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Mouse problem

G

GAB

macrumors newbie
Original poster
I am wondering if anybody has encountered this problem before. My mother has an emac where the mouse pointer randomly flies to the corners of the screen. It is the strangest thing. You are using the mouse in the middle of the screen and all of a sudden it is in the top left corner of the screen. So you move the pointer back to where you want it, use it for a while and then it does the same thing only to a different corner. We have tried different mice and the problem remains. Any ideas on what the problem could be?
Thanks
 
What surface are you using the mouse on?

This kind of thing can happen when using an optical mouse on a shiny or reflective surface. Try using a mousemat and see if the problem carries on.
 
GAB said:
I am wondering if anybody has encountered this problem before. My mother has an emac where the mouse pointer randomly flies to the corners of the screen. It is the strangest thing. You are using the mouse in the middle of the screen and all of a sudden it is in the top left corner of the screen. So you move the pointer back to where you want it, use it for a while and then it does the same thing only to a different corner. We have tried different mice and the problem remains. Any ideas on what the problem could be?
Thanks
Click to expand...

My apple (mighty) mouse is the bane of my existence. Seriously.

For years I've been using a logitec optical mouse directly on my desktop with NO problems. NONE. I've got three different sections of desktop that are literally worn down from mousing there so much.

Then I bought my iMac. Hooked everything up-- extended 23" display and begin computing. Terrible, terrible problems of the mouse jumping, skipping, shooting off the screen. I was convinced that it's the hardware after having no problems with my other optical mouse.

I checked everything. Changed cables, new mouse-- nothing helped. I put a mouse pad under it and it got better. But it would STILL jump from time to time. Noticed that the pad itself had a bit of a reflective/shiny gloss to it, switched it to a non-finished piece of board. Tada! And all I have to do is sit a piece of BOARD on my desk. Ugh. But... no more skipping.

Yeah right. Even with a surface that is COMPLETELY devoid of bumps, knicks, laminate, gloss, etc... every so often... maybe twice a day the pointer stinking jumps. A LOT less than it did. I mean a LOT. But wtf?!

No, I haven't tried my other mouse yet-- but I'm going to. I have this stubborn notion that the mouse peripherals should work. Oh, yeah, took the iMac to the ol' genius bar and you know that damn mouse didn't skip once. It's like taking the car to a mechanic.
 
GAB said:
I am wondering if anybody has encountered this problem before. My mother has an emac where the mouse pointer randomly flies to the corners of the screen. It is the strangest thing. You are using the mouse in the middle of the screen and all of a sudden it is in the top left corner of the screen. So you move the pointer back to where you want it, use it for a while and then it does the same thing only to a different corner. We have tried different mice and the problem remains. Any ideas on what the problem could be?
Thanks
Click to expand...

I have the same problem. The mouse cursor randomly jumps to a different corner usually when there is a short period of idol movement (G5 Dual 2) Curiously, I didn't have any problems until I bought the mighty mouse. I then switched back to the apple mouse and now it continues. I don't beleive it is a surface problem. Does anyone know if you can reset or roll back a driver or something for this?
 
A possible explanation for the "jumping mouse" problem

I have experienced the jumping mouse problem on my desktop G5 on 3 occasions. When it happened again today, I swapped out my mouse, then my keyboard and mouse, then I used the USB port on the front of the machine instead of the back, each to no avail. I then did a complete shutdown of my computer, disconnected the keyboard and mouse then restarted. With neither the mouse nor the keyboard connected, the mouse pointer continued to jump around on the screen. Lo and behold, when I gave up using my desktop computer and began to move my notebook computer closer to the desktop monitor, the mouse pointer began to move in the same direction at the same speed. My monitor is a 19" black Planar LCD display unit. I then switched off my monitor for a few minutes, started the monitor back up, reconnected my key board and mouse to my desktop computer, and for the next 30 minutes all was well, then I had to hop into my car. When I return from my road trip in two days, I will see if the mouse is still behaving. Although I have not tested it, I think the monitor may have built up a static charge resulting in an electrical field, which is somehow influencing the mouse pointer. When I moved the notebook close to the monitor, that may have influenced the electrical field. Today was relatively hot and humid. Not sure if that contributed to the problem. Any other explanations?
 
