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An odd problem with a jittery mouse

smartcooky said:
I did both at the same time. I'm in a business situation here, I want to fix it not necessarily spend a lot of time diagnosing the actual cause.

However, I have to say that cleaning lens had an immediate effect on how the mouse operated (smoother and more responsive than before) so I'm inclined to think that it was the major contributor. The mouse has operated flawlessly all afternoon, so I'm hopeful its fixed.
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It can be a bit odd. With my current mouse there are two desks which, if I sit at them, reduce my mouse pointer to a quivering wreck. Use a sheet of paper as a temporary mouse mat and no more problem. Why does this only occur with those two particular desks? I have no idea. There is no difference between them any any of the other desks as far as I can tell.
 
I've found that MDF (hardboard, or Masonite) makes an excellent mousing surface. I usually put a sheet of shelf liner grip material underneath so it doesn't slide around.
 
arthwollipot said:
If you use a mouse pad, ditch it. Optical mouses do not need them.
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Weelllllll.....

That kinda depends. You are correct that they don't technically need them. On the other hand, not every surface is the same. On some surfaces they don't work well at all, so a mouse pad can give a consistent surface that doesn't interfere. But it is dependent on situation. You generally don't need one, but they can help if your mouse has trouble with whatever surface you use it on.

And there are "optical" mouse pads, made to provide a good surface for optical mice. They tend to be a stiffer, plasticized surface instead of the cloth of traditional mouse pads.
 
The most common dirtiness problem I encounter is a hair stuck in front of the lens. Often barely visible to my old eyes.

Causes either non-movement (the hair is fixed in place, and is the main thing the optics sees), or jumpiness (when the hair moves.)

Cleaning, best with compressed air can, helps.
 
elgarak said:
The most common dirtiness problem I encounter is a hair stuck in front of the lens. Often barely visible to my old eyes.

Causes either non-movement (the hair is fixed in place, and is the main thing the optics sees), or jumpiness (when the hair moves.)

Cleaning, best with compressed air can, helps.
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We have four cats.

Hair is definitely a problem.
 
I went through this recently. Tried every recommendation/trick/advice on the Internet. Changed system settings, updated drivers, and etc.

Finally . . . a hardware problem. I replaced the mouse and the problem went away. :o
 
Hellbound said:
Weelllllll.....

That kinda depends. You are correct that they don't technically need them. On the other hand, not every surface is the same. On some surfaces they don't work well at all, so a mouse pad can give a consistent surface that doesn't interfere. But it is dependent on situation. You generally don't need one, but they can help if your mouse has trouble with whatever surface you use it on.

And there are "optical" mouse pads, made to provide a good surface for optical mice. They tend to be a stiffer, plasticized surface instead of the cloth of traditional mouse pads.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's a good point. They don't work very well on more reflective or glossy surfaces. If your desk has such a surface, you may want to use a matte mat.
 
Everything worked perfectly.... for most of the day, and then right at the end of the day... the return of the jittery mouse. Gah!!! Back to square one.

Just reading thorough some of the comments here, I am really beginning to wonder if the actual surface I have the mousemat on is not a good one. It is not, strictly speaking a desk. I have the mousemat sitting on the top of a film scanner on a workdesk.

[IMGw=800]https://www.dropbox.com/s/xa2p0vw8hzda9t6/2019-11-21%2016.41.38.jpg?raw=1[/IMGw]

The transition between the body of the scanner and the lamp cover (the black bit) is a bit bumpy. Tomorrow, I am going to try a piece of MDF (as suggested by alfaniner) on the scanner with and without the mousemat on top, and see what happens.
 
If anyone's interested, I was working IT during the transition from ball mouses to optical mouses. I tried a lot of different things to optimise them, which is how I worked out that a matte desk is the optimal surface. I've spent the rest of my life trying to get people to stop using mouse mats.

Okay no I haven't.
 
arthwollipot said:
Yes, that's a good point. They don't work very well on more reflective or glossy surfaces. If your desk has such a surface, you may want to use a matte mat.
Click to expand...

That's been less true for ages, modern sensors work pretty well across a wide range of surfaces,personally I like a rigid mousemat for a smoother action when moving the mouse and they're easier to clean. Whereas my old gaming desk has a patch where the finish has been worn away as I used the mouse without a mat for too long.

As for the original problem, I've had some luck with repositioning the wireless reciever, if you can use the front port (or use a USB extension) to bring it closer to the mouse.

Beyond that you may want to ask how much time you're willing to spend troubleshooting a £15 part, and get a cheap wired mouse as a backup
 
Did you upgrade the firmware\driver? Windows updates almost weekly, sometimes the updates can break ****.
 
