Here's one for the computer peripheral geeks out there

[kierthos]

I have an optical mouse. It is made by a company (if the logo is to be believed) called Belkin.

For the most part it works fine, and it when I got it, it was a considerable improvement over the previous mouse (also optical) which was suffering from some mouse-ailment that required it to be unplugged and replugged in a few times a day. (Some wonky USB thing.)

Now, like I said, this mouse was, at the time, a considerable improvement. However, lately, I've been noticing a few problems. One is mouse creep. I won't even be touching the mouse when this happens sometimes, but the pointer on the screen will start to creep, usually towards the upper left corner of the screen. Not a real big problem, and if it was just that, I could deal with it.

The other problem is that sometimes, at apparently random times, when playing WoW, my character will spin in a circle a whole lot. This only happens when I am using the mouse as a secondary directional device and/or holding down one or more of the mouse buttons. It doesn't always happen. Maybe two or three times in a four hour session. But it's getting worse.

Now, is this just a problem with optical mice in general, could it have something to do with the mouse in particular (which, as I recall, wasn't exactly recommended for XP, but I've never had a real problem with it until lately), or what? Any thoughts?

Comments

[flemco.livejournal.com]

Tech Man to the rescue!

- Mouse creep is caused by a dirty or slightly misaligned lens/mirror. The best way to clean it is with a wooden toothpick and a dry cotton swab. If the mouse continues to creep, the mirror may have jostled out of alignment, and it's time to throw that fucko away.

- The WoW spin, as I call it, only happens with optical mice. I have no idea what causes it, but it occurs with two different opticals I own. It has NOT occurred with my laser mouse.

[egearman.livejournal.com]

WoW spin, nice term for it, is caused by the mouse pointer jumping to one corner of the screen and trying to go further, while you are doing a mouse look. It only happens with optical mice as they (the driver, OS, whatever) is 'told' that you did a sudden move.

This can happen in any program and can actually be quite a bad thing to happen, say in Photoshop or other editing programs where you are right or center clicking to do something.

That's why I tend to put up with 'normal' mice, even though I have to clean the lint/cat hair out at least once a month.

[the-paco.livejournal.com]

The mouse spin I find is usually caused by inconsistancies or dirt on the surface of what you have the mouse on, it seems more susceptible on highly reflective surfaces with imperfections (like mouse gunk) or surfaces that have a matching shade of color to the light used by the mouse, though it happened rarely enough that I never proved it to my satisfaction. However, I do know that when I had a mouse pad with a patch of red, it occured, and since I've placed it directly on my black table and kept that table clean of mouse gunk, the problem has not returned.

Mouse gunk is that gray dirt crap that builds up on the mouse feet, on old mouse ball rollers, and on tables where a mouse is used constantly.

[egearman.livejournal.com]

Ahhh... so that's the underlying cause. I thought it was just general use/abuse. Of course, the 'wood grain' surface I have for a computer table also seemed to be a poor choice for an optical mouse...