time to diagnose it. It turns out that the bluetooth adapter flakes out and even turns off when it doesn’t get enough power, and it appears to pull it’s power from the USB bus (it may be USB internally; I don’t know.) I can reproduce this problem easily just by plugging in more and more USB devices, and the mouse will freak out and/or the bluetooth adapter will shut down (click on the bluetooth icon and it says “Bluetooth not available”).

    Unplug your USB & firewire stuff (which is what caused the issue on my MBP), shut down the machine, let it rest for a few minutes, then power it back up.

    Peace,

    Cameron.

    • Dae says:

      It looks like a Blutooth adapter problem rather than what I described above. I’ve never had a single problem with a Magic Mouse myself (except of course awkward pointer reaction, which is typical for any mouse under OS X).

  36. Dan says:

    I’m experiencing the same exact issue described in your post using a Razer Mamba. Works perfectly fine in Windows 7, whereas on my primary Mac partition it jitters when moving diagonally, exactly as the video at the top demonstrates.

    I’m running Snow Leopard 10.6.4 on a Mac Pro, early 2009 model.

  37. Pingback: Mac OS X 10.6.5 (10H542) trafia do wybranych deweloperów

  38. Sucram says:

    I’m having a problem with this mouse on my macbook pro. Whenever I push one of the buttons on the side of the mouse while moving the cursor at the same time, the cursor jumps. It can jump like 1cm on the screen, and if moving the cursor fast it can jump all the way over the whole screen. I’ve been searching and searching and haven’t found anyone who wrote a post anywhere about this. I’m using Steer Mouse as setup.
    Does anyone have a solution for this?

    • Sucram says:

      I forgot to write that I’m using a logitech g500.

      • Dae says:

        I have used G500 once on Mac OS X and it worked alright except for the jumping cursor exactly as on the video above. What you describe seems different to the problem described above, so I suggest you to try your mouse on other OSes and see if it does the same.

        BTW the first G500 I bought was defective (no mouse buttons worked) so I had to get a replacement.

  39. Dutsj says:

    Hi,
    I am glad I found this page, so I know I am not the only one annoyed by jumpy pointer movements.

    My suggestion to the mouse driver programmer would be to *dampen* the movements. I can not move the mouse from a snail pace to 100MPH and to a snails pace again, all in just a fraction of a second. The muscles in my hand are not strong and fast enough for that and the inertia / mass of the mouse and hand makes such movement impossible by Newton’s law.
    A driver that would dampen the acceleration and deceleration, that would limit the pointers movement to the physical possible speeds and movements, would solve the issue at hand and the jumping of the cursor when there is a hair or dust particle in the laser led or the mouse pad has some optical defects.
    Dutsj

    • Dae says:

      Well , the mouse is not making any of those fast movements and what you suggest would be a workaround. Use your mouse in Linux and Windows, the cursor would never jump regardless of the polling rate setting.

  40. Pingback: Possible fix for a jumpy gaming mouse on OSX | @ScottSwezey/Blog

  41. I have a Razer DeathAdder 1800dpi Mac edition, I was able to solve the problem with the number 1 solution, thanks, although is too bad not being able to use a 1000hz polling rate, I have it at 125/1800 dpi and it works “fine”

    Cheers,

  42. Jesper Walberg says:

    Used Mac’s for years now with the same mouse (Logitech G5 2nd ed.), used it on a MB pro, iMac 27″ and now my new Mac Pro.

    First time I have had the problem mentioned here and cannot seem to fix it with Steermouse.

    Did use Steermouse on all the other machines but cannot remember having the problem before installing Steermouse either (not that I left the machine without Steermouse for long).

    Not a developer so cannot leave a bug report but will send a query to support and bug them about this, no way I am gonna let me be forced to swap out a perfectly fine mouse that I’ve been using for years because of a bug like this!

    • Dae says:

      Try SteerMouse 3.9, it’s an old version with a workaround
      http://www.toastyx.net/SteerMouse3.9.dmg

      • Jesper Walberg says:

        I have tried using both 3.9 and 4.0.1 without any luck. Do I need to do something special with the steermouse app or just install it? Played around with settings some but not found anything related to this topic:-(

        • Dae says:

          Using both at the same time (if that’s you meant) obviously should not work. Uninstall the newer version, then install the older one.

          • Jesper Walberg says:

            No, I ment first trying 3.9 (resultet in screen flickering and static, then after a reset screen was OK but Steermouse did not work at all, no change when moving the sliders). Then I uninstalled and tried 4.0.1, steermouse worked but jumpiness still there.

            Any suggestions for a nice gamer-mouse that do work with OS X (either by bootcamping and downtuning to 125h or working fine by itself)?

          • Dae says:

            MX518 operates on 125Hz by default and most (if not all) Razer mouses allow that setting to be changed, so does Logitech G500 according to various reports here and on forums.

            I don’t like Razer, so I’d go with G500.

      • Karl C says:

        YES!!! Steermouse 3.9 on OS X 10.6.8 with my Logitech G5 finally works.

        Been dealing with a jumpy mouse for months now. Totally worth the $20 (considering I was in the market for a new mouse). My current setup is just fine, not sure I’ll make the jump to Lion. Anyway, thanks Dae and Steermouse for your help.

  43. Joe Jones says:

    At the suggestion of someone in the Apple forums, I pulled one of the MDP -> DVI adaptors I had for a secondary monitor.

    This stopped my jumping around issue.

    One thing to note is that when my issue started, it was happening on both my Logitech G5 and my Magic Mouse as well. It was not specific to one.

    Just adding some notes to this. Clearly, it is still a problem.

    • Grady Borders says:

      I’ve been having the jumping cursor problem with ANY mouse connected. I thought it was my Wacom drivers, but after uninstalling those I still had a problem. After disconnecting the DVI to my second monitor, every mouse is tracking smoothly. I haven’t tried reinstalling the Wacom tablet, but disconnecting the second monitor definitely helped.

      MacPro 4,1 (quad core)
      ATI 4870

  44. Rob says:

    Same problem with Microsoft Explorer Mini Mouse

    • HOVE says:

      I’m in the same boat with everyone using Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000.

      SO FRUSTRATING. Imagine dragging a file to an application, but you’re michael J fox.

  45. eric says:

    i posted earlier that i had been experiencing this issue with the Logitech Performance Mouse MX. I recently bought the steelseries xai and, while it isn’t nearly as bad as it with my previous mouse, there are still minor skipping issues

  46. Pingback: Skaczący kursor myszki w MacOSX

  47. Donnie says:

    Hey
    Got a deathadder here, and tried the fix for setting the polling rate to 125HZ

    only problem with that is when I make a quick movement, be it in CSS or on my desktop say dragging a window, the mouse seems to form some kind of infinity loop on the desktop
    or flick me ‘backwards’ in CSS… anyone else noticed this?

    • Dae says:

      “the mouse seems to form some kind of infinity loop on the desktop”
      This sounds like a problem a person above has had. Try to uninstall the Razer driver.

      • Donnie says:

        I have been battling with this issue for a while now and I’m inclined to leave it. I’ll use my high precision mouse with windows and the trackpad or something with my Mac…..

        Although I only bought the high precision mouse for gaming I have other options, but for you guys doing graphical editing etc, I feel sorry for you as what choice do you have?
        *update from last post*
        tried reinstalling my razor drivers and the ‘loop’ behaviour has disappeared which is nice :)
        still defeats the purpose of the mouse running it at 125hz though so I’ll still be upgrading/using my windows box.

        • Donnie says:

          Damn auto correct

          *razer

        • Dae says:

          There are lots of mouse related problems in OS X. After a year of research, I can assure you that people claiming that mouses feel better on OS X than Windows are either lying or fooling themselves.

          Stay tuned. I’m working on a fix. Those, who are not Mac zealots, are gonna love it.

          • Donnie says:

            I can assure you that people claiming that mouses feel better on OS X than Windows

            Such people exist…? :0

            I look forward to your fix. Keep us posted!
            Regards

          • Huski says:

            omg. fix?
            i’m impatient waiting. cause i hate my Sidewinder under X.

  48. Jerome says:

    Hi,

    You can add the Mionix Saiph 3200 to your long list -_-

    I bought it few weeks ago, cause I needed a higher resolution on my new iMac.
    I’m so disapointed. I work as a graphic designer and it’s quite hard to be accurate with this +@#!!! problem. At first, I thought it was due to a “prediction/snapping angle/drift control” system you can find on several gaming mouse…

    But it matches perfectly the behaviour on your video. I’m gonna try to set the poling rate to 125Hz on a friend’s PC. First time I’m so ashame to have a Mac with such a ridiculous and obvious issue (my first one was a LC630).

    Thanks a lot for this page anyway (I was about to buy another expensive and unefficient mouse).

    PS : what about the Razer Abyssus and Salmosa ? As people are able to switch directly on the mouse the frequency to 125Hz, they should run well, right ?

    • Dae says:

      I believe all Razer mouses have driver-changeable polling rate, although in most cases the feature is not present in Mac version of the driver. So yeah, Salmosa and Abyssus should be acceptable once you change their polling rate.

  49. Huski says:

    Dae,
    I have updated snowleo to 10.6.5, but nothing changes in mouse behavior.

  50. Ton Arends says:

    Another confirmation for jumping mouse (Logitech G500) in 10.6.5 :(.

  51. Jon Swanson says:

    My Logitech Performance MX is still skipping on 10.6.5, i7 iMac 27″.

    It only happens with an external monitor attached though.

    All is fine when solely using the iMac’s display. Which was the same behaviour i was seeing prior to 10.6.5

  52. Robert says:

    this issue was driving me crazy and couldnt believe that it didnt seem to be an issue with people. I spent a hundred dollars on a mouse solution thinking that i was just demanding too much from the ordinary mouse and required a precision mouse.

    MBZ105A logitech mouse has the issue
    razer naga has the issue
    basically every mouse and my wacom has the issue

    im going to continue reading this post to see if theres a good mouse with multiple buttons (at least ten) that will work. if you have any suggestions please post.

    • Dae says:

      Your issue seems different to the described above. I’ve worked with various Wacoms (pen, touch, mouse), none of them had any issues.

      It might be a hardware problem. If possible try other Macs to see if that’s the case.

  53. Dylan says:

    This blows… It also occurs with the Microsoft Mobile Mouse 4000.

  54. Tiago says:

    Hi….im getting my first apple this month and was thinking on getting a Razer Deathadder but i read this entire page and am worried about it and want to ask for your advice:

    1. Im not buying a mac to install Windows….is it possible to set the polling rate on OS X?
    2. If i set the polling rate to 125Hz….will i see any beneficts in comparison to a cheaper mouse…say…playing CSS?
    3. Would you buy one for mac?