Not convinced this is your issue, but in the past I've had problems with wireless mouses which had to do with the specific placement of the receiver. Not distance, just placement - for some reason the specific orientation of the receiver compared to where the mouse was made the signal erratic. Changing that by, say, moving the receiver from a port on the front of the case to one on the back, or getting an extender so the receiver plugged in oriented up-to-down vs front-to-back (even if further away) would clear up the issue for me. Obviously this wouldn't work if you just plugged it into a port right next to the one it's in now.

Just something you might be able to try for free depending on your available ports.
 
No problems all day yesterday, and none at all today (its Saturday here, so its a half day). It seems that placing a piece of MDF on the scanner top, replacing the mousemat and cleaning the lens seems to have fixed this problem. This jitter problem was happening at least a three or four times times each day.


Joe Random said:
Not convinced this is your issue, but in the past I've had problems with wireless mouses which had to do with the specific placement of the receiver. Not distance, just placement - for some reason the specific orientation of the receiver compared to where the mouse was made the signal erratic. Changing that by, say, moving the receiver from a port on the front of the case to one on the back, or getting an extender so the receiver plugged in oriented up-to-down vs front-to-back (even if further away) would clear up the issue for me. Obviously this wouldn't work if you just plugged it into a port right next to the one it's in now.

Just something you might be able to try for free depending on your available ports.
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Well, we were having a problem similar to that with a wifi connected scanner. Every so often, the scanner would time out in the middle of a scan, reporting that its wifi connection was lost. It would do this several times in a row, then suddenly would work OK for a few days. We tried a few fixes, including moving the scanner a few inches one way or the other. Its seemed to fix the problem temporarily but after a while, the problem came back. What fixed it ultimately was moving the wifi access point a couple of feet to the left... we've had no problems since.
 
A guy I used to work next to had a mouse that would move by itself, right and left click at the most inconvenient times, and it was a randomly occurring problem for almost two months. Some days it wouldn't happen, some days it would come and go.

The problem followed him when he'd try another computer. There were many in the room (we were working at Google on Google Maps and literally drawing roads on satellite imagery at the time). Very strange behavior for a mouse!

He finally discovered that if he used his left hand instead of his right that the problem would disappear immediately. Was my suggestion :D

It got to the point where he was using the mouse left handed. If he moved his right hand near the mouse the cursor would start to move around. The closer his hand got the worse it moved! He said, "There's a force in my hand!" He seriously thought that might be the cause.

The problem: I had plugged a second mouse into his PC and was operating it with my foot. He even had a half-assed IT guy check out the PC and he didn't notice the extra USB cable! I was home free after that.

He's a good friend so it wasn't "bad", but I had him going for two months. He thought his hand was possessed and he'd sometimes get frustrated and slam the mouse. Not usually, he was pretty mellow. Other times he'd laugh his ass off when it happened.

I felt bad after awhile but I couldn't stop. It was too perfect! I took it too far really, I admit it.

After some time I got bolder. I'd right click with my foot, move down the menu, select something while we both stared amazed at the screen. He'd look at me with mouth agape like WTF!?!?!?

I got very good with the foot-mouse. I sat right next to him so I saw his entire 30" monitor the whole time. I'd have my hands behind my head while we watched his mouse dance. It's not me!

And of course he suspected me for awhile. But when he tried switching desks I got down there and moved the mouse to the other machine. It was a mess of cables with dozens of computers. That's when I really had him. The problem was him.

Sometimes I'd laugh so hard I'd have to pretend I was coughing and look the other way.

People pranked each other a lot there, it was a "thing", especially if you left your PC unattended and not password locked (called getting "cheesed"). But this was the best ever I must say. He got me a few times too but nothing like this.

It was my best prank ever. We're still friends and still talk now and then. GREAT guy and a great friend. Thankfully! I told this story here years ago and a few called me a jerk, but jerk or not, this was a damn fine prank!

ETA:
If it makes anyone feel better I did get another guy. He was a total homophobe and after getting sick of hearing his crap, me and my buddy "the mouse-victim" emailed him a couple of times pretending I was a guy that was attracted to him and "noticed" him on the Google campus.

30 seconds after I sent that email he demanded I follow him into the conference room for a chat.

"Tell me, is this you? Are you messing with me?"

"Nope." Man was he bothered by this. I never told him the truth either.

I also put a Chippendales desktop wallpaper on his PC once when he forgot to hit the screen saver on his break. That was a common prank though.

This dude creeped out a few girls too so I didn't feel bad at all for him.

Since the thread seems resolved, here's a good easy computer prank - might be an old one. Not sure if this still works on Windows 10.

- Take a screenshot of the PC desktop.
- Set it as the desktop wallpaper.
- Right-click the desktop, select View, then UN-check "Show Desktop Icons".

The icons disappear but the screenshot wallpaper makes everything look normal. Your victim will wonder why none of their desktop icons and folders are working.
 
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