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Anyone own a Razer mouse?

S

Sladuuch

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 7, 2005
11
0
I'm thinking of buying one and the two different models seem to be differently priced, though the only apparent difference is the color. In the case of the translucent red one, I'm worried that the clear housing looks like something that you could get fingerprints on, like the clear and black Apple Pro Mice. I HATE fingerprints on electronics with a passion, and am currently leaning towards the green one, though it's a bit more expensive. Can anyone with one of these mice comment on the figerprintyness factor?

Alternatively, I've heard bad things about the Copperhead's Mac compatability--apparently, USB Overdrive doesn't work with it. Can anyone confirm this, because if it's not true, then I'm rushing out and buying it instead of the Diamondback right away.
 
I have the red one and have used it to play World of Warcraft (57+ days worth of play time!). The clear parts are on the side so generally only your thumb is going to be hitting that part. When your computer is not on it's not lit up so I doubt you'd notice any finger prints on it since it's dark. And when you computer is on and you're using it your thumb is over it... :p I know that "normal" finger dirt gets on the side but I just wipe it off and go about my business. I would say the fingerprintness on the sides is the same as an apple mouse. Red or green, it doesn't much matter.
 
What about the top? It seems very shiny from pictures I've seen. Does it make your hand sweat from the smoothness, or is it slightly textured? Total smoothness makes my hand cry. Thanks for the info.

This picture makes the top look very shiny, which yells "FINGERPRINTS!!!" to me; the specular highlights are huge. Sweaty hands is bad.
010561.jpg
 
I've been using my Razer Diamondback since early this summer and it's the most comfortable and most accurate mouse I've ever used. If you have big hands you'll feel extremely comfortable on this thing. The precision is amazing and if you play a lot of games online, expect your scores to go up. Makes a HUGE difference.

Even the Mx700 seemed clunky and such after I used my Diamondback. Definitely an excellent mouse and you can probably get them for under $50 now.
 
Sladuuch said:
Alternatively, I've heard bad things about the Copperhead's Mac compatability--apparently, USB Overdrive doesn't work with it. Can anyone confirm this, because if it's not true, then I'm rushing out and buying it instead of the Diamondback right away.
Click to expand...



Well the copperhead has no driver for the mac. Neither does the diamondback. So it doesnt really matter.


As for your fingerprint woes, dont worry about it. Its not as shiny as it looks.
 
I also use a diamond back for wow its an amazing mouse. As for smooth and sweating the answer is yes. That said its a great mouse and seven buttons is really nice.
 
i've used a razer, and it was great (nice weight distribution too) but i prefer the button layout of an mx1000. i'm staying away from the g7 (only 6 buttons now :()
 
Arright, I'm settling on the Razer Pro, which has a rougher-looking top. For those Diamondback users out there, how are the side buttons? I plan to use them for panning and moving the camera in Maya; that is to say, they'll be in pretty much constant use. How easy are they to use? How's the clickyness? What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
 
I had a viper which worked wonderfully with the standard mouse driver. I gave that to my dad (soon after which my mom's fluff ball of a dog ate it), and he purchased a copperhead for me.

I have yet to get the Copperhead to work. When I plugged it in, OSX thought it was a keyboard. When I installed the USB Overdrive driver (which I didn't need for the Viper), it didn't pick up the mouse. Looking in the Hardware Profiler showed a Razer Copperhead mouse though. Go figure.

I updated the mouse on my dad's Windows laptop the following week when he came to visit (yes, the Copperhead has firmware, and no, you can update it on anything but Windows).

After updating the firmware I plugged in back into my Powerbook (which had just had a fresh erase and install of OSX mind you) and again the new keyboard menu popped up. However, the cursor would actually move now and I could use the and right buttons. Unfortunately the cursor movement was too slow to be useful and no toying with settings changed that at all. USB Overdrive driver was tried again, but it still did not pick up the mouse.

I sent an email informing Razer of this (actually a few emails were involved) saying that if they didn't know if the mouse worked on a mac, they should state that on the product description as opposed to just linking to the USB Overdrive driver. I said if they felt the mouse should work in OSX, then to please replace mine (I'd prefer to keep using Razer as opposed to switching to Logitech) otherwise I'd need a refund.