    Thanks

    • Dae says:

      Hi, Tiago.
      1. Yes it is. But as I said above, I don’t recommend using DeathAdder Mac driver at all because it doesn’t seem well-coded to me. There is that fast-movement bug and besides, DeathAdder driver leaves a lot of garbage such as running processes after uninstallation. If I were you, I’d find a friend with Windows and fix your new DeathAdder once and for all. (Polling rate setting is saved inside the mouse).

      2. Yes, the optical sensor would still be superior.

      3. Having worked with many Razer mouses, I can say that I don’t like them. Don’t like the form (DeathAdder was designed for some sort of a claw rather than a human hand), don’t like that my Imperator started squeaking after using it for a week.

      Subjectively, I still find a cheap MX518 more controllable under OS X. While I have discovered the nature of other OS X mouse bugs (there’re many of them!), I can’t answer the question why does MX518 actually feel better, so that might be a matter of taste :-)

      Also… if I were you I wouldn’t play CS:S on OS X. Dual-boot for gaming is the best choice. If you want me to elaborate, just ask.

      • Tiago says:

        Thank you for your fast response. The logitech is indeed much less expensive but i read that you need a third-party software to get the extra buttons to work….seems all “super mouses” have issues with mac.

        As for the Deathadder i do have a laptop with Windows so setting it would be easy….is the new 3500dpi much better than the 1800dpi? the prices are similar….

        About playing CS:S: I’m buying a mac and all the apps i use work on OS:X (autocad & office) and i’m not really a player as i only play CS:S twice a month with friends so i dont see the point on installing Windows on it…. The reason i’m buying a gaming mouse is that i need to get one of any sort so why not get one that can play aswell?
        But im a complete newbie in OS X so if you dont mind telling me why you think i should play with bootcamp i would be very thankfull…

        • Dae says:

          Most mouses on the market are HID compatible, which means that they should be compatible with any HID compatible driver. Logitech mouses are no exception.

          (The only problem that could happen is that you won’t be able to redefine the + / – buttons which control sensivity or profiles, but normally it’s as well hard on Windows to change their function).

          If all you need is to bind Exposé to the additional buttons, you don’t want a 3rd party driver.

          If you need more complicated stuff, the best course of action would be to use SteerMouse or USB Overdrive. These are shareware 3rd party mouse drivers which provide a handful of customization options.

          As for the DPI, I don’t think the difference between 3500DPI and 1800DPI would be noticeable.

          I prefer to play on Windows because it provides much better mouse tracking, and games perform noticeably faster in it than in OS X.

          Plus it allows me to have separate settings for sound, so when I boot Windows I’m already all set for the headset :-)

          There are also minor issues with Valve games. For example, seeing they work in fake fullscreen mode they do not override mouse controls, so if your additional mouse buttons invoke Exposé in OS X, they will do the same even when you play CS:S.

          It is however possible to fix this problem (which is a fault of Valve, not Apple) in USB Overdrive by using application-specific mouse profiles.

          • Tiago says:

            Thanks Dae…i will only get my mac in 3weeks so ill think some more until that date…and in the meanwhile i will try to see some mouses in a store to “feel them” …whatever mouse i get ill be glad to join your alpha test.

            Cheers

  55. Ivan says:

    My problem occurs with both a Bluetooth Magic Mouse and a USB wireless Logitech mouse. There appears to be a “screen grid” of 4×4 inches square throughout the screen where the jump occurs.

    REGARDING THE SIMULTANEOUS USE OF MULTIPLE USB’s:
    It does not matter; just using the Logitech USB antenna by itself – and no other USB – will duplicate the problem.

    REGARDING THE USE OF A SECOND MONITOR WITH A DVI ADAPTER:
    Here lies the rub: my problem occurs ONLY if I turn the second monitor off; the mice will not jump when the second monitor is on.

    Just my .02 cents

  56. Joanna says:

    First let me say I am not a geek. Alot of what you mention above is way beyond my comprehension. That being said, I found your link to this discussion through Google. I have a Bluetooth Magic mouse and a MacBook Pro. 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. I have the jumpyness when I type in my email program (Entourage). It jumps, deletes, and sometimes menu’s open at will. I only play games on Facebook, but there using either the trackpad or the Magic Mouse, the mouse wanders, overshoots and seems to be possessed. My hubby who is geeky to a point is clueless. Since my Mac is about 4 yrs old, I was thinking the click pad was just overused, and not clicking properly. (I does seem soft for lack of a better word) …. but I just don’t know. I am no longer covered under Applecare, and am at a loss. Is this something I need to live with, or what? I’d apprecaite any help.

  57. Breathless says:

    There is also another way around this for those with a G5, and I presume this will help a lot of other people as well with different mouses…

    Go into windows, install Logitech SetPoint (or if you have another mouse with programmable DPI’s – use that software), and create a DPI profile that has 2000 (or more if your mouse allows it – the G5 max’s at 2000) as the max, and whatever you are comfortable with UNDER WINDOWS as the default setting (the middle setting). This will now be stored in the mouse.

    Go into OSX, and turn OSX’s mouse tracking ALL THE WAY TO NOTHING. Now just tap the button on the mouse that increases your dpi up (the 2000 setting). BOOM, not only is the tracking near perfect, but that jittery problem appears to be gone for me with my G5. The only problem is the mouse is just a LITTLE bit slower than I’d really like with my G5, but only a little bit, and only because 2000 is the highest setting. Don’t try to get fancy and increase the tracking one tick above the minimum setting, cuz then the problem comes back and tracking is crappy again.

    TRY IT!

  58. matTmin says:

    Hello all,

    it looks like the Logitech G700 suffers from the same issue. Only in slow movement (but that’s always crappy tracking).

    I really love Apple for their work but when they do something wrong, it really sucks.

  59. kerper says:

    i’ve just smashed my mouse onto the marble floor in rage thinking it was defective. (and had been for a while)

    …what douche lol

  60. Joakim says:

    Hello Dae!
    Thank you for this site. I’ve been stuck on this problem for to long. I was really surprised that it’s not an easy fix for this. I have a Logitech G9 that works like a charm in windows but is awful in osX. I have changed the poll rate to 125 hz in windows. It got better but its far from perfect. It still skips, lag and jumps. This forced me to use my wacom tablet with the wacom mouse and it works like a dream. The problem with this set up are two things.
    *The Intuos3 mouse are very poor quality. It lasts for about 3 months. The buttons get soft and doesn’t work at all or it thinks that I’m making a dubble click or even a trippel click. So it’s very expensive to replace these mouses all the time.
    *And the 2nd reason is that I don’t want to carry around the wacom board all the time.

    Maybe Apple hasn’t corrected this low poll rate because of the trackpad. Maybe the trackpad needs 125 hz or something to function with fingers. The reason that I think this is because the trackpad is so smooth in osx. I never tried a pc trackpad that works this good. It always feels a bit stiff.

    I work as an 3d artist and sometimes I just want to throw my Mac in the trash because of this mouse problem.

    And thank you again for this blog. Finally I know there are more people struggling with this. Every time I call apple-support about this problem they act like idiots and have never heard about it before. Really annoying. I guess Steve only uses the trackpad.

    Do you know if the intuos4 mouse is better quality and if it works with a wacom intous3 board?

    I would really like to be a testpilot of your fix.

    • Dae says:

      Thank you for the information.

      Further research shows that the problem does not correlate with the trackpad. Apple made a kind of a newbie mistake in the code which causes the cursor to jump. I will post the details when the fix arrives.

      To be a testpilot, please send me an e-mail (if you haven’t yet).

  61. steve says:

    Having same problem. It does not happen after startup only after waking. I saw someone removed all Wacom prefs and had success. I removed everything Wacom and now MM is back to norm. This is nuts.

  62. LJ says:

    I have emailed Steve Jobs several times about these issues. Apple is always very polite but I am not sure that Apple understands that this is a problem for many users.

    I would encourage everyone to email Steve Jobs and mention the following in your own words:

    – OSX has a problem with the polling rates used by high resolution mice and gaming mice.

    – OSX needs a setting to the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane to enable the user to configure the acceleration curve as well as the mouse speed. (Hash marks could be placed on the curve settings marking the default placements if you wish to move back to the defaults.)

    Why? When I’m moving the mouse fast, it’s as fast as normal. When I’m moving the mouse slow, it’s terribly slow. I would like to speed up how fast the cursor goes at slower movements. I am always having to pick up the mouse and recenter it because I am unable to move the full vertical range of the screen with wrist movement only.

    – We would like these issues fixed before 10.7 is released.

  63. Breathless says:

    You guys should really try what I posted above. It works on my Razor mouse as well as my G5. Virtually perfect. The only annoyance is having to click your mouse button to the highest DPI setting when OSX boots up.

  64. ads says:

    When I re-connect my Razer Mamba or wake it up from being AFK for awhile the cursor takes a few hours to move, also when i change the polling rate. It’s extremely frustrating…

  65. braindeath says:

    please add Razer Orochi (USB) to the list.

    switching the pooling rate to 125hz does NOT resolve the problem. it just gets slightly better and appears less frequent. nevertheless unusable :(

    only if i switch to bluetooth mode the problem is gone. but this is quite logical because its a USB related issue. unfortunately I do not want to use it in BT mode because the 2 AA batteries make the mouse heavier and uncomfortable.

    i will give the mouse back to the dealer, because i can not live with that faulty behavior. bad luck, because while is was using windows i really loved razer mice. both good ergonomics, design, functionally and performance. regarding mouse related problems (this and the acceleration thing) i fucking HATE apple/macos >:(

    • Dae says:

      We’ve already solved the above problem in the first experimental build of our forthcoming fix. Stay tuned, wait for the release.

      In the past Windows went through a chain of somewhat similar mouse problems. They have been fixed only by Windows 7.

      But with the fix we’re working on, the user most likely will have more control over cursor movement than in Windows with any 3rd party driver. On top of that we will listen to users — that is something that the developers of both OSes barely do.

      • braindeath says:

        in this case i will not return the mouse until you release it. i really, REALLY hope it is going to work. i really like the orochi, no competition in this segment :(

      • manfromearth says:

        thats nice to hear :) do u havy any thoughts when will fix be available, is that fixes my mouse problems ill be happy do make a small donation , will it work on all mice? on razer? on logitech? hope its soon >.<

        • Dae says:

          It will definitely work with most Razer and Logitech mice. I personally have about 12 various mice of those producers just for testing purposes :)

          I don’t know when. It is a totally new sphere for us while the Mac developer community does not seem friendly.

          • manfromearth says:

            ah good, i have couple logitech and razer mice :)) ah why ppl thnk osx/win is superb, they all are bad/good in some things…mac comunity say NO TO BAD APPLE MOUSE DRIVERS !! i want windows precision of mouse without skipping in snow leopard !! hope coming fix fixes this damn thing x] gl sir !

