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Michael T. Doyle · Aug 8, 2002, 11:26 AM

Has anybody seen this issue before? I've had a 15" FP iMac (800)for a week now, running OS 10.1.5, and with increasing frequency the mouse tracking setting keeps spontaneously resetting to medium from maximum speed. This generally occurs when a new window is appearing or when an existing window is redrawing, especially under IE and AOL.

I'm using the same settings and software, including 10.1.5, that I used with my now sadly departed Cube, and never ever had this problem. Neither Apple Disk Utility nor Norton Systemworks 2.0 have detected any problems. I was thinking maybe there's a corrupt preferences file somewhere, like used to happen under earlier Mac OSes, but I can't figure out where that file would be or what it would be called.

I've searched the MacNN forums with no luck. Has anybody else had this problem? I thought the tilt in my display was bad enough.

vmarks · Aug 9, 2002, 01:54 PM

Mike, this is really more of an OS X problem than it is an iMac problem specifically.

I'm going to move it to the OS X forums, where you may get a better answer.

Thanks!

Michael T. Doyle · Aug 9, 2002, 04:25 PM

Originally posted by vmarks:
Mike, this is really more of an OS X problem than it is an iMac problem specifically.

I'm going to move it to the OS X forums, where you may get a better answer.

Thanks!

Thanks VMark. I've since found a lot of depressing discussion about this problem on Apple's OSX board and its lack of solutions. 10.2 can't arrive soon enough for me now.

Musti · Aug 9, 2002, 04:29 PM

Originally posted by Michael T. Doyle:
Has anybody seen this issue before? I've had a 15" FP iMac (800)for a week now, running OS 10.1.5, and with increasing frequency the mouse tracking setting keeps spontaneously resetting to medium from maximum speed. This generally occurs when a new window is appearing or when an existing window is redrawing, especially under IE and AOL.

I'm using the same settings and software, including 10.1.5, that I used with my now sadly departed Cube, and never ever had this problem. Neither Apple Disk Utility nor Norton Systemworks 2.0 have detected any problems. I was thinking maybe there's a corrupt preferences file somewhere, like used to happen under earlier Mac OSes, but I can't figure out where that file would be or what it would be called.

I've searched the MacNN forums with no luck. Has anybody else had this problem? I thought the tilt in my display was bad enough.

Is Trackpad (yep, Trackpad) tracking speed is also set to medium? For some reason, mouse often reads from trackpad the speed setting...sad but true.

Max out the trackpad speed.
Hope this helps.

Rickster · Aug 9, 2002, 04:39 PM

I don't suppose you've been playing games? Some games have a tendency to reset mouse scaling to default when they quit.

Musti · Aug 9, 2002, 04:40 PM

Originally posted by Musti:

Is Trackpad (yep, Trackpad) tracking speed is also set to medium? For some reason, mouse often reads from trackpad the speed setting...sad but true.

Max out the trackpad speed.
Hope this helps.

That was stupid...on iMac you shouldn't have a Trackpad tab. Oh well. This solves the problem for PowerBook users, though.
Sorry.

hyperizer · Aug 9, 2002, 04:55 PM

I would try deleting the .plist (in your Library\Preferences folder) that controls these settings. Unfortunately I'm not sure which one it is off the top of my head....

Michael T. Doyle · Aug 9, 2002, 10:29 PM

Originally posted by hyperizer:
I would try deleting the .plist (in your Library\Preferences folder) that controls these settings. Unfortunately I'm not sure which one it is off the top of my head....

That's what I'd like to do, but I don't know what they are either. Does anyone know where the preferences file is for the mouse preferences under OS X?

CharlesS · Aug 9, 2002, 11:27 PM

I find that it resets to the default mouse speed whenever I unplug the USB mouse and plug it back in while the computer is on.

I agree, it's extremely aggravating, especially considering how slow the default mouse speed is...

Michael T. Doyle · Aug 10, 2002, 12:49 PM

I replaced my white USB iMac Pro Optical Mouse with my older USB MacAlly iSweet mechanical mouse (remember, the one with the "fruit flavored" shells?) and it works perfectly. I haven't had a probelm in almost 24 hours, as opposed to problems every 10 minutes. Definitely seems like an optical mouse driver issue to me. But at least I have a usable mouse now.

sumsugar · Aug 12, 2002, 08:04 AM

I have been having a similar issue. On both my G3 300DT with Zif 500 upgrade card and iBook 600. After reboot I lose the following: Highlight color, mouse tracking, desktop picture and Time (Changes to 24 hour clock). All this since switching to 10.1.5
I thought it might have something to do with moving my HOME folder to another drive but I only did that on the DT machine not the iBook. I hope this gets fixed with Jag. I too would love to trash the associated .plist or preference file for these but do not know which one it is.

Currawong · Aug 12, 2002, 08:30 AM

Especially if you've gone through a number of OS'es, it's likely that some of the settings stored in PRAM have been screwed up somewhat.

Basically, restart then immediately hold down command-option-p-r until you get a second startup chime. Setting hardware related prefs should now stick firm (sound, input and monitor settings mostly).