Jumpy Mouse Behavior

As of late, I have been having problems with the mouse behaving erratically. Using either a Mighty Mouse or the trackpad, the pointer jumps in erratic, random locations. It subsides after about 30 minutes. I realized this was happening usually after waking from sleep. Also, the fan has been going on for extended periods of time as well as a VERY noticeable lag in performance. Typing at a reasonable speed renders a little more than 1 letter a second. So if I type "macbook" I can look up at the screen and still see it typing the -c-b-o-o-k one by one. The only way to stop all these things from happening is to reset the laptop. It is a pain to do this everyday though, as I have been shutting the lid to put it to sleep and have never had trouble with it before. I have 4gb of ram in here and I do not run much other than Safari. Any clue why this is happening? How to resolve? I am using os x 10.4.11 which I purchased in 2007. Do I need to reinstall? Will this even resolve the issue (I have read some tried and failed).

Same **** problem, now I've found 5 threads on the same forum related to the same problem. No solution yet, and the only one who has solved the problem was apparently by cleaning his audio port. I tried doing that, nothing happened.
The problem is CONSISTENT.
The problem is easily REPRODUCIBLE.
The problem is very ANNOYING.
Please somebody tell Apple to look into this.
MacBook 4,1 (2.4 Ghz C2D White)
Leopard 10.5.5

Similar Messages

Irratic magic mouse behavior: Left handed user

Hello,
I have a magic mouse that I use on the left-hand side of my MacBook Pro and experience irratic mouse behavior and unexpected jumpiness - i.e. while working on a PowerPoint presentation, the screen jump to a different slide even when I'm not touching the mouse. The screen often jumps on its own even if I'm not typing or using the magic mouse. I've tried several fixes, including:
Setting up my preferences to Ignore trackpad when mouse is present
Setting up my preferences to Scrolling without intertia
Tryinf a couple of apps (Mountain Tweeks and MagicPrefs)
I'm wondering if my continued issues have to do with the fact that I'm using the mouse on the same side that I plug in my computer power cord and speakers.
I've search extensively for a solution to this issue and have been unable to solve it. Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Hi shelleyfromely,
The article below may be able to help you with this issue.
Click on the link below to see more details and screenshots.
I've quoted some helpful highlights for you:
Troubleshooting wireless mouse and keyboard issues
Make sure Bluetooth is turned on
If the "Show Bluetooth status in the menu bar" option is not enabled in the Bluetooth System Preferences, the Bluetooth icon will not display in the menu bar. Enable this option in System Preferences, then check the status of the Bluetooth icon in the upper right menu bar. If the Bluetooth icon does not appear in the menu bar, restart your computer.
Slide the On/Off switch on the bottom of your mouse to turn it on. Note: If the battery compartment cover is not installed properly the On/Off switch may not function correctly or may be difficult to operate. Remove the battery compartment cover and carefully reinstall it.
When your mouse is on and paired, and the batteries are charged, the indicator light glows steadily.
Check preferences
From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences, then choose Bluetooth from the View menu. The Bluetooth preferences pane will list the Bluetooth devices paired with the computer, the status of the devices (paired or connected), and whether Bluetooth power is on or not.
Click the gear icon and choose "Connect" to connect a device that is powered on.
Keyboard or mouse intermittently stops responding
Click the mouse
Click the mouse once to reconnect it with your Mac. It may take a moment for the mouse to respond.
Check the battery level of the mouse. Choose System Preferences from the Apple (), then choose Mousefrom the View menu. The battery level indicator is in the lower-left corner. Replace the batteries if they are low.
Check for signal interference
Wireless networks that operate on 2.4GHz may cause interference.
Move cordless phone base stations, microwave ovens, and other 2.4GHz electrical devices away from the Mac if you suspect interference.
Keep wireless devices within 10 meters (33 feet) of the Mac.
Avoid putting metal objects between the device and the Mac.
Mouse does not track as expected (jittery, jumpy, slow, fast).
The Apple Wireless Mouse can be used on most smooth surfaces, however if tracking issues occur try these options:
Choose System Preferences from the Apple () menu, then choose Mouse from the View menu. Set the Tracking slider to adjust how fast the pointer moves as you move the mouse.
Try using a different surface to see if the tracking improves.
Turn the mouse over and inspect the sensor window. Use compressed air to gently clean the sensor window if dust or debris is present.
If multiple Bluetooth wireless devices are in use nearby, try turning them off one at a time to see if the issue improves. Bandwidth intensive devices could affect tracking.
I hope this information helps ....
Have a great day!
- Judy