  66. deuch says:

    Same problem with a Razer Mamba, Razer DeathAdder (less obvious) and a Logitech MX1000.

    I’ve got weird movements … And something worst, i’m unable to draw a perfect circle ! It’s more like a better dodecagon ! Did you try ?

  67. Rado Laucik says:

    Hi,

    I encountered same problem with Razer Abyssus. I changed the polling rate to 125hz and, as mentioned many times before, it slightly helped, but the cursor behavior is still annoying.

    I am webdesigner and webdeveloper who switched to Mac according to references from colleagues, but this problem is nearly the only thing which forces me to switch back to PC/Win. I was used to be pixel-perfect precise in application such as Photoshop or Flash but on Mac it’s impossible. Also this slows down my workflow and productivity goes down as I repeatedly try to select precise region in photoshop or click small frame icon in flash.

    Also I’ve noticed another bug which seems to be connected with this but it’s not mentioned here: Sometimes, when the cursor is placed correctly (e.g. on close window button) if I click, nothing happens. I have to move the cursor outside the button, back and click and then it works. Weird, but might be the same origin.

  68. manfromearth says:

    hi,
    i have same problems with deathadder 3500 and logitech G5, actually i have gackintosh, but its all working exept mouse.
    And funny thing is, when i disable QE/CI in boot.plist with GraphicsEnabler=No, i have mouse 100% working like on windows, wth is that ?!?!

  69. Charlie says:

    Razer Mamba here. Same problem.

    Also, the Acceleration setting seems to make absolutely no difference to me. I can’t get rid of the horrible mac acceleration curve. I may have to set mouse to 125, uninstall mamba driver and reinstall steermouse. Which basically puts me right back where I was but with a nicer looking mouse. Brilliant.

    Anyone even know how to uninstall mamba mouse driver?

    • deuch says:

      In application –> Tools –> Uninstall Mamba Drivers.

      But Steermouse have issues for me with my Mamba. I’ve got less trouble with USBOverdrive for now

      • Charlie says:

        Well, I removed steermouse fully and reinstalled mamba drivers and now its behaving better. Still have jitters but at least the acceleration curve is sorted. However, as soon as i move to wireless the acceleration curve goes whack again, and of course you cant configure from wireless. Anyone else experiencing that?

        I could live with a bit of jitter, but it seems dumb that my settings go away when i move to wireless….

  70. deuch says:

    Did you try USBOverdrive ?

  71. steve says:

    I see 10.6.6 did not fix anything. Maybe they are to busy being the tech company of the century.

  72. Francois says:

    I can confirm this “bug” with the Logitech G7, Logitech MX Revolution and the Razer Deathadder. I have a Cyborg R.A.T. 7 on the way, not expecting it to work properly either.

    One of the few user upgradeable parts of most Macs are the peripherals. Apple’s support for HID compliant mice, keyboards, gamepads and joysticks is severely lacking.

    Thanks for working on a fix, Dae. Looking forward to it! Any sort of ETA as to when we can download it?

  73. nkx says:

    Same problem with SteelSeries Ikari Laser

  74. Paul says:

    I experience this problem too on my Logitech M100 and B100 optical mice.

    I thought it was because they have relatively low DPI (1000 and 800 respectively), or my lolcat mousepad doesn’t work well with optical mice. After all my old V120 did alright on it, although on hindsight I recall it wasn’t totally accurate either.

    Then just when I was about to buy a magic mouse the next day, I somehow felt like booting into Windows XP for a change. Turns out they work just fine there, no skipping or jumping issues.

  75. Paul says:

    Dae, thanks very much for this info. I am owner of several Razer mice (Pro Click, DeathAdder, Mamba) and can confirm the problem of occasional jerky mouse cursor movements under Mac OS X.
    B.t.w. I found the best way to see whether or not your mouse cursor moves smoothly is playing a mine sweeper game. If you have difficulties and click on the wrong tiles a significant number of times it is because of the jerky mouse cursor bug.
    I can only hope this will be fixed as soon as possible. It really is a shame!

  76. Paul (2) says:

    Ups, I did not see there was another Paul who already posted on Jan 25th. So the post on Jan 30th is by Paul #2. ;)

  77. Irrabagon says:

    Logitech g500.
    Yep, it jumps :(

  78. Gib says:

    Dae, when will you release this fix ?

  79. q says:

    i just noticed this problem a month ago. my imac is 3 years old and ive not had a problem before. im having the problem using a wired mighty mouse, which i never had a problem b4 with. i had it replaced and the “new” mm does the same thing. im just mentioning it because the mighty mouse wasnt mentioned in your list. strange that it did not do this problem with the former 2 mighty mice i had.

  80. Max Bouda says:

    Omg Dae, You are a true hero.

    Confirmed that this works with razer mamba wireless/wired at 125hz

  81. Михалков says:

    Анна-Ванна, наш отряд хочет видеть порося… ой, то есть фикс!

  82. Ryan D. says:

    You posted:
    12) The problem is very likely to be related to USB polling rate setting of the mouse. Mouses with 125 Hz polling rate don’t experience problems with Mac OS X (for example, Logitech MX518…

    But i have an MX518 and my mouse stutters. :-(

  83. alphaspirit says:

    I have imac with os x snow leopard 10.6.6

    I bought a Razer DeathAdder 3500 to replace the magic mouse. I setted it to 125hz polling rate. I disable mouse acceleration. I tried it with ControllerMate and steerMouse.
    Today i had installed the cooler master Sentinel advance cmstorm and i noticed that drawing on photoshop diagonal line i have no skips (with razer i had always the skip problem).
    The Cooler Master perform much much better with my iMac with 125hz.

    thank you for this blog mush helpfull.

  84. I am using an wireless Apple Magic Mouse on Mac OS X 10.6.6 (Macbook Pro)
    But other ‘usb’-mouses have the same problem. The cursor is jumping.

    Especially when i am using HOB-software for a secure logon to remote servers (Remote desktop VPN connection) via windows 7 in a virtual machine of Parallels Desktop, then the the problem is really huge. The mouse can jump full inches away from where i am pointing it.

    I hope someone or apple does have solution for it.

  85. Cory says:

    You have the sidewinder X8 listed, and I can confirm the Microsoft Sidewinder X5 also has the problem.

    A year since this was posted… Apple is slower than any other OS manuf. when it comes to fixing bugs…

  86. Floris says:

    For the past year I had been having this issue with my Razer Mamba.
    After reading this article, I’ve installed the mac mamba driver, set sensitivity to 1200 and polling rate to 125 and all is well.

    Thanks a lot!

  87. Artvarg says:

    hey there,
    realy apreciate this blog. got a logitech g5 and replaced it with a deathadder, because i thought it was due to logitech not supporting mac drivers for the g5.
    With my dathadder I have that fast move loop bug someone above already posted. problem is: if set the polling below 1800 the mouse gets stuck when I make fast moves, but if the polling is above 125mhz it skipps like hell. I’m, by the way, only able to use deathadder drivers 2.02, 3.00 gives me some unspecific error during installation. usboverdrive didn’t change the behavior either.
    I know mac is not a good choice for games, but I realy hate to bootcamp for a short round of starcraft 2, just because of some stupid mouse bugs.
    any suggestions or news regarding your fix.
    keep up the good work.

    Artvarg

  88. manfromearth says:

    hey Dae, have one question, i heared that in this new Lion developer preview the mouse problems are gone ,can someone confirm this?:D

  89. cole25 says:

    hi guys,

    please try on this fix. It seems really helpful and it’s free. I’ll try it tomorrow on my mac.
    http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=194668

    • Dae says:

      This seems to work the same way as acceleration pref pane, MouseZoom, this and many other fixes that have been available for years. Basically they give you an ability to set the Mouse Sensivity to values that are not available by dragging the slider in System Preferences. AFAIK the same thing can be achieved with a command from Terminal.

      This particular program seems to operate as a daemon, so I guess it applies the setting every X seconds or when some application launches.

      However it’s not a fix, just something that makes a little easier to use the mouse on OS X. It does not solve the underlying problems. To do it, programmers need to create a kernel extension and that is quite a task.

      • Robert Randolph says:

        Hey there. Im the author of this software, and it does not work like the above mentioned programs. It uses an OGL hook to control mouse in games and a routine to remap mouse movements. The daemon is there to deal with how certain games gain and exercise mouse movement control.

        However, it does not (and can not) fix the polling rate problem :(

  90. Diogo Almeida says:

    Hi, i have the exact same problem as you guys, my mouse is a ROCAT KOVA, not listed, so i think you should add that one too.

  91. Nvln says:

    Same problem here with Logitech G5, except that SteerMouse does not work for me.

    Submitted a bug report to Apple – the number is 9137991

  92. Jesse says:

    I have the same issue with a MS wireless mobile mouse 4000. In OSX it is jumpy all the time. In Windows it works fine UNTIL I start working on a 3D drawing in autocad (2D drawings are no problem) or in 3D games. It seems to be an issue for Windows only when the 3D chip is running.

  93. Thomas says:

    I just started experiencing my mouse curor jump when Im in Windows Vista under Bootcamp. I have a 2.4ghz MacBookPro running Snow Leopard 10.6.6. Doesnt happen under Snow Leopard, but shows up when in Vista.

    This problem didnt exist before until I just recently had to reinstall Vista because I was forced to by MicroSoft Genuine checker said my hardware changed (on a laptop?).

  94. Thomas says:

    Forgot to say, Im only using the MBpro’s track pad, no external mouse

  95. Thomas says:

    … and that the Apple driver for the trackpad shown under Vista is the most updated, which was dated 2009. Cursor just jumped as I was typing this. Im in a MS Explorer in Vista under Bootcamp.

  96. Thomas says:

    In researching this issue, Ive read that some attribute this problem to swelling batteries under the trackpad, and others solve it by resetting the PRAM
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379 (apply at your own risk)

    Being my battery is new (1 month old OEM from Apple store), I doubt my issue is a battery. Also, it just started happening soon after the Vista reinstall. I may try the PRAM method.

  97. Dae says:

    To everyone. Unofficial fix is on the way. Stay tuned.

    • cooler says:

      nice to hear that :)

      when can we expect it? 6 hours ago u said its coming :)

      • Dae says:

        Oh god. Sorry. All I wanted to say is there is hope, day light in the end — don’t throw your Mac out of window etc.

        The first private beta is scheduled for April. Anyone can sign up for testing by mailing me at dae.smp@gmail.com with the following information about your setup:

        1. Type and age of your Mac.
        2. The version of Mac OS X.
        3. The model name of your mouse.

        • pr0ton says:

          Sent an email, almost sounds to be good to be true: higher polling rates in Mac OS X :O.

  98. Valentino Crosato Junior says:

    Same problem here. With 10.6, cmon Apple!!

