Nervous Mouse Syndrome

[Bob McConnell]

Bart Silverstrim wrote:
> Joseph wrote:
> 
>> WHOA!  Hold IT!  Put on the brakes!   <GRIN>
>>
>> I'm not sure why it seems some of you believe I have a wireless.  I probably wasn't clear....  my 
>> mouse is corded with an PS2 (little round) plug....   it's just an optical track ball.
> 
> When I have a corded optical mouse do this, it's often been because:
> 
> a) the surface was SMOOOOOOTH and unbroken in color, and that mouse was 
> going ga ga because it couldn't see a difference in the surface.  Used a 
> mousepad or a sheet of paper and it suddenly worked.
> 
> b) the surface was SHINY, or transparent with an offset (i.e., plexi or 
> glass surface on top of a desk) so it scattered the light and told the 
> mouse it was moving when it wasn't.
> 
> I've read about a case where a mouse went nuts because sunlight was 
> shining just right at a particular time of day and it was creeping into 
> the mouse housing and interfering with a sensor.  Remove the hand, 
> pointer was moving by itself.
> 
> Don't know if any of these help...
> 
> -Bart
> 

An optical mouse can also get confused if there are strong contrasts in 
the image on the mouse pad. Sharp edges between black and white areas 
are the worst. A clean piece of colored paper seems to work best. In 
Joseph's case, the MS-Windows drivers may just be better at catching the 
mouse tripping over those boundaries.

Last year my wife got a promotional mouse pad with star-bursts and white 
on black printed text. Even with MS-Windows the pointer would jump half 
way across the screen for no apparent reason. That stopped when we 
replaced that pad with one that had only a single color. I have seen 
similar problems at work. The fix was always to replace the noisy pad.

Personally, I prefer the Logitech Marble Mouse. But even that one has to 
be cleaned regularly. All four that I have came with USB connectors and 
a PS/2 adapter. I have used them both ways.

Bob McConnell
N2SPP