I just received my G4 500 today -- it works like a champ. However, the beautiful new optical mouse gets a bit jumpy while I'm copying files over from a Zip disk (on an internal Zip drive). Is anyone else having this problem? Or any other mouse weirdness?

It's not a big deal to me, though it is a little annoying.

[PCTek]

The only time i've had jumpyness from the Optical Mouse was when i was using it in a hot, very humid environment (If you must know, an open-window auditorium with 300 people in 85 degree heat)

It's obviously a problem with the Zip drive and MacOS, and not the mouse.

[wlonh]

lemme see now, a mouse... hmm...

that would be a peripheral device, no?

this post was misposted, belongs in peripherals forum... regardless of what the mouse is attached to, it is a peripheral and the post is concerning the MOUSE, the mouse is central, it's the main issue in the post. this is the most basic and simple logic: the issue is the mouse, and therefore this post belongs in the peripherals forum.

[This message has been edited by wlonh (edited 08-15-2000).]

[Elderloc]

Yes but it is connected to a G4 500. He thought maybe it was just a problem with the new G4's...

I have had problems with the Optical mouse I had on my G4 single (MS).

I just bought a DV+ iMac for my wife and the Apple one jumped just like the Microsoft one did.

I have since replaced my mouse pad. I guess the optical mice do not like red!! When it hit a red spot on the graphics on the mouse pad it would not track in corretly.

DTK...

Have you tried another mouse to see if the same thing happens? I almost always get a jumpy cursor when using my internal Zip 250 drive with older 100 MB disks (almost to the point of being unusable). Does it "feel" like the cursor is just skipping or does it seem like the use of the Zip drive could be the problem?

The problem is that the MacOS is not a multitasking OS and it can't handle the interupts fast enough for a smooth mouse operation while doing things on slow removable media. You may remember that you can't do ANYTHING when you format a floppy and when you copy files to that floppy the mouse (any mouse) would get jerky.

There's nothing wrong, just be calm and wait for Mac OS X!

Chris

Actually, the MacOS IS a multitasking OS. It is JUST as Multitasking as ANY Windows OS other than W2000. That is to say, it is a COOPERATIVE multitasking, rather than a PREEMPTIVE multitasking OS.

I have the same exact problem with the jumpy mouse on some of our G4's. Since they have the original mousel, I don't think the optical mouse is causing the problem.

It has nothing at all to do with the mouse hardware. The problem is in the USB drivers that Apple has supplied. First of all, USB was never designed for running disks. It was designed for peripherals that do not transfer much data thoughput. The problem you are experiencing is due to the high demands of the zip drive contrasted with the relatively low thoughput of the USB medium.

(The reason you never saw problem lik this with ADB mice is that nobody ever tried to do something as stupid as hooking a drive up to ADB. I guess customers really aren't *always* right. Maybe USB companies shouldn't hav listened when everyone demanded tht they make USB drives to replace the missing floppies on the iMacs.)

The second problem is that Apple has not perfected the USB drivers; so there are bugs (features?) that allow other processes to take higher priority than the USB driver. This may be fine and dandy or a USB drive; but I can't think of many things that should *ever* tke priority over your USB mouse. So Apple needs to do some fine tuning in this area.

[wlonh]

"the fault lies not with the stars but with ourselves"

or Pogo (a newspaper cartoon strip) said: "we have met the enemy and he is us"

the optical mouse works perfectly for me and on several different Macs: an iBook, a revD iMac, and a G4 tower... only the first Mac mentioned is mine, the iBook, the others are friends/relatives Macs and i have used this Apple Pro mouse (optical) extensively with them... no issues.

Originally posted by Jarrod:
Have you tried another mouse to see if the same thing happens?

No, I haven't tried that. I'll swipe a hockey puck mouse from work and see if I encounter the same problems. Thanks everyone for your other suggestions and input.

I noticed later that it isn't just the Zip drive that messes with the mouse. The registration popup windows that appear while running newly installed programs screw it up as well. I'll try and duplicate the errors, and I'll follow the suggestions in this forum and in the earlier thread on this topic. (which I see now, after initially posting this in the wrong forum.)

P.S. to wlonh: Sorry about the mis-post -- the peripherals category eluded me late last night.


[This message has been edited by MagDesigner (edited 08-15-2000).]