  99. Joseph says:

    I experienced this for the first time today on the newest 2011 Mac Book Pro. I have the 17″ with a Performance MX via Unifying receiver. I can confirm I did not experience this before on my old 15″ 2006 MBP using the same mouse and often using an external monitor via DVI, neither running Windows via BootCamp or in OS X.

    I also did not experience this the first week I had the new 17″ MBP, it only started when I hooked up a bluetooth keyboard and an external monitor via a mini display port to DVI converter. At that point, I was fairly certain my choppy mouse behavior was caused by one of those. I slowly worked backwards to isolate the cause and after a few hours of testing at each phase, conclude the external monitor (and not the BT keyboard, which is what I thought was doing it) is the cause.

    While this result might disagree with the above about external monitors not being the cause, it is the case for me and points to multiple potential causes. I really wish Logitech would code better drivers for OS X. That and not being able to use uberOptions in OS X just about makes me want to stop using Apple laptops, but there are pros that balance out that con.

    Maybe that helps Logitech or someone else…

  100. jake says:

    A few things to report, and hopefully get some help with.

    MBP running 10.6.7

    newly bought Razer Orochi, plugged it in via USB, and first thing to pop up is a
    “Unidentified keyboard” msg that pops up even before the user login screen. Kind of odd.

    Upon installing the associated Razer driver, I found that my Dock didn’t function the same anyone.

    Elaboration:
    Hovering over the bottom edge doesn’t pop up the dock,
    instead I must click on the bottom edge of the screen
    magnification/scrolling animations are frozen (ie not present)

    Another issue is selecting drop down lists. It’s hard to explain, but the behavior of the entire GUI seems a little off after I installed the driver. Is it just me?

    As far as mice behavior, the orochi driver let me change polling rates etc but the mouse still seems to not follow consistent behavior. I tried the stuff up above, doesn’t help much. Esp with my Dock issue.

    • Dae says:

      >Kind of odd.
      Nope, it’s fine. It happens with all mouses which have many buttons. Moreover even Windows thinks all those mouses are keyboards too. I don’t know why — I’ll certainly check it.

      >Upon installing the associated Razer driver,
      I wouldn’t recommend using Razer driver on OS X because it’s known for its problems. Besides you don’t really need it. Once you set the polling rate, uninstall it.

  101. XRumerTest says:

    Hello. And Bye.

  102. TechCF says:

    Thanks for the information about the software that does not fix this issue. Saved me money. I myself are having trouble with a Cyborg R.A.T. 7. I have applied to be a Mac beta tester and are hoping to see improvement with drivers from the manufacturer.

    http://www.cyborggaming.com/beta.asp

  103. Joyce says:

    Hi, I have a logitech vx nano mouse. It also has sticky problem on my mac os when plugged in my external monitor (Acer x233H). I’m sure of this is because when I unplugged the monitor, the mouse works fine. Also when switched to bootcamp, the mouse works fine too. I have tried a wire laser mouse, it also has this sticky problem. I can’t seem to click precisely. I tried Steermouse, it made the mouses less sticky, but still bothers me. Some people recommend to use DVI cable, I’m reluctant to try it because they said it affects the screen sharpness, and the cable is not cheap.

  104. Alex says:

    I have the steelseries ikari optical and the microsoft sidewinder X3. i can get a logitech mx518 from a friend but i doubt it will be any different. All of the mice i use have the same issue.

    I would describe my issues as nothing wrong with going vertical and horizontal, but if you move as slowly as possible at an angle with any mouse designed for gaming, then the problem occurs where the mouse will follow that diagonal path, although occasionally moving back, left, or right, but eventually it continues on the original path that I was going. These jumps are always about a millimeter to the right and left, nothing too huge, but occasionally around 3 millimeters on my screen.

  105. Christopher says:

    This may not be directly related to what’s being experienced on this page, but I have been suffering a similar issue for months with my Logitech mouse. I pulled up the Unifying Software program just now and it was showing the device status as flipping between active and inactive all the time. I knew it was a connection problem because sometimes I couldn’t even click the mouse. It also said on Logitech’s web site that if you have the mouse on a metal surface you will have connection problems, which got me thinking that maybe the aluminum in my iMac is causing interference with the tiny little receiver. So I looked in the little bag of goodies that came with my mouse and there was a USB extension cable made especially for the receiver. When I hooked it up, lo and behold the mouse stayed connected for more than a few seconds. Now it’s moving nice and smooth like a mouse pointer should. Hopefully this will solve someone’s wireless mouse nightmares!

  106. John says:

    I have a G5 which I love and of course suffers. I would be willing to get a new mouse – so my question is – what mouse (similar to the G5) does not suffer or do ALL mice suffer from this?

    • Dae says:

      Strictly speaking all mouses under OS X suffer from this problem, but cursor jumps much less for mouses with lower polling/refresh rate (not to be confused with DPI).

      MX518 is a predessor of G5 and it works with lower polling rate.

      G500 is successor of G5 and you can lower its polling rate in Logitech driver under Windows to use it with Mac OS X.

  107. John says:

    Thanks Dae. I just got a Rozor DeathAdder. I installed the software in Windows and changed the polling. Seems better in OSX but moves erratically – moves too much. I adjusted the speed in System Settings under Mouse but it is very erratic – in other words moving it one notch in the speed makes huge difference. Is that also changed in the Windows driver prior to going into OSX?

    BTW, I emailed you but I have not rec’d the fix – I would love to try it.

    Thanks,

    John

    • Dae says:

      John,
      our solution is not out yet. I received your email and I will notify you when the public beta version is ready.

      • john says:

        Thank you – sorry – I thought it was out but did not receive my email… I will wait patiently. Any idea roughly when? Weeks, months…. sorry – just anxious to try it. Will your fix allow us to use higher polling rate than 125 making full use of a gaming mouse?

        • Dae says:

          Yes indeed! I have tested the fix on various mouses with the polling rates of 125, 500 and 1000Hz.

          Our fix blatantly takes control over mouse movement in OS X, i.e. it takes raw data from the device, parses it on its own, calculates mouse movement and moves the cursor.

          As a result, there is no jumping and a user is given full control over cursor acceleration. Such thing hasn’t been done before. All other 3rd party solutions such as SteerMouse and USB Overdrive try to play nice with the default driver, while we just ignore it. It’s a hard path, but well worth it.

          I’m not sure about the release date. I’d like to say that I fully understand people who struggle to use mouse on OS X because I myself have lived like that for two fucking years, resulting in pain in wrist and constant demotivation. We’re doing our best and I’m really looking forward to that day which I hope will happen before June (and that will be the first beta, with its bugs and problems).

          Currently our biggest challenge is to make it work with totally different mouses without having to alter the code. On top of that we encounter Apple’s bugs just everywhere (including cursor movement subroutines, can you imagine!) and that also slows down the development.

          • manfromearth says:

            i want to try fix too, i sent u a mail a couple weeks ago, hope fix is here in time for Lion ;]

  108. Guy says:

    Apparently it’s been fixed in Lion DP2+. My SideWinder X5 works as intended, no skip.
    P.S.: I’m on a Hackintosh.

    See: http://i.imgur.com/cE0Mm.png

    • Dae says:

      I can confirm this. Tested with Razer Imperator.

      • w:O:Ot says:

        :O

        so mouse works 100% the same as on windows 7? on 500Hz pooling rate? without any problems with skipping or acceleration curve? uh i would like that !! >.< if thats true, cant w8 for Lion !

        • Dae says:

          I did not notice any skipping but it is not related to acceleration curve. Subjectively the acceleration curve in Lion is less steep.

          Besides there is still this bug.

      • pr0ton says:

        That’s BIG news, will there still be interest in making a fix for older versions of Mac OS X?

        • Dae says:

          Yes, we’ll release the solution for Snow Leopard and might as well consider Lion if there are other problems.

  109. Joey says:

    I’m running Windows 7 and I have the same problem with my G9 mouse, my cursor jumps around and it’s become a real nuisance. It seems that no one else is having a problem with jumping cursors on Windows and only on Macs. if anyone out there is having trouble with their logitech mice and have a fix for windows users that’d be cool. I also run Linux Mint and it also has the same problem, I looked at my mouse thoroughly and there’s nothing obscuring the lens. in the end my mouse acts just like the cursor does in the video provided above.

  110. Cronock says:

    I can also confirm that 10.7 seems to seriously improve or completely resolve the erratic behavior of both my logitech g9 and razer imperator. 10.7 had no 3rd party drivers installed.

    • Cronock says:

      Needless to say, thanks to this site I think Apple finally got around to fixing it.

  111. sintacks says:

    Logitech G9x has the bug. I’m now a reluctant tablet user, but it’s a patch.

    Any specific details on 10.7 Lion mouse drivers? What did they do? In any case I’m hoping that development of your driver continue!

  112. pedant says:

    Thanks for making the fix!

    BTW, in English, the plural of “mouse” is “mice,” not “mouses.” (Like the plural of “goose” is “geese.”)

    Just thought you’d like to know for the future.

    • Dae says:

      When I had written this post and many comments for it I’d used “mice” everywhere, but then I saw a rule saying that it should be “mouses” in relation to computer mouses — so I edited it out.

      Now I’m thinking the rule was wrong. :-)

  113. John says:

    what about using Lion kexts on 10.6.7?
    anyone tried 10.6.8 beta?

  114. Tom says:

    I love to be a tester for the fix! I can’t stand the issue. I have a Logitech G5 version 2. Great work! Thanks.

  115. Hi dude, what a cool subject !
    I bought a mac book pro for creating my company, using unity ios to develop iphone games…
    Since i use it, i find my mouse tracking horrible, it is a razer Krait, i love accuracy and it drives me crazy,
    i would be glad to be a beta tester of your solution, if it doesn’t have risks for my mac :)
    I also tried with a razer diamondback and a razer lachesis (don’t buy lachesis version 1, sensor problems….), same results.

    Sorry if my english may be inaccurate, i am french :D

  116. DoC says:

    Hi Dae

    I want to try the fix when you have it ready. I’ve used a Microsoft Explorer Intellimouse Optical and a Microsoft Habu Mouse – both have had this very irritating behaviour – also an old Logitech that was dubbed a gaming mouse – but I can’t remember it’s name. The reason I bought both the Explorer and the Habu was because I wanted a high DPI mouse to use for gaming – but at times, especially with the Habu I’ve found my avatar standing on it’s head due to the erratic behaviour! I bought a cheap Chinese version of the X5 – LX805 by L.Selectron I think they’re called, and I get no sign of this problem even though it has switchable DPI of 600, 800, 1200, and 2400. I really want to get one of the X5 Sidewinders and will do so when I get a copy of your fix.

  117. DoC says:

    Ok, puzzle this one.

