Mighty Mouse ? Mighty Problem
so i've recently gotten myself an iMac (24") Intel duo core, and at first (before the cold front moved in, i live in colorado) the mighty mouse worked fine, but later (after the cold front came) the mouse started to act up.
i have a wired mighty mouse and i'm running 10.4.8. now the problem is that they mouse's side-sensors or "side clicks" are way too sensitive, the silightest touch will make it go off about 15-20 times, sometimes i'll be typing something and the side-sensors will randomly go off. the second thing is that the right-sensor or "right click" does not respond. yes, my secondary button is activated for the right mouse button.
since my side-sensors are too sensitive, in the prefs i've had to turn it off, although i can still hear the darn thing clicking a thousand times a minute. now i'm very fond of the side-sensors, right-sensor and the 360° track scroll, so i do not want to buy a new mouse.
i've swapped out the mouse at the apple store three times now, and all three times the mouse was working fine at the apple store, but not when i took it home. now the odd thing is that if i'm touching the metal base of my iMac it makes the mouse work flawlessly. by this i mean, one hand on the metal base and the other hand operating the mouse.
people have told me to un-plug all usb devices but the mouse and see if it iwas an interfeirence with an externally powered usb device, and as it turns out it is not.
people have told me to check the ground wiring in my house, so i went out to get a tester and checked the outlets in my house and they are all properly grounded.
people also have told me that it is the humidity that is effecting the mouse, but i live in colorado where humidity is rather little.
i still find that the odd thing is that if i touch the base of my iMac it solves the problem, but i have to have continuous contact with the base with my other hand in order for it to work, and i need that hand to operate the hotkeys on the keyboard.
applecare has no idea bout the problem and their solution is just to get a new mouse (which i've done three times now). when i take the mouse to work, it performs flawlessly, but at home it acts up.
i've also taken my entire setup to an applestore for them to look at, but (as you can guess) at the apple store the mouse worked perfectly fine.
anyone have any ideas? i'm on my 3rd week struggling with this freakin problem and no1 has been able to solve the problem.
here are two other threads that are up at the apple discussions, one started by me
and another by other users, i wanted to post them to see if you guys want to read some history on it, the problem still hasn't been solved.
my thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread....677704#3677704
other users thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread....676120#3676120
please respond. thanks.
i have a wired mighty mouse and i'm running 10.4.8. now the problem is that they mouse's side-sensors or "side clicks" are way too sensitive, the silightest touch will make it go off about 15-20 times, sometimes i'll be typing something and the side-sensors will randomly go off. the second thing is that the right-sensor or "right click" does not respond. yes, my secondary button is activated for the right mouse button.
since my side-sensors are too sensitive, in the prefs i've had to turn it off, although i can still hear the darn thing clicking a thousand times a minute. now i'm very fond of the side-sensors, right-sensor and the 360° track scroll, so i do not want to buy a new mouse.
i've swapped out the mouse at the apple store three times now, and all three times the mouse was working fine at the apple store, but not when i took it home. now the odd thing is that if i'm touching the metal base of my iMac it makes the mouse work flawlessly. by this i mean, one hand on the metal base and the other hand operating the mouse.
people have told me to un-plug all usb devices but the mouse and see if it iwas an interfeirence with an externally powered usb device, and as it turns out it is not.
people have told me to check the ground wiring in my house, so i went out to get a tester and checked the outlets in my house and they are all properly grounded.
people also have told me that it is the humidity that is effecting the mouse, but i live in colorado where humidity is rather little.
i still find that the odd thing is that if i touch the base of my iMac it solves the problem, but i have to have continuous contact with the base with my other hand in order for it to work, and i need that hand to operate the hotkeys on the keyboard.
applecare has no idea bout the problem and their solution is just to get a new mouse (which i've done three times now). when i take the mouse to work, it performs flawlessly, but at home it acts up.
i've also taken my entire setup to an applestore for them to look at, but (as you can guess) at the apple store the mouse worked perfectly fine.
anyone have any ideas? i'm on my 3rd week struggling with this freakin problem and no1 has been able to solve the problem.
here are two other threads that are up at the apple discussions, one started by me
and another by other users, i wanted to post them to see if you guys want to read some history on it, the problem still hasn't been solved.
my thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread....677704#3677704
other users thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread....676120#3676120
please respond. thanks.