Odd/Limited Mouse Behavior

I have an intermittent problem with my mouse behavior in 10.6. Actually, I'm pretty sure I had the same problem in 10.5, it's just a fiendishly intermittent problem that has an as yet undetermined cause & solution. All I know is that it occasionally occurs and eventually resolves itself.
What happens is that I can still click things, scroll, right click to open a more extensive menu, etc., but certain ancillary (yet surprisingly critical) functionality stops working for a time.
For example, hovering my mouse over a link in Safari does not turn the pointer into a "hand with an extended index finger" or does not cause embedded pop up messages to appear (on sites I'm familiar with, no less, so I know they have them). On my Safari browser tabs, the 'x' to close individual tabs does not appear unless I first click on a tab once, and it closes when I click it a second time.
In menus - anywhere, not just in Safari - clicking on File or Edit or View opens the window, but selections do not highlight and track my mouse movements the way they normally do. This makes submenus impossible to use without clicking and holding once I reach the submenu I want to open, and releasing the click when I reach the option I want to select.
The Dock, which I have set to Show/Hide based on my mouse movements, will not pop up when I move my mouse all the way to the bottom of the screen. If I click my mouse once while the pointer is essentially invisible (being at the extreme bottom of the screen), the Dock will sometimes appear, but not always. When it does appear, the icons in the dock do not enlarge/magnify based on my lateral mouse movements the way they normally do.
In iTunes, when I'm watching a TV show or movie in full screen mode, the controller does not appear when I move my mouse the way it normally does.
And so on.
I have never found a working remedy for this affliction, I usually just have to ride it out, i.e., I deal with the limited functionality until something decides to work right again. I have reset my mouse (it's a wireless Logitech mouse with five buttons, including the scroll wheel, but I had a wired mouse way back in Leopard), I have restarted my Mac, reset Safari, reset my System Preferences, repaired Disk Permissions, I have even junked the entire Preferences folder and restarted. I have also switched to different mice, but they have the same problem while the problem is occurring.
I don't believe this is a settings issue, I think it has something to do with Java or something, which occasionally goes on a holiday.
If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. I've been enduring the issue the last day and a half and this is the longest it's ever lasted without correcting itself.

Check for any dust in the LED hole. Try using a plain surface, like a solid colored mouse pad, if the surface is on the shiny side. If that does not work...
Try starting up from Mac OS X installation disc. If the mouse is also erratic when booted from another system, you can rule out the 10.5.3 update as the cause.
If it works normally when you are booted from the installation disc, there is probably some issue with your current installation.

Sloppy Mouse Behavior in this OS

I've never been impressed with the mouse accuracy on Apple systems to begin with but it's gotten worse. I use a 40", Samsung, LED, LCD TV as a monitor for my Intel Mac Pro via an HDMI cable. This is a very expensive monitor. Ever since the past couple of OS updates to Leopard, I noticed the mouse behavior getting very erratic. Specifically I am referring to clicking to close tabs in the browser and nothing happens. Or in mail, I attempt to say highlight an email and it opens instead. Sometimes even multiple copies open. Highlighting and changing a file name is nearly impossible. The same goes for trying to drag or move files around in Finder.
This weekend I upgraded from Leopard to Snow Leopard with no improvement.
I've tried changing mice. I've got a Logitech VX Nano laser mouse. A logitech optical trackball. And a Microsoft laser mouse. All behave the same. They have the exact same problems with or without their driver packages installed.
What's up with this? Does Apple test anything? After the experiences I've had with my Airport Extreme Router and the firmware upgrades, the constant file permission errors after patches, I really have to wonder.