    I’ve just bought the original Microsoft Gaming Mouse 2000 – the predecessor to the X5 – already prepared for the above described jittery cursor. Well, it just isn’t being displayed. The mouse is rock solid in all 3 DPI settings in standard OSX usage and playing Q3 and Nexuiz – the games I previously had problems playing using a Microsoft gamin type mouse! I have the very latest version of Snow Leopard installed 10.6.7 and the Microsoft Intellimouse version 8.5.1.

  118. Andy says:

    hey dae, i’m wondering if you have released the unofficial fix yet? and is the mouse acceleration problem fixed in os x lion? if so, would a mouse like the logitech g9x be fully compatible?

    thanks!

  119. Almo says:

    Just did the 125 Hz fix with Death Adder 3.5G, and it’s working great now. Thanks!

  120. Vellion says:

    For logitech mice, I find that it happens when you’re downloading anything then it becomes choppy. I’m currently on 10.6 snow leopard.
    While downloading it is very choppy, the higher the rate the choppier it becomes.

    I have a logitech G7 gaming mouse, and it works great on windows 7 while downloading at high rates.
    Track pad works fine when the G7 mouse is super choppy (mac).

    Steermouse is not the option for this, because it still doesn’t fix the choppiness.

  121. Victor says:

    Any updates on the release date for your fix? I just bought a Razer Imperator for my iMac hoping that it would correct this issue (MagicMouse before) and still skips and feels unnatural compared to Windows :S … please add me to your notification list, im highly interested!

  122. Aske says:

    I had similar symptoms as you describe here, but found my problem was something different.

    Im using an ATI radeon hd 5770 on a 2008 Mac Pro. I have 2 apple cinema displays connected in the minidisplayports and an older monitor in the DVI.

    Fix:
    It seems some bug with the videocard is causing the mouse jumping, cause the moment i disconnected the third older monitor, the mouse worked like a charm.

    Havent been able to find consistent information about this, or something that will let you have all 3 monitors connected at the same time without the mousing jumping all over, but hope this might help someone else out there :-).

  123. Di says:

    Just found this, hopefully it will solve the problem. ! Btw I can’t find any drivers for my mouse. Razer pro/click mobile. 10.6.8 . The mouse actually seemed to work better with 10.6.7

  124. Erik says:

    Any news about this bug?
    I have a DeathAdder and I set the polling rate to 125hz but it’s still bugging the f*ck out… works perfectly on Windows.

    Damnit, I can’t for the life of me understand why Apple won’t fix this issue. It affects thousands and thousands of people.

  125. Gokhan says:

    Have a logitech m505 mouse.. steermouse did not help. the bug I filed is closed as duplicate.. apple engineers are “investigating” as they did in past 5+ years.

    this is not a hardware bug right, anyone tried installing windows 7 and checked if mouse is working properly?

  126. Bruno Vieira says:

    Right now I own a Razer Mamba and have the same issue on a Macbook White 2.4ghz, 4gb, ram 500gb, 7200rom hd….
    I’ll try the fix above on my gf pc to set the pooling rate to 125hz and post the results here later.

  127. Bruno Vieira says:

    Tried the fix above as said, also updated the mouse firmware to the most recent one… indeed things are better now!! I’ll wait and see if it keeps that way!! =D Tnx all!!

  128. g alexander says:

    mbp 13″, logitech trackball
    didn’t happen until i updated the system 10.6.8
    now it’s flakey the cursor will freak out and jump around for a while then it’s ok for a while

    win 7 x64, no problems

  129. joan says:

    Another one for the list: I use a rapid-fire R.A.T. 3 mouse (with custom driver so I can use the additional buttons) and I experience the same problem. :/

    It only started a couple of months ago, so it could be related to an update. (OS X 10.6.8).

  130. mike says:

    any idea how to use the 10.7 mouse/usb kext under 10.6.8 ?

  131. synkronized says:

    I’m so glad I’m not hallucinating when it comes to this issue. I’m a painter (canvas and digital) and hardcore gamer so I’d regard myself as more attuned to these sorts of details.

    I use both a Dell tower and a Macbook Pro with one of those Logitech mx500 gaming mice. With the laptop there was always this odd loss of fidelity when using the mouse and it drove me nuts. Apple products rock but man does this glitch drive me batty. Nothing’s more aggravating than trying to do some odd detail work in Photoshop or microing in SC2 and seeing it go awry.

  132. francois says:

    Hello
    How does Lion fixed this issue ?
    With a acceleration curve personal setting like past osx version ?

    Best regards
    Francois

    • Dae says:

      Hi Francois,

      I’m afraid Lion is no different from Snow Leopard or Leopard when it comes to all other mouse stuff.

      I’m planning to publish a small report in the beginning of the next week. I hope to draw attention of people to other mouse problems.

      • Oh noooo !!!!!!!
        Oh please, i will HAVE TO BUY a magic mouse…
        Oh my ! Oh no i can’t i hate apple i was sooooooooo hoping for Lion to completely fix this problem.
        Damn ! I am a Win7 user developping on Mac for iphone games but i so hate it !
        Damn !

      • francois says:

        Thanks for you reply.

        So no chances to have a magic mouse works properly…
        I’m afraid to have to buy a microsoft mouse with intellipoint driver.

        I’ll wait for your report anyway.

        • Dae says:

          For what I know, IntelliPoint is nothing special because it relies on standard APIs of Mac OS X.

          Look at what it says here:
          http://bit.ly/qwoPzX

          “Wider range of speeds”

          The same effect can be achieved with Christian Zuckschwerdt’s preference pane and other similar solutions (most notable of which is MouseZoom).

          I — too — read many of those praising blog posts about IntelliPoint and Microsoft mouses, I even bought one just to find out that it all smells like self-persuasion of those authors.

  133. fdsffdsfsdfds says:

    is it your fault they changed the mouse acceleration is Lion then?

    Because I honestly can’t stand it now, it’s garbage and gets flung across 2 screens at the slightest jump.

  134. DoC says:

    Well, I thought my days of having to put up with this very irritating behaviour was over, and it was when I bought the Microsoft Sidewinder original. All was grace and precision. Then slowly, a little at a time, that inconsistency of movement crept back and now it’s as bad a ever! Now I find I’m really having to concentrate on using the mouse for small corrections in movement just to get it to position correctly over buttons, links etc. I can sometimes stop the behaviour temporarily by unplugging the USB lead and plugging it into another port on the laptop – but it always comes back.

    Like others I was hoping that Lion might correct it, but after reading what’s been posted I don’t see any reason to upgrade yet. Apple really need to get this polling issue sorted rather than trying to get users to spend more money on upgrades and iPads etc!

    I’m another user desperately waiting for this fix you are working on

    DoC

    • Dae says:

      Hi DoC,
      as far as I know Apple has fixed the polling rate or jumping cursor problem in Lion. There are several other mouse problems that still need to be fixed.

  135. jan hansen says:

    Just found your blog,…
    I’ve been quite happy with my Logitech S530 set (keyboard and mouse) and my Macbook Pro and Eizo ColorEdge screen,..nothing wrong until I installed LION.
    Photoshop is quite a big problem now,… if I want to adjust/sliders in a window, every time I e.g. move a slider to a number, it will jump backwards or forward,…its almost impossible to adjust anything.
    I know the mouse and keyboard are in no way new,..dont know if that would be the problem.
    I got no problem, when using the wacom Intuos pen/digitizer..

    • Dae says:

      Hi Jan,
      does the problem occur when using only MacBook Pro’s own display, with Eizo disconnected?

      Do you use Logitech Control Center or any 3rd party driver?

      Can you try other mouses?

      • jan hansen says:

        Hi Dae,..

        Thanks for getting back to me,…

        Yesterday I tried the newest Logitech control center,..that didnt help at all, actually lost some functionality.

        The weird thing is, that Photoshop and its sliders etc worked fine under Leopard and Snow Leopard, both with and without Eizo screen attached,…my own best guess is, that its gotta be a Lion problem?

        Also, the mouse tends to “hang”,..not being able to move eg a file into a folder,..it will drop off, not hold onto it.
        That suggests, to me, that I might want to look for another mouse-keyboard too, just dont know which one?

        • jan hansen says:

          Just tried with another Logitech mouse,..still same issue: If I try to adjust a slider in Photoshop,… try setting it to eg zero (0), it’ll jump to -1, if I set slider to +1, it will jump to zero.

          None of these things happened before the upgrade to Lion.

  136. Sally Thomas says:

    So glad to find your website. I’ve have an iMac for about two years, and the original mouse jerked all around the screen almost from the beginning. I tried to get help on the Apple site, to no avail. Finally, a month ago, I just carried the piece of junk down to the store and waited in line and then asked them to replace it. They acted like it must have been my fault, and like they had never heard of such a problem. But I am grey-haired and refused to move, and they finally traded out for a new keyboard and mouse. It does the same thing. I tried to figure out how to set the polling rate to 125, but couldn’t find a way to do it. My Mac is OS X 10.5.8 — any suggestions? Thanks for any help you can give.

    • Dae says:

      Hi Sally,
      Mighty Mouse reports the polling rate of ~125Hz, so it shouldn’t have this jumping problem at least as bad as it is in the video above, and most likely you’re facing something different.

      Two thoughts:

      — Mighty Mouse has a cheap, low resolution sensor which makes it more susceptible to the type of surface beneath it. Try a different mousepad if you haven’t yet.

      — Have you noticed any momentary but repeating ‘hangs’ of applications in the background while your cursor acts strange? E.g. a video player skipping frames of a video.

  137. Sally Thomas says:

    Thanks for your quick reply, Dae. I checked and found that my mouse is indeed called a Mighty Mouse, so I guess it’s already set. I have so far tried it with three different pads and also just plain on the pressed-wood surface, but I can’t really tell any difference.

    Also, I have not noticed any “hangs” in the background, but I will be especially on the lookout for that. Would that be an indication of something that might be fixable?

    Anyway, it sounds like maybe I’m stuck. If there’s nothing to do, would it help if I just go out and buy another mouse and keyboard by a different maker?

    • Dae says:

      Can you describe the problem once again, in detail? What happens exactly, what do you feel?

      And yes, indeed it’s a good idea to try other mouses. (But why do you want to as well replace the keyboard?)

      I also know that there are two variations of Mighty Mouse — the stock one, which you can buy in Apple Store, and one which was included with all new Mac computers. The stock Mighty Mouse has a better sensor.

      (It’s easy to tell which is which by length of a wire. If the wire is very short, then it’s the latter).

      Would that be an indication of something that might be fixable?

      It’d indicate that the problem is likely, but not necessarily related to hardware.

  138. Benjamin says:

    Yeah I just bought a mac mini today for iOS dev, and I am experiencing this problem with my Logitech MX Revolution (older model). I’mm connected through a KVM switch, and when I switch to my Win 7 PC it’s super smooth, but it’s jumpy on the Lion computer… getting frustrating. Going to try steermouse I guess…

  139. David says:

    So, I’ve been having these issues with my Razer Naga and SL. Been driving me nuts since some movements left to right or up to down just doesn’t happen sometimes. And then a second later there is no issues with the mouse.