Comments
now i'm very fond of the side-sensors, right-sensor and the 360° track scroll, so i do not want to buy a new mouse.
anyone have any ideas? i'm on my 3rd week struggling with this freakin problem and no1 has been able to solve the problem.
Ok, I can understand you don't want to buy another mouse but the bottom line is that the Mighty Mouse is mostly badly designed. You shouldn't have to squeeze the mouse to generate a 4th click, they should have made a 4th and 5th button. They should have made separate buttons for left, right and middle-click. I like the idea of the ball but I've seen nothing but trouble with it. I recently showed someone the 'new' ctrl-scroll zoom in 10.4.8 for zooming in on a picture of boobies (yes, I'm that childish), and the guy forgot his Mighty Mouse scroll wheel doesn't scroll down. This was at work too
Oh yeah and one of them plugged their Mighty Mice into my computer and for some reason, Apple's button configuration software for the mouse only appears when using a Mighty Mouse and it remapped Dashboard to middle-click so now I'm going to have to borrow one again to put it back. I wish Apple had just given up with the mouse altogether and just bundled a product from a more experienced manufacturer. It would have been cheaper for them and us.
...people have told me to check the ground wiring in my house, so i went out to get a tester and checked the outlets in my house and they are all properly grounded.
people also have told me that it is the humidity that is effecting the mouse, but i live in colorado where humidity is rather little.
I think this indicates a static electricity interference with the capacitance-sensing mechanism the mighty mouse uses. The fact that grounding yourself fixes the problem supports this.
Although it might be a little pricey, you can probably fix this with a grounded mouse pad or something of that nature.
the second thing is that the right-sensor or "right click" does not respond. yes, my secondary button is activated for the right mouse button.
Just in case you didn't notice yet, to right-click you have to lift your left finger up so it doesn't make contact with the middle and left section of the mighty mouse. Just the middle finger should touch the surface right to the scroll ball. Hope that helps.
The rest, as mentioned above, is probably caused by a lot of static electricity building up. Do you have a carpet in that room? Are you using a chair with little plastic weels underneath? Are you wearing shoes with thick rubber soles? All that can build up a lot of static electricity.
You might also consider buying a not so expensive wrist-band that can be grounded, like the sort of thing they have when servicing computers (inserting RAM for example):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-Anti-.../dp/B00012KBUQ
For a long while I thought I was psychotic too; but recently I have resolved my Mighty Mouse problems for good.
Here's what I've finally figured out ... the problem is radio frequency interference (RFI). Have you ever picked up the telephone handset and heard the feint sound of a local radio station on it? or heard the staccato signal of your cell phone about to ring a nearby speaker? Those are everyday examples of our Mighty Mouse problem.
I had tested and tested, carefully controlled the environment in my home-office, moved my iMac to other rooms of the house. Turns out the circuitry in the Mighty Mouse is picking up a weak electrical charge from spurious radio signals using my body is the antenna. In my case an AM radio transmitter 3 miles away, but could also be a nearby cell phone, etc. This charge is just enough to cause instability in the sensor circuits. But touching the aluminum base of my iMac is drains that charge to the computer frame and not into the mouse. After all my testing, I finally got conclusive proof one day when the local transmitter went off the air (I was listening to it at the time) and the mouse resumed normal behavior for the hour or so that the transmitter was down. Further tests with shielding backed up this theory.
I purchased a grounded mouse pad that drains enough of the charge to eliminate the problem and give me back my sanity!!
It's funny how quality in the mouse market consists of mostly usability, Apple has a largely deserved reputation as a usability forerunner, and yet *Microsoft* beats them soundly in mice.
For as long as I remember, Microsoft's mouse development has been competent and resulted in usable mice, but I think their brightest achievement was when they fell slightly behind Logitech a short while ago. Their response was the Habu, which is pure Razer design and technology, with Microsoft supplying their logo on top. It was superior to anything Microsoft could make in-house. This shows true commitment to product quality, and pride in releasing good products, as opposed to misplaced pride and NIH syndrome. Mind you, their in-house mice weren't bad at any point, just fell short of leading the market, and that was enough to drive them to engage a third party. Apple's mice are genuinely bad and they aren't lifting a finger to fix it.
I concur with Marvin. Apple needs to borrow a page from Microsoft and fast, IMO.
... preferably one made by someone else.