Sorry, but I get the impression that you have no clue what you're talking about when it comes to drivers and their submission to Microsoft:
http://dictionary.zdnet.com/definition/whql.html
Just for the record, I don't have any third party mouse drivers loaded in the OS. While I would agree that in order to get specialized functions on a mouse to work you may need a driver, but I would disagree that in order just get proper operation of the pointer and right and left click buttons that you should need a specialized driver just because it's from a different manufacturer, especially on wired devices.
This operating system is displaying the "i's" as "l's" in my RSS feeds on Safari. I guess that's someone else's problem too?
Message was edited by: 46r

Why is mouse behavior so horrible in osx mavericks?

After "upgrading" to Mavericks, mouse behavior has become erratic regardless of what non-Apple mouse I use, wired or wireless (Logitech & MS).
Behavioral issues encountered are:
- Dragging and Dropping any items in any application including the Finder and Desktop is like playing russian roulette with a 9mm pistol. With the mouse button down, a release is registered and half a second later, another click is registered.
- Clicks not being registered (mostly when trying to close Safari tabs)
- Double clicking automatically happens about 50% of the time when only single clicks are inteneded.
With all mouse drivers updated (for every brand and model of mouse I've attempted to use), the same erratic behavior is randomly encounterd. I have already reset SMC and PRAM to no avail.
Are there some new settings I'm not aware of? Or should I just go out and purchase an Apple mouse?
Thanks for any advice/help on figuring this out.

Thank you William. I normally don't use the mfg's drivers as the OS native driver has always worked fine (minus the acceleration curve). But, due to the issues i'm experiencing now, am trying the mfg osx mavericks drivers and they aren't helping much.
Thank you!

Mouse behavior problem!

When i create two small cube within a big cube, now i want to pick any one of the two small cube, then translate, scal, rotate the small cube.
I already read the book Java 3D Programming, and there had a example mouseNavigateTest. for that example just operate one small cube within a big cube, but when you create another one and then you using mouse behavior, the result was the two cube will be operare together.
i know the above example mouseNavigateTest, it using mouse behavior to operare the transformGroup object. can i operare others to control different cube in the big one?
thaks for any help!

Bear with me while I tell you the symptoms I had, and then see below for the latest update.
I have a mac mini running Leopard with all the latest automatic updates. I have iWork '09. I use a Logitech wireless mouse with a USB transceiver.
Until the last 7 - 10 days, to select a complete row or column, all I needed to do was left-click on the number or letter.
To do the same thing now, I have to RIGHT-click the row number (this shows the drop down menu) left-click (to remove the drop-down menu) and then left-click again to select the complete row. After the first right-click, it does not seem to matter where in the spreadsheet I left-click, the row selected will be that of the original right-click.
Until I have accessed Numbers, the mouse behaves normally, but once I have loaded Numbers, the hover function does not work anywhere on the screen. Even the dock no longer enlarges icons as I pass over them.
UPDATE: This morning the system downloaded updates, and as usual I clicked Install and Restart. After restarting, ALL the hover functions ceased to work.
I discovered that if I unplug the USB transceiver and then reconnect it, full mouse utility returns, including the hover function.
It seems that somewhere in the startup routines, the mouse bluetooth logic is getting overwritten or corrupted, but can be restored by reinitializing the bluetooth device.
Interesting....

Jumpy mouse and shut-downs on G4 mirror door when putting to sleep or just random shut down after install of new 2nd internal WD IDE 320 gig hard drive, OS 10.4.11, orig HD is WD 80, RAM = 2 gig. Help!

Jumpy mouse and shut-downs on G4 mirror door when putting to sleep or just random shut down, is now occuring after install of new 2nd internal WD IDE 320 GB hard drive, running OS 10.4.11, orig HD is WD 80 GB, RAM = 2 gig. Help!