    Tried setting the polling down to 125 and I’ve even upgraded to Lion. Still mouse gets its own life now and then. Can’t really use it at this state. It just freezes up in some direction. When this happens one direction will work perfectly the other is just frozen for a couple of seconds.

    Its actually not just this mouse, had some issues with Logitech MX laser mouse before this one :(

  140. Bogey says:

    I still have the jumping mouse problem in Lion with Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 6000 (polling rate 250Hz or 1000Hz?).

    Logitech MX518 works fine.

  141. Bogey says:

    Seems that my mouse batteries were bit wear out and aluminum body is resisting well signals. I moved mouse closer to the nano receiver and movement is now smooth.
    So seems bug is finally fixed in Lion.

  142. Sally Thomas says:

    I’ll try to describe the mouse problem in more detail. It has the “jumping” problem when the mouse instantly disappears from where I had it and appears in one of the corners. Occasionally it doesn’t make it to the corner, but it always lands on the diagonal line at least. When this happens I can’t say I can “feel” anything else. The only other symptom the mouse has is that often it moves in a “watery way” that feels like a slight skid in a car — it’s not going where I’m taking it; it just slides around in the general area for a couple of seconds, or until I shake it (maybe it would reset itself anyway).

    When I went to the Apple Store to ask for a replacement mouse and they finally agreed, they brought me both a mouse and a keyboard. I thought that perhaps they felt the problem might be with either or both together. As for which Mighty Mouse I have, I can only say that the cord between the mouse and keyboard is about 28/29 inches long.

    I don’t have a lot of money to spend buying up one mouse after another, trying to find one that works, so this is pretty frustrating. I feel like I’m stuck with the problem until I buy a whole new computer.

    • Dae says:

      Can you plug your mouse into one of the USB ports on your iMac and see if it makes any difference? (I take your mouse is plugged into a USB port on your keyboard now).

      What colors were the mousepads that you tried? Were they different by fabric?

      It’s hard to tell but judging by your description it doesn’t seem like a problem with the hardware of your iMac. It’s either a software problem or problem with those mice + your mousepads.

  143. Lina says:

    Hi, I was playing a game that uses the mouse and the cursor just jerked to the other side of the screen, I’m really confused :(

  144. Ned Karpin says:

    Hi, thanks for this comment :)

  145. Alex says:

    The problem is not fixed in Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion.” I am using a Logitech Performance MX and the cursor is just as jittery as before.

    • Dae says:

      Hi Alex,
      it’s interesting… I actually haven’t tested wireless mice because I only have one in my collection.

      Do you use any 3rd party drivers, e.g. Logitech Control Center, ControllerMate, USB Overdrive, SteerMouse?

      Have you tried it with other Lion powered Mac?

      Have you tried other mice?

      • Alex says:

        I use Logitech Control Center. I tried SteerMouse but it didn’t fix the issue, and it made me delete the Logitech Control Center, which didn’t let me use any of the advanced features of the mouse. I don’t want to try USB Overdrive because I do not want to spend money on something that may not fix the problem. I have tried it on another Mac with Lion installed on it, and I have tried many other mice: Logitech G5, Razer Lachesis, and even a cheap USB Acer mouse. All of them respond in the exact same way. I went into my Razer Lachesis settings on my PC and turned down the Acceleration rate and the outcome was something extremely similar to the jittery Mac cursor problem. Honestly, I think that “manfromearth” is right. I think the acceleration curve that is built into the Mac OS X is the problem. This blog entry breaks it down quite nicely: http://tidbits.com/article/8893

        For now I have messed around with the Tracking Speed settings in both the System Preferences and the Logitech Control Centre (LCC Tracking Speed is turned up to 2.0 and System Preferences Tracking Speed is almost all the way down) and have found something that is tolerable, but I still wish that the problem could be fixed for good.

        • Dae says:

          It’s not acceleration, Alex.

          Install ControllerMate, make a linear acceleration curve, use your Mac for a day, then find a Windows computer, untick “Enhance pointer precision” (that gives you the same flat acceleration curve), use it for a day, then return to your Mac.

          You will notice the difference straight away.

          I will go further and tell you that you can make the acceleration curve of OS X linear without use of any 3rd party software.

          Thing is, the feeling will suck anyway, chances are you will still *think* that there is some acceleration because lag delays cursor movement, so when you stop moving the mouse, on-screen cursor moves a little more for a small period of time.

          Speaking of your issue, please try uninstalling all of the 3rd party software and see if your mouse is still jittery.

          • manfromearth says:

            is there anything 3rd party hack/app can do ?
            or it has to bee done by apple coz its “too deep” problem…

            is that fix u mentioned on the way? and what it fixes if its still in development….

          • Dae says:

            There is no solution for the lag problem, at least one that I know of.

            The problem can be fixed by a 3rd party driver.

            The fix I mentioned in spring did not go too well. It does work, but it’s buggy and some problems can only be fixed if we rewrite it from scratch, making it a true kernel level extension.

            I need programmers for the project.

  146. manfromearth says:

    but still acceleration curve is really bad, if u able to fix jumping cursor, its just solves tiny problem, the big one is curve thats really bad, compared to windows 7 has.

    in 2011….OS that is developing for 27 years has problems with every mouse….i really dont get it….

  147. Bob says:

    I have a 2012 razer imperator that is having this problem on the macbook. Will installing lion 10.7 fix it and still allow the mouse to work?

    • Dae says:

      Yes, it should. You can test it in Lion’s installer, before actually installing a new system/upgrading your current one.

      • Bob says:

        how do i do that?

        • Bob says:

          I’ll be buying it off of the apple store

          • Dae says:

            So you’re buying Lion on a USB drive?

            Then connect the drive, reboot your computer while holding Alt, when a boot menu appears choose your external Lion drive by double-clicking on it, when it loads move your mouse and see if the bug is there.

  148. Bob says:

    Sorry I should have been more specific Im downloading it off the online app store

    • Dae says:

      Then it’s slightly harder.

      I don’t remember how the installer works exactly. It first copies files, then requires you to reboot to the installer, but I’m not sure if you can cancel the process at that stage.

      The safest way to test without touching your existing system would be to make a USB drive with the Lion installer yourself, and then just boot from it.

  149. Martynas says:

    Hey Dae!
    So which of those (steer mouse, controller mate or usb overdrive) would best to use and which settings for now, before your fix arrives?

    Cheers!

    • Dae says:

      Hi Martynas!
      They all perform about the same, I’d say the difference is negligible.

      As I said in a comment above, I strongly believe that the main mouse problem in Mac OS X is lag and not acceleration (all acceleration complaints boil down to lack of options provided by Apple). None of the programs you mentioned (and all other programs) do anything about lag as far as I know.

      But actually there is an interesting geeky “workaround” which I used for quite some time (and even completed Starcraft II with it).

      There is a great multiplatform program called Synergy. It allows you to share keyboard and mouse among several computers in the same local network. So I set up my Linux netbook as a Synergy server, connected my mouse to it, then set up my Mac as a Synergy client. That allowed me to use my mouse, connected to the Linux netbook, to control a cursor on the Mac, via Ethernet.

      The difference was noticeable straight away. It felt like driving a good car after a Russian bad one.

      There are several drawbacks of this, mainly weird problems with some apps because (as we later found out) Apple’s APIs for cursor control have bugs (*ahem*). Some of the issues are rather cosmetical, e.g. play button in iTunes gets stuck when you press it (it doesn’t affect functionality), some are not (can’t remember those… but there were issues with drawing in Photoshop).

      Of course, you have to have both computers running, but personally I didn’t mind it because it boosted my productivity.

  150. Martynas says:

    wow, thanks for sharing it!
    ps. it really is geeky :))

  151. tem says:

    Hello Guys,

    i bought the Logitech G400 and cursor jumps on fast moves in all corners. If there is no fix, i think, i ll sell this mouse and buy another one.

    Did anyone tested the Razer Naga Epic on the mac? Is this a better choice?

  152. nix says:

    I think the problem i have is different than the one in the video but might be the same as what others have mentioned above and since you seem involved in understanding the mouse drivers and are responsive, i wonder if you might have some insight into this issue.

    Over time, after a reboot, the cursor-jumping worsens. It’s as if the process controlling cursor-movement isn’t getting the CPU cycles it needs to be able to appear to move smoothly. When this is happening, the CPU isn’t taxed in the slightest (still <3% activity most of the time) but it is often when some other process is loading or doing some work, especially VMWare and, lately, Google Chrome.

    When it's acting up, if i move the mouse quickly but in what would otherwise be a small distance, the cursor will instantly jump across the screen (often to a corner but i think that's just a symptom). Almost like tracking has been set to 5000%. If i move the mouse slowly, the cursor will just jump around a little more than in the video but i wouldn't be able to draw a continuous line like the video. It would literally jump from one place to another. As soon as whatever was loading/working is done, the cursor settles down and only acts-up more intermittently.

    I'm fairly certain this has to do with processor cycles but i'm not sure what processes to monitor or if it's a driver thing and how to diagnose that.

    I've tried different mice and i think the problem seems to persist.

    Sometimes, unplugging the mouse (USB) for a few seconds will act somewhat like if i had rebooted the machine and the cursor will behave for a good while.

    Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

    BTW, this has been happening since, i think, around 10.5 and still happens in 10.7.1.

  153. Fully says:

    Hello all,
    I am new to Mac and was given a MacBook Pro with Lion for work. I had to install Parallels as there are some tools that do not work on the Mac side and I installed Windows 7 64bit. Everything was working just fine until I decided to load World of Warcraft as I travel a lot and figured I may as well bash people while away from home. the graphics look great and it seems to work fairly well except for the USB mouse. I like to right click and manipulate the camera angle as I walk/ride/fight etc. This works without issue on my Windows pc but this Mac/Parallels/Windows thing sucks bad. As soon as I touch the right button my camera angle flies all over the place and makes it unplayable. Any ideas on how I can make this work?

    Thanks!

    • Martynas says:

      Why not try installing wow directly on mac os? I’m playing it like this and have no problems (well, except that far from perfect mouse experience).

  154. greg says:

    it may not be the mouse itself; the fan stays on all the time now (macbook air) and kernel_task (activity monitor) is running at about 150 % CPU, which is to hi. something is hogging the CPU.

