Windows Mouse Problems only in games

[SlickShoes]

I am using a Logitech M570 trackball mouse for gaming sometimes when I get too lazy to move from the sofa.

Anyway I used it fine for a few months, but now whenever I go to play a game the mouse works fine, in the game menu it works fine, once I am in game it becomes unresponsive, laggy, like the signal is being blocked, clicks and rolling the ball don't register. If i go back to the menu from the game it works fine again.

I can't think of anything I have installed that would cause this, all I have installed in Windows is Steam, steam games, winamp, chrome, firefox and anti virus. The only thing I installed around the time of this starting to happen was Dragon Age Origins, but I have removed that now.

Does anyone have this mouse or have any idea what could cause this? I have uninstalled the drivers and everything and reinstalled but its still the same.

EDIT: just tested it in OSX, same thing happens, works great on desktop and game menus, as soon as I enter a game of Counter Strike my frame rate plummets and the mouse becomes unresponsive to movement and clicks.

 

[doh123]

unhook the mouse and see if it happens without it... at least know if its really related to that mouse at all.

 

[SlickShoes]

I don't know what you mean by unhook?

It doesn't happen when using the trackpad or when using my wired Razer mouse though.

I have the mouse at work today to test it on a different computer, hopefully it works and I can rule it out as a driver issue.

EDIT: I have tried the same mouse on my work computer and it works perfectly fine, so it's some driver issue or something i have installed on my laptop causing the problem. I want to fix it but I can't be bothered with a complete rebuild of my laptop just to fix a wireless mouse.

 

[doh123]

I don't know what you mean by unhook?

It doesn't happen when using the trackpad or when using my wired Razer mouse though.

I have the mouse at work today to test it on a different computer, hopefully it works and I can rule it out as a driver issue.

EDIT: I have tried the same mouse on my work computer and it works perfectly fine, so it's some driver issue or something i have installed on my laptop causing the problem. I want to fix it but I can't be bothered with a complete rebuild of my laptop just to fix a wireless mouse.

unhook... remove... unplug... meaning don't have the mouse connected to the computer and see if the problem still happens, which i see you did. I'm not sure a rebuild of anything will help if the same thing is happening in 2 different OSes... thats a bit strange.

I looked closer at the mouse your using, and it is wireless... it was one of those little USB plug in thingies? Did you try it in multiple USB ports? One might be slightly underpowered and that thing needs full power. Also try with the mouse physically closer to the device or with new batteries, but that may not be a problem if it worked ok on a different computer... with the description of the issue I'd suspect a slightly underpowered USB port.

 

[SlickShoes]

unhook... remove... unplug... meaning don't have the mouse connected to the computer and see if the problem still happens, which i see you did. I'm not sure a rebuild of anything will help if the same thing is happening in 2 different OSes... thats a bit strange.

I looked closer at the mouse your using, and it is wireless... it was one of those little USB plug in thingies? Did you try it in multiple USB ports? One might be slightly underpowered and that thing needs full power. Also try with the mouse physically closer to the device or with new batteries, but that may not be a problem if it worked ok on a different computer... with the description of the issue I'd suspect a slightly underpowered USB port.

hey, cheers for the reply!

I have tried it in multiple USB ports, it's always within 10cm of the computer, tried brand new batteries several times.

The odd thing is that it worked perfectly for a month before any of this started happening.

It works perfectly on my iMac at work, I just played 3 games of Counter Strike without any problems at all.

I had a problem before with a bluetooth mouse that if it was paired in OSX before being paired in Windows it ends up not being recognised properly and never connects, so I am wondering if I am having a similar issue now, or something of the same ilk.

A rebuild will take me a good few hours and if that didn't work I would be pretty annoyed at wasting all that time for nothing!

 

[ZolakJHS]

Hey, I actually have been having the same problem lately with a logitech wireless mouse. Happened more often when it "seemed" like the computer was under a heavy load, such as gaming or running handbrake. I went back to using a bluetooth (magic mouse) device and that seemed to help.
Also, I have run into weird "interference" issues with baby monitors sometimes, do you have one of those running? For example, my (also Logitech) RF remote was completely useless when I had the baby monitor on, but when I switched the channel things worked great.
Good luck with your mouse issues!

 

[SlickShoes]

Hey, I actually have been having the same problem lately with a logitech wireless mouse. Happened more often when it "seemed" like the computer was under a heavy load, such as gaming or running handbrake. I went back to using a bluetooth (magic mouse) device and that seemed to help.
Also, I have run into weird "interference" issues with baby monitors sometimes, do you have one of those running? For example, my (also Logitech) RF remote was completely useless when I had the baby monitor on, but when I switched the channel things worked great.
Good luck with your mouse issues!

Thanks, I don't have a baby monitor running thankfully haha!

It's at least a bit reassuring that its not just me that's had these problems, and yes like you say the lag is when the computer is under heavy load, gaming is the only heavy load my computer is ever under so I can't really try it with anything else.

 

[edddeduck]

Happened more often when it "seemed" like the computer was under a heavy load, such as gaming or running handbrake.

When running drivers they take over the Mouse input (banning direct access) and pre process all the data before the game see's it, causing some lag in the process. If the CPU load is very high this lag can increase to noticeable amounts.

However if you use the mouse without drivers (Logitech mice work fine without the drivers) the lag you experience will be much less and in most cases none existent.

Bluetooth mice will always have more lag than wired (and dongle) mice as all the connections are going via the bluetooth drivers which is less direct/optimised as the USB chain.

For example in Deus Ex if you uninstall the Logitech drivers the game can use RAW input mode where the mouse delta information is drawn directly from the hardware by the game. If you have the drivers installed the game requests the mouse data from the OS which gets the data from the drivers which gets the data from the mouse. As you can see that is a much longer chain meaning you get "floaty" or "stuttery" mouse effects under high load. If one of your Mac's is less powerful than the other that could be the reason for the differing effects on either machine.

Hope this explains a few possible reasons for the issues you are seeing.

Edwin

 

[SlickShoes]

I have tried it with the logitech software and drivers and also without then by just plugging the dongle in to the USB port and using the mouse.

In OSX all I have done is plug in the dongle and turn the mouse on, nothing was ever installed.

I have read about other Logitech mice having problems with interference from routers when there is high network traffic or general load on the computer so I will go home and try an offline game with my router completely unplugged and see if it makes any difference.

 

[edddeduck]

I have tried it with the logitech software and drivers and also without then by just plugging the dongle in to the USB port and using the mouse.

In OSX all I have done is plug in the dongle and turn the mouse on, nothing was ever installed.

I have read about other Logitech mice having problems with interference from routers when there is high network traffic or general load on the computer so I will go home and try an offline game with my router completely unplugged and see if it makes any difference.

Ah well worth a shot

 

[SlickShoes]

Tried it with everything in the room off apart from the mouse and laptop and it still ends up happening.

I can only assume something from the flat above me is interfering with it, in that case there is nothing I can do about it.

 

[donald.t]

Tried it with everything in the room off apart from the mouse and laptop and it still ends up happening.

I can only assume something from the flat above me is interfering with it, in that case there is nothing I can do about it.

I think, the game activate some virus which halt some drivers due to that the mouse didn't work properly.

 

[edddeduck]

I think, the game activate some virus which halt some drivers due to that the mouse didn't work properly.

Just in case someone gets scared reading this, I don't know of any game that has a virus built in (unless you download a pirated copy). Also I know from experience that a game cannot just turn off drivers even if we wanted to unless we broke a lot of rules.

Edwin