Hi Ted,
At this point I think you should get Applejack...
At this point I think you should get Applejack...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15667/applejack
Ignore the MacKeeper ad no matter what else you decide.
After installing, reboot holding down CMD+s, (+s), then when the DOS like prompt shows, type in...
applejack AUTO
Then let it do all 6 of it's things.
At least it'll eliminate some questions if it doesn't fix it.
The 6 things it does are...
Correct any Disk problems.
Repair Permissions.
Clear out Cache Files.
Repair/check several plist files.
Dump the VM files for a fresh start.
Trash old Log files.
First reboot will be slower, sometimes 2 or 3 restarts will be required for full benefit... my guess is files relying upon other files relying upon other files! :-)
Disconnect the USB cable from any Uninterruptible Power Supply so the system doesn't shut down in the middle of the process.
Just sits there occupying very little space & never interfering, unless you need to invoke it in Single User Mode.
After installing, reboot holding down CMD+s, (+s), then when the DOS like prompt shows, type in...
applejack AUTO
Then let it do all 6 of it's things.
At least it'll eliminate some questions if it doesn't fix it.
The 6 things it does are...
Correct any Disk problems.
Repair Permissions.
Clear out Cache Files.
Repair/check several plist files.
Dump the VM files for a fresh start.
Trash old Log files.
First reboot will be slower, sometimes 2 or 3 restarts will be required for full benefit... my guess is files relying upon other files relying upon other files! :-)
Disconnect the USB cable from any Uninterruptible Power Supply so the system doesn't shut down in the middle of the process.
Just sits there occupying very little space & never interfering, unless you need to invoke it in Single User Mode.

Jumpy mouse movements on Asus netbook

Just installed FF 4.0 and using it on an Asus netbook 1101HA. Whenever I use the mouse on a website, the mouse moves erratically, noticeably erratic. This problem is not apparent in any other app. (I'm using the mouse pad and not an external mouse.)

Hi Rod,
we are working on this with our team, and here are some interesting things we found out:
We uploaded a non-scorm course on Moodle and it works smoothly. In Captivate every page will communicate with the LMS for bookmarking and reporting. Maybe for that reason the animations are not smooth. With this observation we are trying to play around with the layers in Captivate to see if it brings any difference.
Here is the link to the non-scorm course: http://mytechschool.com/moodle/file.php/101/Multi%20Color%20Pen%20-%20v1.38.htm
The communication that occurs on each slide is causing the jumpy mouse / slow mouse movements. Is it possible to fix it by modifying / adding javascript into the HTML wrapper so the SCORM package didn't send the results until the end of the assessment?
How can we do this?
Here is the moodle post where they provided javascript code to accomplish this task. Unfortunately, when this code is used, it doesn't record the results in the gradebook. We could use help from the Adobe community to modify this code so it records the results in the gradebook while avoiding a jumpy mouse.
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=79349#p804524\
TIA.

Change mouse behavior....Turn off slowing motion

HI there folks. Well I got my MAC reinstalled here and one thing I forgot to ask before was how to turn off this certain mouse behavior. When I move slowly with my mouse, the mouse doesn't move the same distance as it does when I'm moving fast. This is kind of hard to describe. If I move it slow it gets VERY slow and precise. Is there a way to just make it "normal"? Thanks for the help!

ridergroov,
Tough night last night.
I guess it's a Mac thing
Not sure what you mean by that. My mouse moves the same on my unused PC's. Slow movement = short distance, Faster movement = greater distance on the screen.
I've used Universal Access and the Mouse Pref's to slow down my mouse to work on very detailed CAD drawings and Photoshop photos to get placement of details just right. There are other programs out there that would speed up a mouse movement several times faster.
http://www.versiontracker.com/php/search.php?mode=basic&action=search&str=mouse& plt%5B%5D=macosx&x=0&y=0
try one of these.

Jumpy Mouse in Moodle LMS

Hi,
we are making SCORM software simulations using Adobe Captivate 5.5.
We have an issue where the software simulations experience jumpy mouse movements. These mouse movements are ONLY jumpy when the SCORM package is played within Moodle. They are not jumpy when we play the same package on the SAME server outside of moodle.
We have tried multiple solutions but none of them work.
Any help would be welcome.
TIA.