    • Daedalus says:

      I have used Razer mice on my Macs for a few years now and have came to the same conclusion as the OP that it is indeed an issue with the polling rate and OS X. When using the higher rate 1000Hz/1ms setting the cursor becomes more erratic and jumpy. This is especially noticeable on slow and steady mouse gestures as the video above highlights. Once switched to 125Hz it becomes much less an issue (which having to do kinda sucks). I am in the market of buying a new Razer mouse for a new system but am slightly concerned with spending phat $$$ on a gimped mouse. Is this polling rate issue TRULY resolved in OS X Lion? I don’t have access to the new OS just yet or I would test this myself.

      Also slightly off topic but in reference to a post above, both the terms “mice” and “mouses” are technically correct when referring to the plural form of a computer mouse. The latter because of its treatment as a headless noun. However, the first written usage of the plural form of a computer mouse was indeed “mice” as is still generally used in most cases for its familiar grammatical flow.

  155. Daedalus says:

    I use Razer mice on my Macs and have came to the same conclusion that it is indeed an issue with the polling rate and OS X. When using the higher rate 1000Hz/1ms setting the cursor becomes more erratic. This is especially noticeable on slow and steady mouse gestures as the video above highlights. Once switched to 125Hz it becomes much less an issue (which kinda sucks). I am in the market of buying a new Razer mouse for a new system but am slightly concerned with spending the $$$ on a gimped mouse. Is this polling rate issue TRULY resolved in OS X Lion? I don’t have access to the new OS just yet or I would test this myself.

    Also slightly off topic but in reference to a post above, both the terms “mice” and “mouses” are technically correct when referring to the plural form of a computer mouse. The latter because of its treatment as a headless noun. However, the first written usage of the plural form of a computer mouse was indeed “mice” as is still generally used in most cases for its familiar grammatical flow.

  156. Daedalus says:

    Lol, just realized the OP’s handle is a short form of the exact same handle I use…

    Another fan of Greek names it seems, small world.

    Cheers

  157. Fully says:

    Regarding playing WoW on the Mac side, I can’t. As I have Lion installed it states that the game can only be installed on a PowerPC. I read somewhere that it could be that I have an old version of the disk and the new trial may work.

    Anyway, what about the mouse issue? ANy news about getting this to work correctly?

  158. Rodney Clark says:

    I got the same problem; my Logitech mouse cursor sometimes keeps on blinking for no reason, jumpy and jittery and the mouse scroll is too hard to pull up and down. Thanks for Mac OS X for resolving this problem.

  159. Shahriar Farkhan says:

    Hi, I have a bluetooth Razer Pro|Click mouse and it operates beautifully under Bootcamp Windows 7, but in Lion it’s jerky. The title of this article says it’s been fixed but I don’t see where. I have 10.7.2 and there is no Razer control panel for me to use to set the polling rate to 125. Can someone let me know how I’m missing this?

    • Dae says:

      Hi,
      does the cursor jump in the same way as in the video above?

      • Shahriar Farkhan says:

        Yup :(

        If I didn’t use it in Bootcamp with a noticeable difference I would have thought there was something wrong with the mouse. I recharge the batteries, thinking they may be low, no change.

  160. Boto says:

    I’m experiencing the same issue as everyone else. I own a Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX and after I lowered the tracking speed to the minimum and maximized the tracking speed in the Logitech Control Center. I’m finally able to navigate more smoothly than ever… There is still some minor stuttering every few moments but it’s better than when I had crazy leaps every time I move my cursor in a few seconds.

  161. Adam says:

    My mouse problem is way worse than this. My mouse teleports 3 or 4 inches away. I’m on 10.7.2.

    I think I might have to buy an Apple mouse.

    • Adam says:

      I should note that I fixed my problem by turning my Mac Mini off for a few minutes and unplugging it completely. Then I plugged it back in and when I turned it on I reset the PRAM (Google how to do it), then I restarted again and booted into safemode. After I was in safemode I just restarted the system on more time normally. The problem was gone. This is the second time that his issue has been fixed by following these steps.

      Some updates cause this problem for me and the above steps fix it. Your mileage may vary.

    • Shweddy says:

      Adam,

      Using a Mac Pro, my Razer Naga cursor freezes now. It never used to, I used the mouse problem free for 2 years. Then one day, it starts to freeze. I have to unplug the mouse for a sec, and I can get use for a little while.

      I too have reset the PRAM, and while this may work for a short time, it rapidly- like a couple minutes- becomes a problem again. The freezes are short at first until the cursor just freezes permanently. This is incredibly frustrating as this $80 mouse, which I LOVE, is useless now, and I have found no good online solution for this.

      I share your pain.

  162. mutzmutz says:

    Hey guys !

    Remove – “Appleupstreamuserclient.kext” from /system/library/extensions

    Enjoy!

  163. Shahriar Farkhan says:

    Thanks!

    What does this do? I’m wearing of deleting kext files :)

    S~

  164. mutzmutz says:

    Fixes the problem , make a backup of the file , you can always put it back and repair permissions .

    • Dae says:

      It did not fix the aforementioned problem for me when I tried this a year ago. The “solution” comes from Hackintosh community which supposedly often encounters a similar, yet different issue.

  165. Mutzmutz says:

    This problem drove me nuts on my snow leopard hackintosh , so I thought maybe if I go for lion it will disappear , and it didn’t .

    So I deleted this kext , and immediately , a lag that was about 3 to 5 ms gone .
    I agree that it still does not feel perfect like on windows ,
    because I think the lag is only one of a few issues on osx , but hey I can finally work , It feels almost perfect now .
    For it’s solved

    Hope that helps

    Btw I’m on a logitech mx revolution

  166. kellogs says:

    >>… (please suggest more in the comments).

    Genius navigator 535.

    Thanks for the article, based on it I have just switched to a non gaming mouse. Life is much better now. Fuck Apple :)

  167. TK says:

    Don’t think buying an Apple mouse/Magic Mouse will solve it. I just started having the problem with my Magic Mouse after “upgrading” to Lion.

  168. Bruno Vieira says:

    Hello Dae, I have a Razer Mamba I’d given up trying to use on snow leopard. I just decided to check back and see if there where any new about this bug here in your blog and found out Lion fixed the problem. So, does that means I can take my Mamba out of the closet and use it even with a high pooling rate of 1000hz!??? If so, what do you recommend for me to use on the software side? Razer Mamba Basic Mac Driver, Steermouse, ControllerMate or another??? I’ll wait for your answer to give it another try.

  169. Bob says:

    I was having this problem with a Logitech MX620 cordless. Finally downloaded SteerMouse and installed it. At first this didn’t do anything. I realized that the Logitech software was still interfering although I had deleted it from the preferences. I found out there is an uninstaller for it called LCC Uninstaller in my utilities folder. I ran the uninstaller and restarted with SteerMouse installed. Works perfectly!

  170. rings outlet says:

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  171. Leigh says:

    I didn’t have to time to read the comments fully but I just found the fix for OS X Lion where my mouse was lagging from time to time.

    http://www.logitech.com/en-gb/584/3129

    This did the trick perfectly!

  172. heyhey says:

    hey bro, what trick? your link doesnt show anything ;p

  173. Shahriar Farkhan says:

    I just downloaded Decelerate, a $0.99 piece of software from the App store Decelerate. I turned down the acceleration and deselected “Disable on exit”. The mouse now works amazingly well :) (Bluetooth 2.0 Razer Pro|Click Mobile mouse that’s about 3-4 years old now).

  174. Andrey says:

    На Logitech m705 та же фигня. Курсор не идет ровно, а то съезжает в сторону, то обгоняет себя. Все способы перепробовал. На win7 все нормально, а на моем Snow leopard такая засада. Считается ли это вообще причиной для возврата?

  175. Kenrick says:

    I have a question
    Thanks a lot for making this BTW, it is the only “discussion” that comes close to what I’m experiencing.
    Basically, I have several gaming (laser) mouses including the one I have a mac driver of which is the Steel Series Cataclysm MMO mouse (NOT Legendary edition). I am experiencing jumping problems after I use my computer/mouse for a while. I usually turn my computer off and use it tomorrow and after a few hours it jumps again. I got a mouse that uses a ball to track and it doesn’t jump, but that mouse is not suitable for my usage.
    The main problem is my Steel Series MMO mouse’s driver only can change to 250hz. It doesn’t jump as much, but is still a big problem. My other mouse is a Razer Lachesis which DOESNT have a mac driver. :(
    I don’t know what to do, but all I can say is this didn’t happen to me before. I have used this macbookpro for 2 years and only 2 months ago has this started happening.
    Please help.

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  177. Joao Carlos says:

    Hello.

    I own a Mionix Naos 5000 mouse, fantastic mouse btw much better than the various razer I had in the past, anyway, it has the same exact problem. I tried everything, the MouseFix script used to work on Snow Leopard, even tho it did not completely fix it, it made it bearable (typo?), now upgraded to Lion and made the mistake of changing mouse settings, and boom, nightmare all over again, MouseFix script doesnt work on Lion so I was using “old” settings from Snow Leopard, but now, that it was updated, I cant put them back.

    Tried MouseSteer, MouseAcelaration, Microsoft driver hack, ControllerMate(cant find mouse acell on this, not even with step by step instructions because the functionality is no longer the same as in the docs), a commandline command i cant remember and several others.

    Has anyone ever, got this fixed? I would like to give controllermate another try, but, i just cant find the damn acelaration menu, I saw a comment about a settings file with optimal settings, can anyone share it with me?

    My email is: thesilentwarrior at gmail.com
    Thank you.

  178. 2pizza136 says:

    I have Razer Naga and the 125hz polling fix DID NOT work for me. The problem still prevails… The mouse feels laggy and i cannot click normally.

  179. Patrick Ma says:

    Hi, I’m experiencing issues with the Imperator running Win 7 under Bootcamp.

    Disabling Enhance Pointer Precision in my mouse settings really helped.

    • Dae says:

      EPP in Windows enables non-linear acceleration curve, so your cursor accelerates faster as you move your mouse faster. I don’t think it could fix a real problem with your mouse…

  180. James says:

    OK, strange thing here.
    Had a Logitech MX1000 for 4 years no cursor jumping to edges of screen
    no matter what drivers were used.
    Had an accident with coffee and it died.
    Bought a new one from China.
    Suddenly I have all the problems discussed here.
    Juts for giggles I unhooked the new dock/receiver, put the original
    one back in, and….back to the smooth operation of 4 years ago.
    So…why?

    • James says:

      You understand right?
      The new mouse works fine as long as I use the older receiver.
      And, this so called new one is probably the same vintage.
      NOS as they say.
      Logitech doesn’t make these anymore.

  181. Avancee says:

    How could you say this hopping problem is solved?
    I own an iMac with Lion and play games on Windows 7 bootcamp with a Logitech G5.

    Both in Windows and Lion the hopping problem is still there…
    Anything that should be done?

    • Dae says:

      There is no cursor jumping problem in Windows. Your G5 is broken.

