iMac mouse lag

cheese81u812 · Jun 28, 2007

I've used a PC for most of my life, and now I have to use a Mac for studio work. The biggest thing hampering my workflow is the cursor lagging behind the physical mouse movement about 30ms or so. I can't tell if it's the LCD on the iMac having a slow response time or some sort of mouse smoothing, but using the same mouse on a PC (Mighty Mouse) feels fine. Any way to fix this? Any help would be appreciated.

iRock · Jun 28, 2007

Hi and welcome.

If you go to preferences->Keyboard and mouse you can adjust the settings there.

I just got an iMac and I found it the same until I changed the settings.

cheese81u812 · Jun 28, 2007

Nothing there will fix mouse lag.

RiDE · Jun 28, 2007

Is it a wired Mighty Mouse or Bluetooth?

Does it lag in every application?

Are you running Coconut Battery by chance?

dtravis7 · Jun 28, 2007

Try MouseOverdrive or MouseZoom. See if either of those help. People with the same complaint as yours claim they do.

technologist · Jun 28, 2007

I sincerely doubt that any human being in any normal space-time continuum can perceive a lag of three-hundredths of a second.

iRock · Jun 28, 2007

technologist said:
I sincerely doubt that any human being in any normal space-time continuum can perceive a lag of three-hundredths of a second.

I feel stupid that I didn't think of that when I was giving my 2Cents!

cwa107 · Jun 28, 2007

I found the same thing when I first started using a mouse (as opposed to the trackpad) on my MacBook Pro. Several others have reported the mouse to have a feeling like you're dragging it through the mud, only to have it take off on you when you apply more force.

For me, Steermouse cleared this up nicely and was a worthy investment (check out the trial version first).

dtravis7 · Jun 28, 2007

I saw what he said but some do find the acceleration curve different on Macs, so figured I would point him to a couple mouse accelerators and see if that made him happy. I do agree with Tech by the way, but did not want to say anything that would cause any issues.

cheese81u812 · Jun 28, 2007

iRock said:
I feel stupid that I didn't think of that when I was giving my 2Cents!

Well don't be, 30ms is highly noticeable if something that's supposed to be an extension of your motor capabilities lagging behind 30ms.

It lags in every application, even games. The mouse cursor is simply latent, and this problem is ostensibly unrelated to mouse sensitivity or mouse acceleration (it's possible, but highly unlikely that the problem is related to mouse accel as disabling it via USB Overdrive doesn't solve the problem).

I guess I'll start trying out some more apps on this page, and thanks for the help.

Mouse is wired, btw.

cwa107 · Jun 28, 2007

cheese81u812 said:
Well don't be, 30ms is highly noticeable if something that's supposed to be an extension of your motor capabilities lagging behind 30ms.

It lags in every application, even games. The mouse cursor is simply latent, and this problem is ostensibly unrelated to mouse sensitivity or mouse acceleration (it's possible, but highly unlikely that the problem is related to mouse accel as disabling it via USB Overdrive doesn't solve the problem).

I guess I'll start trying out some more apps on this page, and thanks for the help.

Mouse is wired, btw.

I bought USB Overdrive before Steermouse - and I was very sorry that I did. I was able to almost immediately set Steermouse to a comfortable position. I poked and prodded USB Overdrive for days and never got it "just right". Add to that the fact that USB Overdrive doesn't support bluetooth mice, it makes Steermouse a better choice IMO.

technologist · Jun 29, 2007

cheese81u812 said:
Well don't be, 30ms is highly noticeable if something that's supposed to be an extension of your motor capabilities lagging behind 30ms.

Only if you are a truly exceptional individual, sir.

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=634067.634255

cheese81u812 · Jun 29, 2007

technologist said:
Only if you are a truly exceptional individual, sir.

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=634067.634255

What a joke. Before you start believing whatever some "research" tells you, try finding things out on your own. Go do this: get a clock and tap your finger on your desk five times during the duration of one second to get a feel for how much 200ms is, then imagine that delay on your mouse cursor--your computing experience would be unbearable.

As for my problem, the delay is so miniscule that I couldn't tell you exactly how long the delay is (I'm estimating based on much experience) as it's more of a sensation rather than an enumerable delay but there is most certainly a noticeable delay. I can look at the mouse, move it, and I can see the cursor on the screen in my peripheral vision is not moving instantaneously as it does on any other PC--whether it be Windows, Linux, or, ironically, Unix and Irix.

But I can see people would rather get used to this problem than fix it or create a stink and most are just oblivious to this problem in the first place (it is a problem that has plagued every 10.4 iMac I've tried. I haven't tried other Macs for this problem) from the lack of documentation of this problem on the net. Thanks for your replies, but this seems to be a dead end.

technologist · Jun 29, 2007

cheese81u812 said:
What a joke. Before you start believing whatever some "research" tells you, try finding things out on your own. Go do this: get a clock and tap your finger on your desk five times during the duration of one second to get a feel for how much 200ms is, then imagine that delay on your mouse cursor--your computing experience would be unbearable.