Hi Rod,
we are working on this with our team, and here are some interesting things we found out:
We uploaded a non-scorm course on Moodle and it works smoothly. In Captivate every page will communicate with the LMS for bookmarking and reporting. Maybe for that reason the animations are not smooth. With this observation we are trying to play around with the layers in Captivate to see if it brings any difference.
Here is the link to the non-scorm course: http://mytechschool.com/moodle/file.php/101/Multi%20Color%20Pen%20-%20v1.38.htm
The communication that occurs on each slide is causing the jumpy mouse / slow mouse movements. Is it possible to fix it by modifying / adding javascript into the HTML wrapper so the SCORM package didn't send the results until the end of the assessment?
How can we do this?
Here is the moodle post where they provided javascript code to accomplish this task. Unfortunately, when this code is used, it doesn't record the results in the gradebook. We could use help from the Adobe community to modify this code so it records the results in the gradebook while avoiding a jumpy mouse.
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=79349#p804524\
TIA.

Wonky Demo Output - Misaligned Text Boxes and Jumpy Mouse

Hello All,
I'm using Captivate 3 to record a demo of an internal
organization's web-based system. As I'm recording I immediately
noticed that the mouse gets very jumpy and fades in and out
whenever I try to scroll up/down or side to side. It takes it
approximate 4-8 seconds to "catch up" and reappear on the demo
recording screen. It creates a chopping appearance.
Once I view the recorded demo, the mouse appears to be
trailing and creating weird lines (they fade after 3 seconds or so)
along the path the mouse previously traveled. Additionally, the
auto caption and highlight boxes are totally misaligned with the
various links I selected during the demo. Has anyone else seen
these same issues and maybe figured a way to fix them? Could it
simply be a matter of changing some global recording settings? Any
suggestions?
Thanks for your help!

Hi eLearningDeveloper and welcome to the community.
I think the problem might lie in the time to capture vs the
time to load. To clarify, when you click on a screen, Captivate
reacts almost instantly in recording what is on your screen at that
time. Unfortunately, since you are capturing off a server (web
based system), your screen takes a while to refresh, thus Captivate
is recording "incomplete" pages. My suggestion is to use a manual
capture method in cases like this i.e PrtScrn to capture your
screenshots and manually sart and end Full Motion Recording for
drag&drop type of capture The keys used are customisable at
Edit/Preferences under the Recording node.
Lastley, work slowly thus allowing full screen refreshing at
each stage.
Hope this helps.
Andrew
PS On another subject, try not to save your cp files to the
company server as this could lead to file corruption issues, rather
save to the standalone PC.

Quirky Magic Mouse Behavior

I'm having trouble with quirky behavior of a Magic Mouse that's being used with an Intel iMac. In the Mouse panel of System Preferences I have the "Two Finders" option of "Left/Right to Navigate" set on. When in a Finder window set to "list" view I frequently manage to scroll to the right by accident by having an extra finger on the surface of the mouse. I can live with that. But when I try to scroll back to the left, the Finder window often doesn't stop when the scroll bar reaches the left end, but instead switches to the enclosing folder. Is this "working as designed"? I don't see that behavior with my mid-2009 white MacBook, which has "Allow horizontal scrolling" set in the "Trackpad Gestures" section of the Trackpad panel of System Preferences.
Thanks for any insight into this seeming inconsistency.

Based on a comment in another thread I can now close this question, although it does require me to plead guilty to being grossly ignorant on one point. I was trying to use the surface of the Magic Mouse with two fingers in the same way I used two-finger scrolling with my white MacBook's track pad, not realizing that I should have been scrolling with the Magic Mouse with one finger.

Erratic magic mouse behavior

Will anybody ever be able to decipher what the specific causes are for the erratic behavior of Apple's Magic Mouse? Personally I think it boils down to the Bluetooth Signal itself that can cause a lot of this erratic behavior, like in sudden sluggishness of movement. I see this behavior comes and goes as if some invisible force has suddenly intervened. My best guard against erratic behavior is to have the computer as close to the mouse as possible, even a foot or two. The further out the computer gets the more erratic behavior is likely, but like I said, even then it "comes and goes." Do you think it is the Bluetooth signal itself, because sometimes when it's become erratic I move the computer around, even which way it faces in relation to the mouse and I can suddenly "lock on" and the mouse returns to normal, only to have it start acting up again in a few hours or later on in the day or week or whatever. That's why I say the signal itself is suspect because I can effect the behavior by moving the computer around. Maybe the signal is effected by other components in the room like my TV or Audio Equipment or WIFI signals or remote controls.
I love my Magic Mouse and that is why I have put up with this erratic behavior struggle I'm constantly/periodically having, but I do wish this problem could be eradicated altogether and i could just use the mouse like it was intended. Incidentally, this is a brand new mouse I'm currently using that is at issue. All my other Magic Mouse have also done this exact same behavior.

Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes I'm running Yosemite 10.10.3. I'm certain much of what you posted is definitely a likelihood for some of the issues. I have a lot of electronic equipment in this house, and yes, smart tv's connected to WIFI as well as other computers throughout the house. Apple of course does not mention any of this as possible issues as far as I know, the public, like myself, just assumes all will be wonderful. I know there are more like me out there if I'm having these consistent problems with all the Magic Mouses' I've owned. It really is attacking it from the SIGNAL side of things because I think that is the only issue that's going on. If it were addressed more, maybe even scientifically, maybe we could say, "well don't put it here, this can cause problems, and that TV, keep such and such a distance." Those are the types of guidelines that would be so helpful. But from what I'm seeing none of that is addressed at all (or for the most part). Anyway, I really want the wireless mouse world (specifically the Magic Mouse) to thrive. Every time I hook up a wired mouse I really feel the step back I'm taking and it's too painful! I've even went to the point, and I'll do it again if need be, of having my computer (Mac Mini) 2 inches from the Magic Mouse, that's when it operated at its very best. My only problem with that is it's somewhat impracticable, and I really don't think I should have to do that to have it work consistently. Anywho, my two cents worth.

Jumpy mouse scrolling

I've read a few discussion about this but haven't found anything useful. I am running Lion on my Spring 2010 MacBook Pro and I recently installed Windows 7 via bootcamp. Installation went smoothly and everything is working fine. My only problems is, when using any web browser or any program while in OS X (no problem when in windows 7) where scrolling is avaliable, the scrolling is not smooth and very jumpy when using the scroll wheel on my mouse. I never have had this problem when Windows was not installed on the computer. I even uninstalled Windows to see if it would fix the issue, and sure enough, the problem was eliminated after I removed Windows 7. So I have no clue what to do. I really want to have Windows on my Mac but this scrolling thing is almost a dealbreaker. Any ideas or solutions?

Start Firefox in <u>[[Safe Mode]]</u> to check if one of the extensions or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).
*Don't make any changes on the Safe mode start window.
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes
Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.
See "Basic Troubleshooting: Make a new profile":
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Basic+Troubleshooting#w_8-make-a-new-profile
There may be extensions and plugins installed by default in a new profile, so check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions & Plugins" in case there are still problems.
If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.
See:
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

Bizarre mouse behavior on rollOut - bug??

I built a custom cursor out of a swf file and I am applying
it on rollover to a specific item. That part works fine. The
problem is the on rollOut event (or mouseOut I've tried both same
exact behavior) fires CONTINUOUSLY when I move the mouse to the
RIGHT. It only fires when I move the mouse to the right. Let me
give an example:
app starts, normal mouse cursor
i roll over an item, swf cursor applied
normal behavior is for swf cursor to be applied over the
item, and off when rolled out of it.
if i move my mouse to the right while still OVER the item,
the event fires for every pixel i move even though i haven't rolled
out.
if i leave the cursor on and move off the item and move
around in the application, the event still fires every single pixel
i move to the right. not only does it fire - it fires a rollout
event up the entire chain of my application. it fires an on rollout
event for every single component in the application including the
APPLICATION itself!!
i'm going nuts on this one, anyone have some insight? the swf
cursor is nothing fancy, just a bitmap, text, and one small little
animation with no scripts.

The issue seems to be resolved (after a longgggg time of
debugging) to be related the the X and Y offset parameters of the
setCursor method. My cursor was designed to have no offset so i
left it blank. I tried 0,0 but that didn't fix the problem.
Putting in any number (1,1) seems to fix the problem. this
must be a bug of some sort in the constructor for this class. Can
any of the Mods/Devs mark this as a bug to investigate?

Jumpy Mouse Behavior

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