      • Avancee says:

        First I did’t believe, because I was working on a Mac in Windows.
        And I remember that the first time I connected the mouse to my mac (in Lion), it worked rather okay. Not flawless, but okay.

        The problem got worse somehow. The G5 must have been suffering a painful dead. The skipping became worse.

        I just connected the G5 to an old PC (windows only) and it shows the same problem. Shame… need to buy a new one I guess… smacked it around to often probably. :/

        I guess a G9 will work properly on Mac (bootcamp Windows)?

  182. till says:

    they didn’t fix g5 issue in lion. it still occurs in my system (fresh install)

  183. TylerB says:

    I’ve been following this thread for a long time.

    I only experience the jitter bug while attempting to play video games or watch a video on VLC or youtube etc. I have experienced it while using the following mice:
    -logitech G5 (corded)
    -Logitech G9x (corded)
    -logitech anywhere MX (wireless USB)
    -microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 (blueTrack) (wireless USB)

    I have NOT experienced it with:
    -Logitech LS1 (corded)
    -and your generic corded optical mice

    (I have a macbook pro running on Lion)

    I would really really appreciate it if someone could tell me this is the same problem or not. Any suggestions?

    Thanks

  184. Xiqum says:

    The main post still says that the issue is fixed on Lion is this correct? Some recent comments say that the issue still persists on Lion.

  185. Dominic says:

    MacPro 2009 Desktop Bluetooth issue : Ill post this here incase its relevant to any of you using Apple wireless Mighty/Magic or ANY other brand of wireless mice with MacPros 2009 onwards ( & possibly other macs). After a new desktop upgrade back in 2009 I thought wireless mouse had given up the ghost started misbehaving and disconnecting, and so I ordered a replacement, which also had the same problem – erratic and unpredictable movement which would seemingly happen intermittently. I was talking to several second tier Apple engineers at the time clearing other problems up and was encouraged to try track down the wireless mighty mouse problem – this was the start of a long road. I tried reconnecting the bluetooth module on board (some had been mis-wired at the factory), sending the computer to Apple repair specialist to have new bluetooth modules, this was after determined effects to cleanse the house of interference, reinstalls, third party add ons, prefs, messing with settings etc etc. Then came my ephinany – what I started to discover was my desktop had ‘black spots’ of very poor bluetooth coverage, only perhaps the size of coin in different locations relative to the position of the 2009 MacPro – I then started going into Apple Stores and resellers and finding Exactly the same black spots on their machines – these black spots where initially hard to delineate as during the day its likely your mouse will move around a reasonable amount – but crucially only pass momentarily through these small ‘black spots’ of very poor reception – causing the erratic behaviour. I found to detect these spots doing very small figure of 8 patterns would reveal quite obviously any problem areas and prove difficult to accomplish accurately at these points. When I looked into it further it turned out that Apple had moved the bluetooth module in the 2009 MacPros, coupled with the aluminium casing (this macs bluetooth transmission through the casing a real problem)- note some older macs used to come with an external antennas. I eventually managed to get the Apple engineer to admit the problem and replicate it on his machine. I also witnessed this happening on some of the new metal cased iMacs I tried – although I dont know if its universal across the range. But I suggest you might look into this esp. with the 2009+ models. So if you have an erratic wireless mouse, I recommend trying to isolate potential positions on your desktop when it gives you problems – you could try realigning the Mac relative to your working position, moving it to the desktop etc – or indeed going back to wired mice. Im currently use my magic mouse (Apple upgraded me to try rectify the problem but to no avail) with a 2010 Macbook Pro – and ironically the Magic mouse behaves a bit better, though its not perfect by any means – some days its seems quite laggy, others seems ok’sh – but the real pain for me with the magic mouse – is it also is very sensitive to what surfaces it wants to track on (as well as potentially bluetooth connection – confounding factors) – it doesn’t like my desktop surface, and is very particular about what surfaces I place it on – the only thing that works for me at the moment is a good quality 300gsm coated brochure – with a gloss finish – anything else tends to skip/lag crazily. Its almost as though the laser has some level of attenuation and has real issues with so many surfaces – that the mighty mice was ok with – ive been told the lasers operate at different frequencies. All I know is – theres one thing guaranteed to build a real level of frustration – thats trying to operate a fast slick top of the line computer (or any to be honest) and the user input (eg mouse) is behaving like a sailor on shore leave – you might as well be using something out of a toy shop. Ironically I always thought Apple were the kings of the user interface and user experience – but an over sight to the most fundamental user input is diabolical, maybe all the engineers are too busy getting excited about phones, and ‘tampads’ to remember about their computer user base.

  186. Peter Reilich says:

    The only place to find this issue is on someone’s blog?

    The lack of consumer support on a product built so badly is astounding: iMac (Leopard). Make me buy Lion version so I don’t have skips in the mouse that came with iMac? Unbelievable capitalistic scourge.

    Purchased Feb 2011, a brand new iMac from the factory. Comes with a mouse that skips all over the place. Another bug: open the downloads page and scroll down. Take hand completely off the mouse. The list skips back to the top. What the hell?

    The sleek white mouse is a designed piece of crap. Like a beautifully designed car that is such a nuisance to drive, you are discouraged to use it. A girl’s teasing prettiness, but she slaps you every time you kiss her. Maybe some enjoy sadistic pleasure. Not me.

    iMac is definitely sadistic. You have to tell it to do everything. Nothing ever comes ready to use. Everything must have additional junk just to do basic things.

    This was my first MacIntosh, and it will be my last. I want my pc back. The computer that you buy with helpful features all built in and ready to use, to help the user through various tasks. Mac sucks.

    I don’t want to know the make of my mouse, and I shouldn’t have to know it because it came with the iMac I bought. I didn’t ask any questions because the company tells its consumers that the complete package is self-contained. Lies. Now I have to search the web to find what the hell is the matter with this piece of shit mouse. This is total bullshit.

    There are so many things wrong with this so called state-of-the-art computer that it’s downright criminal they’ve been allowed to sell it as is.

    There should be a law preventing ANY company from selling a product that sneaks in added packaging you either have to buy or go through add-on hell to use.

    MacIntosh needs to be sued to death by us, the consumers. There are plenty of legal issues. They cross the line on legality in dozens of areas. That Mac users are psychotic with respect for a man (Jobs) who was clearly psychotic himself, begins to tell us what is going on here. You’re all out of your fucking minds.

  187. msp says:

    OK, here’s an attempt to bring the thread back on topic.

    I’d like to know if anyone has submitted or is planning to submit bug reports regarding the (still existing) jumping bug in Snow Leopard.

    • Peter Reilich says:

      @msp: I was not off topic and you can go fuck your ass-kissing self. Nobody is going to submit bug reports because everyone has moved on. Idiot. Do you actually think people give a crap about a product that is so completely a piece of crap it could never be fixed? You have to buy another new product to get something that works. Duh. That is the MacIntosh way. No complaining peon is going to change that.

  188. Seth says:

    I had this same issue and found a fix for it (for myself at least)

    I was using a wireless logitech keyboard (k520) and wireless logitech mouse (m505) with the single usb dongle connected to the MBP. I had jittery response or just deadness with the cursor. No settings would fix the issue. I became tired of this so I plugged in my usb wired apple keyboard and usb wired apple mouse to the computer. Fixed. So after using the crappy apple mouse for about 15 seconds, I decided I would try using my usb wireless dongle and mouse with the mac wired keyboard. VOIALA!! With the USB dongle plugged into the wired keyboard I have ZERO lag or jittery motion.

    I hope this helps.

    • hum says:

      nope,u cant fix this probem like that, u prolly fixed some other problem ,maybe u had even more lag :P

  189. Seth says:

    brand new out of the box machine and I dont have it anymore so I dont know what else to say other than: Its fixed

  190. Einar says:

    Still lag on Razer Imperator 2012. Running Mac OSX Lion 10.7.4. Will try the driver fix

    • dude says:

      ofc its still laggin, it will stop when apple fix it(or Dae), u cant do nothing about it….

      • Einar says:

        Ive got the impression that it was fixed from all the comments about it. Especially the comment from bob in 2011..

        Still lags after putting it on 125MHz..

        • Einar says:

          I have no more issues with my Imperator. Put the mouse in computer (not dock), run the firmware update stuff or something. Now it works great.

  191. Russ P. says:

    I tried running a Razer Naga mouse with the lastest drivers, firmware, and software on a MacPro with Lion 10.7.4
    It is unusable.
    when gaming, even with polling rate set to 125 it skips all the way across the screen on occasion, and getting to a particular button is often impossible. The Mac Mouse is a bit better, but still not usable for gaming. The Kensington Expert Mouse trackball is best, but still requires several attempts to get to a particular spot.
    Why hasn’t this been fixed, Apple?

    • Einar says:

      Try connect it directly to the mac pro (not computer) or tweak a lot of the settings. Im sorry but i have no other tips than that :/

      • Russ P. says:

        It is connected directly! I’ve tweaked and tweaked- nothing works. Went over to a PC and there are no issues with the mouse.

  192. cbmtrx says:

    Hmm, not sure about this but I have a wired RocketFish Apple mouse (I also can’t stand wireless bluetooth mice) and I’m running SteerMouse on OS X Lion. I’ve only just started noticing jitters/skipping today, after running smoothly for a month on this machine.

    The only thing that I believe I’ve changed on my system was the installation of MS Office 2011 earlier today. Could this have corrupted something?

    I had previously used the same setup on Leopard and Snow Leopard with no problems like this.

    Challenging for a designer if one can’t draw straight lines!

    • Dae says:

      To start with, try uninstalling SteerMouse. I don’t think Office 2011 could mess something up.

      • cbmtrx says:

        I did this, and I also uninstalled MenuMeters (something else I had installed the same day) but no change.

        But here’s something very interesting–I found this thread:
        https://discussions.apple.com/message/19191142

        His issue is with a trackpad but his error log pointed to an MS Office 2011 error…coincidentally the same app I had installed right before all this got started.

        The logical next step would be to uninstall Office (ugh) and see if that fixes it. Not crazy about his idea but I see no other option.

      • cbmtrx says:

        I’ve also just reverted back to my bluetooth Apple Mouse and the behavior is gone. Clearly, then, there is some recent software conflict between OS X and the RocketFish wired mouse.

  193. AttilaB says:

    I have an MX518 and it stutters/lags whenever dragging speed is changed

  194. cbmtrx says:

    Don’t know about this for others but the behavior has stopped. Not quite sure when, but maybe an apple update fixed this.

    Or it could just have been a temporary software conflict?

  195. Dae says:

    All information and further discussion about mouse cursor skipping (jumping) bug of Mac OS X has been moved to SmoothMouse.net.

    If you still have the problem in Lion or Mountain Lion please start a new topic at the SmoothMouse Forum with information about your mouse and Mac, and we’ll try to help you out.

    Comments here are now closed.

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