I'm mailing the Copperhead back today, so I imagine next week I'll see if there's any change in this status. I have yet to read of an account of a Copperhead working on OSX, but then again, I'd expect to see more problem posts than "Hey, it works." posts.
 
eeyoredragon said:
I had a viper which worked wonderfully with the standard mouse driver. I gave that to my dad (soon after which my mom's fluff ball of a dog ate it), and he purchased a copperhead for me.

I have yet to get the Copperhead to work. When I plugged it in, OSX thought it was a keyboard. When I installed the USB Overdrive driver (which I didn't need for the Viper), it didn't pick up the mouse. Looking in the Hardware Profiler showed a Razer Copperhead mouse though. Go figure.

I updated the mouse on my dad's Windows laptop the following week when he came to visit (yes, the Copperhead has firmware, and no, you can update it on anything but Windows).

After updating the firmware I plugged in back into my Powerbook (which had just had a fresh erase and install of OSX mind you) and again the new keyboard menu popped up. However, the cursor would actually move now and I could use the and right buttons. Unfortunately the cursor movement was too slow to be useful and no toying with settings changed that at all. USB Overdrive driver was tried again, but it still did not pick up the mouse.

I sent an email informing Razer of this (actually a few emails were involved) saying that if they didn't know if the mouse worked on a mac, they should state that on the product description as opposed to just linking to the USB Overdrive driver. I said if they felt the mouse should work in OSX, then to please replace mine (I'd prefer to keep using Razer as opposed to switching to Logitech) otherwise I'd need a refund.

I'm mailing the Copperhead back today, so I imagine next week I'll see if there's any change in this status. I have yet to read of an account of a Copperhead working on OSX, but then again, I'd expect to see more problem posts than "Hey, it works." posts.
Click to expand...

Yeah I sent them an email about this last week. I don't own one, I was just curious after reading reports. They replied this:

"Currently, we do not supply Macintosh drivers for the Razer Mice. If you would like to use the Razer mouse with your Macintosh, you can download the USB Overdrive drivers from www.usboverdrive.com, which will allow the mouse to work.

NOTE: These are 3rd-party drivers, and we do not support the Razer mice on Macintosh. You can use the mouse on a Macintosh using these USB Overdrive drivers, but you will not be able to program the buttons."

And I know that they must know about the problems with the Copperhead and USB Overdrive.

And they also say that they don't have mac drivers for their mice, but that's also not true. The Razor Pro 1.6 has a mac driver. I'm awaiting reports (thanks sladuuch) about the functionality of this mouse and driver, because I want one despite the customer support!
 
cc bcc & eeyoredragon: I think I know what to do after hours of web searching. Try plugging it into a Windows PC, installing the drivers and configuring it; then plug it into the mac, and see what happens. I've read that the mouse itself has onboard memory (!!!) that can only be written to with special software that only works on PCs. :( Le sigh. The day the drivers are written for mac, I'm rushing out and getting a Copperhead.
 
Sladuuch said:
cc bcc & eeyoredragon: I think I know what to do after hours of web searching. Try plugging it into a Windows PC, installing the drivers and configuring it; then plug it into the mac, and see what happens. I've read that the mouse itself has onboard memory (!!!) that can only be written to with special software that only works on PCs. :( Le sigh. The day the drivers are written for mac, I'm rushing out and getting a Copperhead.
Click to expand...
Yah, I wanted to try that, but I don't have any PCs around to do that lol. I did in fact plug it into my dad's as I said and updated the firmware (the onboard memory (and firmware) is actually one of the big features of the mouse). I left the mouse on all the highest settings, so it was configured. :-/

However, supposedly Razer has had a problem with the 1khz polling rate which is what I left the mouse set at. Assuming that's not working, it would explain why the mouse still tracks so slow, and would suggest that it could perhaps be improved by lowering the polling rate on a PC and trying it on the mac again. However, the big selling points of the mouse are the DPI and the polling rate, so that's not really a great solution.


As to that email from Razer, that's a form email. I got that one a couple of times, which is why I'm truthfully not actually hopeful that the replacement will work. At this point, I'd be surprised if anyone actually read my email. I didn't get the impression that anyone did at least.

And, yes, that is correct about the RazerPro v1.6 (which is basically a white diamondback with a mac driver). I would like to think they'd eventually write their own Copperhead driver, but going on 1.) the fact that there have been numerous bugs with the Copperhead on Windows machines as it is and 2.) the length of time between the Diamondback and the Razer Pro, I don't think that will be anytime in the near future. I think the best chances lie in the writer of USB Overdrive stepping up to the plate, but apparently he's quite busy now due to a new kiddo.


