System and Mouse Pointer Laggy/Jerky on Macbook with Leopard 10.5.2

[m1k3y]

I recently got a new Macbook, and am new to Mac OS X.

Everything seems to be working fine, but sometimes, after a period of use of my Macbook, the system (or maybe only the mouse) becomes laggy, or rather jerky. I can move it freely, but it freezes for a millisecond in between, and then appears a few hundred pixels away from it. These 'jerks' then occur at regular intervals of time, which is generally one second.

Sometimes, this is also accompanied by system jerks, but it is not evident until there is something moving fast, so it is visible only while typing (i.e. I am typing but the text appears in jerks)

I first thought that this problem was related to overheating, but then ruled that out because it occurs sometimes even immediately when I boot up a cold system.

The problem is usually temporarily fixed by a reboot (and not by a log out/log in) but the problem soon returns after 30-40 minutes of usage.

Any ideas what the problem maybe? Is it a software related problem or a hardware problem? Anybody faced this problem before?

 

[Peace]

Update to 10.5.5

 

[m1k3y]

Ok, I've upgraded to 10.5.5, and still the problem is bugging me. I also felt that this problem was with Opera (web browser) in particular, but I've noticed it with any application that takes more than a few MBs of memory. It feels as if some process is probably opening up too many threads or something?

I am attaching a screenshot of my Activity Monitor window at a time when this problem was in progress.

Also, this problem is more evident with the external mouse than the trackpad, but I guess that is just because I can move the mouse more freely than my finger on the trackpad.

 

[dubhe]

Are you using a bluetooth mouse?

 

[yellow]

I am attaching a screenshot of my Activity Monitor window at a time when this problem was in progress.

You need to change it to "All Processes".. that's only showing processes with your UID.

 

[m1k3y]

I'm now attaching the activity monitor screen with all processes shown. BTW, this was after I wiped out and reinstalled my whole system last night. The problem is back. Makes me think it is an overheating problem again. What do you guys think?

 

[m1k3y]

Guess what, I figured out what was causing the problem. Its the headphone jack. Whenever I have the headphones plugged in, the mouse starts fluttering. I've checked and rechecked it about 20 times now, as soon as I plugin the headphones, its crappy mouse again, and when I plug 'em out, after about 2 seconds, the mouse works perfectly. Tried it with 3 different brands of headphones (tried earphones too), the problem occurs with each one of them. Very, very weird I must say.

And ya, has anybody noticed the red laser kinda light you can SOMETIMES see for a split second when you unplug he headphones?

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Just tried this with my macbook. I do get the red laser when I unplug my speakers, but my mouse is smooth as butter. Maybe you should take it to the apple store and see what they think?