I can read the actual paper, actually, and as they said, 200ms was the high end for mousing tasks, and they think that 150ms or so is a more likely time. I'm willing to stick with the 100ms time that they cite as a "rule of thumb" (which is also based, loosely, on actual CHI laboratory research.)

As for my problem, the delay is so miniscule that I couldn't tell you exactly how long the delay is (I'm estimating based on much experience) as it's more of a sensation rather than an enumerable delay but there is most certainly a noticeable delay.

Now that I'll believe. I'll believe you could sense a delay down to about 50ms or so, actually. But 30ms is too close to, say, LCD refresh time (14-18ms) and is lower than, for example, the frame rate of a theater projector (41.7ms) so I very much doubt you could be quite that sensitive. If you were, daily life would be a chore. 30ms just smells like you pulled it out of some unsavory bodily orifice

I can look at the mouse, move it, and I can see the cursor on the screen in my peripheral vision is not moving instantaneously as it does on any other PC--whether it be Windows, Linux, or, ironically, Unix and Irix.

But I can see people would rather get used to this problem than fix it or create a stink and most are just oblivious to this problem in the first place (it is a problem that has plagued every 10.4 iMac I've tried. I haven't tried other Macs for this problem) from the lack of documentation of this problem on the net. Thanks for your replies, but this seems to be a dead end.

It looks about that way. But other than "get used to it" or "try another mouse" (maybe a trackball...they always seemed snappier to me personally) there's nothing much I can suggest.

dtravis7 · Jun 30, 2007

I am sorry, I do not see the lag, just on a stock Mac I see a different acceleration curve. Using the Mouse Accelerators I mentioned I can get it just like a PC if I want. I am very picky about mouse movement also.

When I first used a Mac with OS 6.0.1, I noticed it did not accelerate the same as a Windows 3.1 PC at time.

cwa107 · Jun 30, 2007

dtravis7 said:
I am sorry, I do not see the lag, just on a stock Mac I see a different acceleration curve. Using the Mouse Accelerators I mentioned I can get it just like a PC if I want. I am very picky about mouse movement also.

When I first used a Mac with OS 6.0.1, I noticed it did not accelerate the same as a Windows 3.1 PC at time.

Same here.

cheese81u812: Time to stop complaining and try the things that have been suggested to you. If you didn't start this thread to solve your problem, what was the point?

Steermouse should correct this nicely. Link posted earlier in this thread.

cheese81u812 · Jun 30, 2007

cwa107 said:
Time to stop complaining and try the things that have been suggested to you. If you didn't start this thread to solve your problem, what was the point?

Steermouse should correct this nicely. Link posted earlier in this thread.

I've tried every program suggested to me in this thread, and none have fixed the problem. Most likely it's some sort of mouse smoothing going on or the LCD monitor built into the iMac is laggy like a lot of aftermarket LCDs (anyone have the specifications of the iMac monitor?). Honestly think I would waste my time on these forums? No, I'm looking for a solution so I can get more work done faster with less headache.

technologist said:
Now that I'll believe. I'll believe you could sense a delay down to about 50ms or so, actually. But 30ms is too close to, say, LCD refresh time (14-18ms) and is lower than, for example, the frame rate of a theater projector (41.7ms) so I very much doubt you could be quite that sensitive. If you were, daily life would be a chore. 30ms just smells like you pulled it out of some unsavory bodily orifice

What can I say? I just have a keen eye for these things. It feels like something that lags 30ms behind (like a USB mouse running at 30hz, although less choppy), and it's definitely noticable to me, and that's really the bottom line.

cwa107 · Jun 30, 2007

cheese81u812 said:
What can I say? I just have a keen eye for these things. It feels like something that lags 30ms behind (like a USB mouse running at 30hz, although less choppy), and it's definitely noticable to me, and that's really the bottom line.

Aside from installing Steermouse, did you actually go in and configure acceleration settings?

cheese81u812 · Jun 30, 2007

cwa107 said:
Aside from installing Steermouse, did you actually go in and configure acceleration settings?

I used USB Overdrive to disable acceleration (0%), but that may have not circumvented whatever algorithm Apple has in place to handle accel, which may be the problem.

cwa107 · Jun 30, 2007

cheese81u812 said:
I used USB Overdrive to disable acceleration (0%), but that may have not circumvented whatever algorithm Apple has in place to handle accel, which may be the problem.

I found USB Overdrive to be relatively worthless compared to Steermouse. No matter how much I poked and prodded its multitude of settings for acceleration and sensitivity thresholds, I couldn't get it to feel like it does on Windows. This was particularly important to me because typically my Mac sits next to my Windows desktop at work and I toggle between the two constantly. With Steermouse, I was able to get it exactly right in a few seconds.

If I were you, I'd uninstall USB OverDrive and give Steermouse a try.