Snow leopard 10.8.6 USB mouse problems

[Janex]

After a computer crash my USB mouse has started freezing intermittently (multiple times a day) requiring a reboot into a different mode (mac to safe mode, mac to pc, safe mode to pc or pc to mac) to unfreeze (reboot into the same mode doesn't fix it). It freezes in Snow leopard 10.6.8 both regular and safe mode and freezes when the computer is booted up as a windows 7 machine. It does not appear related to any particular software type, all though it does freeze more often when something internet is running (Safari, Firefox or mail on the mac side; explorer or chrome when running as a PC). However, it has also frozen when nothing is running at all. It does tend to freeze more often after I have walked away for a few minutes, but will freeze in the middle of active use. It freezes user independently.

- All energy savings has been turned off
- Repair disc permissions has been run dozens of times both in safe mode and in regular (in fact the mouse has frozen when repair disc permissions was running), and from the DVD. Repairing disc permissions at least 3x in a row does appear to temporarily reduce the frequency of the freezes.
- Changing mice doesn't seem to help (but I used an old mouse [different brand, than the first one] to test, perhaps a brand new mouse might work)
- PRam has been reset
- Applejack has been run
- Disc Repair finds no problems

The USB keyboard is unaffected and works fine even when the mouse is frozen.

1. Any ideas to fix?
2. Is there a keyboard shutdown routine that I can use so I don't have to use the power button to shut it down?
3. Could I have a corrupt mouse driver? And if so how do I do a clean install mouse drivers? How do I find out what mouse driver the OS is using?

 

[honestone]

First of all, which machine crashed will using the mouse?

Secondly, you will need the exact model of your mouse in order to obtain the latest drivers (assuming they are compatible with Snow Leopard; not sure about the windows "side"). On the Mac side (at least for Yosemite), when one clicks on System Preferences, the screen containing "links" to all preferences also has ones on the bottom that are typically 3rd party ones. For example, on my Mac Mini, I have one that contains links to preferences for "Default Apps", "DNSCrypt", "Flash Player", "Logitech Control, Center" (that is the one for my USB Logitech mouse that I use), and "TechTool Protection". When I click on the one for the Logitech Control Center, I get an initial screen that shows the version number of the drivers (3.9 in my case). If there is a later version and I download and install it, that version number will change.

Additionally, if you have the latest drivers for your mouse, and do a re-install of those drivers, the "new" ones should replace the old ones.

Third, if the installation of an updated driver does not help, do you have another USB mouse you could try (or know someone that has one)?

 

[honestone]

Regarding my post above, missed the part in your post about trying an "older" mouse. Of course, you would need the drivers for that older mouse. Does using the older mouse on your pc still result in problems?

Wonder if the USB connection is "bad". Hopefully, that would be due to the mouse, and not your machine. Maybe try plugging in the mouse into another USB port and see what happens.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

I use Control Eject on my keyboard to bring up the shutdown dialogue.

Eject icon looks like this (just in case) ...

 

[Janex]

First of all, which machine crashed will using the mouse?

Secondly, you will need the exact model of your mouse in order to obtain the latest drivers (assuming they are compatible with Snow Leopard; not sure about the windows "side"). On the Mac side (at least for Yosemite), when one clicks on System Preferences, the screen containing "links" to all preferences also has ones on the bottom that are typically 3rd party ones. For example, on my Mac Mini, I have one that contains links to preferences for "Default Apps", "DNSCrypt", "Flash Player", "Logitech Control, Center" (that is the one for my USB Logitech mouse that I use), and "TechTool Protection". When I click on the one for the Logitech Control Center, I get an initial screen that shows the version number of the drivers (3.9 in my case). If there is a later version and I download and install it, that version number will change.

Additionally, if you have the latest drivers for your mouse, and do a re-install of those drivers, the "new" ones should replace the old ones.

Third, if the installation of an updated driver does not help, do you have another USB mouse you could try (or know someone that has one)?

Thank you for your help.

The machine is a MacPro 5.1 Quad Core 2.8 GHz (circa 2010-11), 2 hard drives: Mac on 1 hard drive, windows 7 on the other

The only 3rd party preferences I have is for Flash Player (which I also did a clean install of just in case it was the cause of the problems), so I must be using Apple drivers to run the mice. Neither mouse that I have is an Apple mouse, the one I was using when all the trouble started is an Xtreme Gear mouse, the one I tried to switch to is an old Logitech mouse (M-BD58) that we had lying around. Neither of which have current Macintosh drivers available.

If I do buy a new mouse, what brands have you had good Mac experiences with?


For some bizarre reason, as soon as I posted my questions the mouse quit freezing. I hadn't even tried any of the suggestions yet.

 

[Janex]

Regarding my post above, missed the part in your post about trying an "older" mouse. Of course, you would need the drivers for that older mouse. Does using the older mouse on your pc still result in problems?

Wonder if the USB connection is "bad". Hopefully, that would be due to the mouse, and not your machine. Maybe try plugging in the mouse into another USB port and see what happens.

Following your direction both mice seems to be using the Apple generic USB mouse driver, nothing else seems to be installed.

The PC and Mac are on the same machine, I was using bootcamp to switch between them. The driver on the PC side is the generic Microsoft usb mouse driver.

Even though the mouse stopped misbehaving as soon as I posted, I switched USB ports just in case.

 

[Janex]

I use Control Eject on my keyboard to bring up the shutdown dialogue.

Eject icon looks like this (just in case) ...
View attachment 1558
View attachment 1559

Thank you!

 

[honestone]

Thanks for that info. In "earlier" days, Kensington mice were always good, but for the past 5 years or so, I have been exclusively using ones from Logitech.

Right now, I have two machines that I use different Logitech mice on. For my MacBook Air, I use a Logitech M325 laptop mouse, and for my Mac Mini, I use a Logitech M310 Desktop one. Both work fine (I am running OS 10.10.1).

Also, in addition to the latest version of Flash Player, I have 5 other 3rd party preferences: TechTool Protection (for TechTool Pro, excellent Disk maintenance/repair program!), Logitech Control Center (for use with my Logitech mice), Default Apps, DNSCrypt, and Trusteer Endpoint Protection. Everything is stable.

Finally, I do keep my machines as "lean and clean" as possible. Part of this involves my weekly maintenance/backup procedure I go through every Saturday for each of my machines. The tools I use for that are Oynx, TechTool Pro, and SuperDuper!. And, of course, I am constantly "cleaning" unnecessary things off each of my machines between such weekly tasks. All of that certainly helps!

 

[honestone]

Not sure, Janex, where you are located, by Amazon has a Logitech M560 wireless mouse on sale for $14.99 plus shipping (free shipping for orders over $35). Here is the link for that:

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wire...ws/dp/B00DR8LB4Q/?tag=delt-20&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Looks like a nice device. I am, though, happy with my M310 Desktop one.