But, like I said, we'll see next week if there's an improvement with my replacement. I just wouldn't hold my breath ;)
 
Sladuuch said:
cc bcc & eeyoredragon: I think I know what to do after hours of web searching. Try plugging it into a Windows PC, installing the drivers and configuring it; then plug it into the mac, and see what happens. I've read that the mouse itself has onboard memory (!!!) that can only be written to with special software that only works on PCs. :( Le sigh. The day the drivers are written for mac, I'm rushing out and getting a Copperhead.
Click to expand...



This works. You set your profile settings on a pc and save them and they will work perfectly on mac. You can switch profiles with the button on the bottom of the mouse. The onboard memory DOES remember your settings.
 
dschu2 said:
This works. You set your profile settings on a pc and save them and they will work perfectly on mac. You can switch profiles with the button on the bottom of the mouse. The onboard memory DOES remember your settings.
Click to expand...

The only problem is that you can't map the Windows Key (ALT on MAC) so you can't use for example WIN + [ (ALT + [ on mac) to go forward or backward so we still need a third party driver for mac.
 
I just got my new laptop on Monday and I tried my Copperhead and I got the same prompt saying it was a keyboard. I was able to use the mouse after that but the cursor was really slow. I used the setting in my mouse to increase the speed. I had it setup that I could switch the speed of my mouse on the fly using the side button as I was playing a lot of shooters back then. Now it's working fine.

But for how long.....
 
How do I configure the razor mouse buttons?

I want to configure button 4 & 5 such that it do the "Back" and "forward" commands, but I dont see that option in the drop down menu in systems preferences.
 
Used to use the Razer Pro|Click mouse. It was an awesome white mouse that matched all my Apple gear really nicely. Eventually the scrollwheel broke on it and I had to get a new one. I was sad to find out they discontinued the Pro|Click, so I had to buy one of their newer mice which are all black. Just FYI the Pro|Click was basically the same as the Diamondback, but in white. So sad they got rid of it.

So I bit the bullet and bought a Razer Imperator, and I absolutely love the mouse. I mainly like the high DPI, and I use it for gaming purposes, but it makes a great mouse for everything else as well. Not really what I would recommend for non-gamers, but I have to say that Razer is doing a great job with their mice.

R.I.P. Pro|Click
razer-pro-click-8.jpg
 
nawoo said:
How do I configure the razor mouse buttons?

I want to configure button 4 & 5 such that it do the "Back" and "forward" commands, but I dont see that option in the drop down menu in systems preferences.
Click to expand...

They aren't configurable in OS X. Some of them have internal memory and you might be able to set them up in Windows to bind them to hotkeys on the keyboard like ⌘-Back and ⌘-Fwd and then save the settings. It might not work depending on the mouse and the way the drivers are.
 
Too bad Razer doesn't have mouse acceleration curve fix for Mac users like Microsoft's mice (it broke my intention to get it). Sadly, USBOverdrive/Steermouse isn't feels natural like Windows/Linux or Microsoft mouse driver for Mac, even after few days of playing with the settings.
Does anybody know, is there any plans for Razer to bring this highly-awaited feature to us?
 
Thought I'd go ahead and post in this ancient thread, to help the future Google archaeologists on this issue. Sucks that Razer never released drivers for the Copperhead and other mice, but in actuality it sucks that Apple never implemented detection and assignment of custom buttons on standard USB mice.

I've been using BetterTouchTool for other things...a few more gestures on the touchpad, some extra effects on the Magic Mouse, but my main desktop mouse is a Razer Copperhead. I like having a physical scroll wheel and middle click button, the forward and back buttons, and since I do a lot of CAD work, I like the resolution adjustment buttons to enable fine detail work.

I was getting really annoyed by the fact that the back and forward buttons on the Copperhead wouldn't work. Then I thought to check BetterTouchTool...there's a section for "Normal mouse". Sure enough, when clicking the thumb-side buttons, Button 3 and Button 4 showed up. I assigned the 3 finger swipe (forward and back) functions to those buttons, and now it works great. Mouse is plugged in "dry" no Razer-specific drivers or anything. Here's a screenshot of the settings:

Ea7iA.png


And here's a link to the creator of BetterTouchTool: http://www.boastr.de/
 
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