Mouse problem is due to software

I have that problem on my eMac G4. I recently bought an iMac G5 duocore and selected "update" to transfer everything from my eMac to my iMac via Firewire. Lo and behold, it transferred the mouse problem too! Now I have two different computers with this frustrating, odd problem. There must be a way of resetting the software.
 
Changed mouse pad and fixed the problem

Thinking more about it, I realized that it could be the setting and not the softwared that affected both computers. I replaced the mousepad with one that had a matte finish (the other was shiny) and the problem ceased!
 
Hello

Another switcher here. Bought a 3GHz Alu this week and i'm suffering a jumping pointer as described in this old thread. Has anyone else experienced this with the new macs?

Cheers.

Dezza
 
Dezza said:
... Bought a 3GHz Alu this week and i'm suffering a jumping pointer as described in this old thread. Has anyone else experienced this with the new macs?...
Click to expand...
Just to keep this thread from dying...

I am also experiencing this problem lately and it seems to have nothing to do with the particular machine or software update in use. This pretty much has to be a mighty mouse problem.

Brand new McPro with brand new mouse, had no problems at all until very recently (but quite a bit *after* the last software updates). Now the mouse has a mind of it's own, but it seems very intermittent.

For periods of five to ten minutes at a time, the mouse moves around crazily as if someone else is in control of it. Then everything is fine for long periods of time afterwards. Sometimes re-booting stops it, sometimes it does nothing at all. Various mousepads add/subtract nothing from the situation.

If it was a bluetooth mouse I would almost say that someone in the next house is pairing with it when I am not looking, but it's a wired USB mighty mouse.
 
Jumping Mouse Pointer

I purchased a 24-inch 3.06GHz iMac Intel, and been having the same mouse problems where the pointer occasionally jumps to the corners of the screens by itself. I thought it was a bad Mighty Mouse and got a replacement MM, and it had the same problems. I hooked up a Dell optical mouse (and mouse pad) which worked fine on my Windows computer, but it still had the same mouse pointer jumping problem on the iMac. So I don't think it's the mice. I'm not sure what it is. I tried different USB ports. I think the problem happens in WindowsXP and OSX. It's pretty annoying. 😡
 
Post #2 is the most likely cause. Try the mouse on a light surface and a dark surface and see which one works best (use a book cover/sheet of paper etc). A non-reflective flat-uniform surface should work best.

Also, make sure the lens is free of hairs/fur/dust and other objects.
 
Mouse moves

Yeah, I have been having this problem of the jumping mouse pointer on an iMac for some time (actually since I bought it). I should have got them to fix it at the time.

The mouse not only jumps to the top corner but then sometimes travels right to left along the top of the screen.

I have tried different mice (good old Logitech type mouse works best and Apple mice are worst) - wireless and USB, different mice pads, surfaces etc. I also have a Macbook Pro and the mice that give me grief on the iMac work well on the laptop. So I have ruled out it being the mouse.

My Apple dealer has said that it is likely to be in the hardware and that I should do a rebuild of the operating system. Just moving to Leopard did not help.

At the moment I am putting up with it. A small price to pay for avoiding Windows.
 
I switched to old Mocrosoft Mouse had in stroage, seems to have solved the problem. That might mouse is a piece of you know what. I will goto frys sometime and get a new wireless from logic, which seems to be the favorite on here.
 
Really? I've had no problems with my bluetooth Mighty Mouse. I don't use a mouse pad or anything, just a plain old desktop (wood) surface.
 
but the saga continues

I didn't even know how to search the irritating habit with the mouse---go to minimize or enlarge or even close the screen and zoom----->there it goes up to the corner. Then drag it out into site and try again. This is a 2008 iMAC and looking at the length of time people have been complaining about this - it ought to have been fixed.
 
Crazy mouse

I have the exact same problem as described in the posts above - and I just bought my mac a couple of months ago (september 2009). The mouse started to have this bizarre behavior soon after I started using it. I have tested it on different surfaces, and nothing changes. I did realize, though, that in my case the cursor tends to shoot to the corners of the screen whenever I scroll to a link. It can be really annoying.

Does anybody have any possible solution to this? or at least some sort of explanation?
 
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