Mouse causing kernel panics?

[FlatlanderIA]

Hello fellow macheads!

i have a new macbook, and upgraded to 2gb of ram. i had gotten several (up to 3/day) kernel panics since the upgrade so i thought i had bad ram. i have since installed new ram, and had no kernel panics the first several days until today.

with previous kernel panics, i could find NO PATTERN to when it was occuring. sometimes it was with a blank desktop, no apps running and would happen only when i would come back to the computer and move the mouse an inch.

today, i had a kernel panic and it happened at the moment i pluged in my Logitech VX revolution wireless USB mouse! now thinking back, i'm sure i had this mouse plugged in when the other ones occured too.

is it possible the mouse is causing these?? it's a mac mouse! thanks!

Tim

 

[technologist]

Does the mouse use a special driver (either a special Logitech driver, or a third-party driver like USBOverdrive?)

If so, it's very likely that the driver is causing the kernel panics.

 

[FlatlanderIA]

technologist,
yes, the mouse (VX revolution) use the logitech drivers, LLC (logictech control center). it was installed off the drivers cd and goes right into the system preferences pane. i uninstalled everything associated with it and have not been using the mouse. hopefully i will not have any kernel panics now. i have been doing research and it seems like people have had this problem and that LLC is very poor software. 1 day without the mouse and so far no kernel panics!
Perhaps my 10.4.9 is ahead of the LLC compatibility? Thanks for getting back to me!

 

[MacHeadCase]

As an alternative why not look at third-party driver SteerMouse? All the people that tried it, from what I can tell, really like it.

It isn't free but if this allows you to use your mouse without any problems and adds some settings that weren't in the Logitech driver, it might be worth it.

 

[FlatlanderIA]

MacHeadCase,
Thanks for the tip, I'm going to check it out. Just to fill you guys in, the kernel panics were indeed being caused by my logitech mouse. great piece of hardware, crappy software. I ended up returning the mouse after reading some people were having kernel panics even without the software installed! I have decided to go with a microsoft mouse, until i can check out the mighty mouse. any experience with the mightmouse?

 

[MacHeadCase]

Some will say they hate it, some will say they love it. I'm in the last bunch: I've had my Bluetooth Mighty Mouse for 6 months and don't have any problem with it.

I just want to point out that there is a lot of dust here (old building) and cat hair (we have two cats). When the scrollball skips a little because of the build-up dirt, I just rub and roll it under an absorbent cotton ball moistened with rubbing alcohol, takes the grime and dust out of the mechanism and it's good to go again.

 

[kuchiki]

Hi does anyone know if there is a Logitech Control Center (LCC) that does not cause the kernel panics? I've tried versions 2.0, 2.1.1, and 2.1.4. But everyone of these didn't really work. They either didn't recognize my VX revolution or they just kept causing kernel panics on my MB 2Ghz C2D. I'd be glad to hear if there is any workaround to this problem besides steermouse.


kuchiki

 

[MacHeadCase]

Did you install the latest Logitech mouse driver? If so, then you have to go 3rd party. Logitech isn't renowned for its Mac support, unfortunately, and they can take many many months before updating their drivers to make them usable in Mac OS X...

I gave up on an MX1000 a couple of years ago: I do believe it took them over a year to update its driver, so I did a good move by getting rid of the mouse - I couldn't wait all that time for the update and I was out of work back then so couldn't afford 3rd party software.

 

[kuchiki]

Did you install the latest Logitech mouse driver? If so, then you have to go 3rd party. Logitech isn't renowned for its Mac support, unfortunately, and they can take many many months before updating their drivers to make them usable in Mac OS X...

I gave up on an MX1000 a couple of years ago: I do believe it took them over a year to update its driver, so I did a good move by getting rid of the mouse - I couldn't wait all that time for the update and I was out of work back then so couldn't afford 3rd party software.

Thanks for the quick reply. I've tried the newest driver also. As a recent switcher I wasn't aware that Logitech's support for Mac user was so customer unfriendly.
I always liked Logitech when I was a Windows user but to wait a year for a driver update that's just too ridiculous no matter how good their hardware is. I guess I'll wait a few more weeks maybe a couple of months and if nothing happens I guess that's it for the VX revolution...as sad as it is.

kuchiki

 

[MacHeadCase]

I think a few members here use the VX Revolution so maybe there is a way to get it to work. Wait till they post a comment here, they got it working somehow. My experience with the MX1000 was a couple of years ago and my experience with Logitech was far from a happy one.

I know some people really like SteerMouse but I don't know if it's a substitute for a Logitech driver or just to add functionality to the mouse driver.

You might be only experiencing some type of software conflict with something you have already installed in your system.

 

[Stretch]

I'm using the VX Rev with the latest drivers from Logitech with no problems. Been using it since 10.4.8 I think, and haven't had any problems with it.

 

[MacHeadCase]

So this does point toward a software conflict of some kind, in this case. Thanks for setting the record straight, Stretch.

Or it could be caused by a completely different hardware problem. Can you run Apple's Hardware Test in Extended Test mode? Just pop in your optical drive your restore DVD and restart holding down the D key. When prompted, ask for the extended test. It will take a while to finish though.

 

[kuchiki]

So this does point toward a software conflict of some kind, in this case. Thanks for setting the record straight, Stretch.

Or it could be caused by a completely different hardware problem. Can you run Apple's Hardware Test in Extended Test mode? Just pop in your optical drive your restore DVD and restart holding down the D key. When prompted, ask for the extended test. It will take a while to finish though.

Thanks for the tip. I've done the hardware test already and nothing was found. So I am pretty confident that it is the LCC software. It caused the kernel panics only after my MB went to sleep and I wanted to reawaken it. In the case of deep sleep mode it always crashed. My friend's MB doesn't crash at all also...but on the other hand he doesn't put his MB to sleep ever...so maybe someone can confirm this: the LCC causes kernel panics mainly after awaking from sleep mode.

Here are some links I found about the LCC software:

http://haugland.ca/notebook/510/
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=304081
http://weblog.halogenlabs.com/posts...-for-the-mac-is-completely-****ing-worthless/


kuchiki

 

[MacHeadCase]

Well! Whaddaya know? The first author recommends the use of SteerMouse! And it does seem to be wobbly coding from Logitech for certain Mac users! Some things never change! LOL

Thanks for those links, kuchiki!

I tried troubleshooting my MX1000 for a very long time because I loved the ergonomics of the mouse so much. I could never get it to work properly. *sigh*

 

[kuchiki]

okay, so I played around with different mouse drivers available for the Mac. Steermouse, usb overdrive, LCC (Version 2.0 - 2.2.2) and I think I got the answer. The kernel panics also occured when I was using Steermouse (even though not that frequently like when using LCC 2.2.2) so I reinstalled the LCC 2.2.2 and tried to find out what caused the kernel panics. In my case the kernel panics only occured when I disconnected the receiver or when my MB went to sleep and I tried to wake it up. So I started waking up my MB using my keyboard and----no kernel panics anymore. The interesting thing is that right after waking up my MB from sleep the little notification window opens telling me my VX got disconnected only to pop up again a second later to tell me it was reconnected. So if anyone else has been experiencing random kernel panics this just might be the workaround. I'll post as soon as I get another one but up until now I haven't gotten another kernel panic since I started using my described method to wake up my MB.

Hope this works for other VX owners as well.

kuchiki

 

[MacHeadCase]

Thanks a whole lot for letting us know of your workaround, kuchiki! Very cool of you!

 

[kuchiki]

Thanks a whole lot for letting us know of your workaround, kuchiki! Very cool of you!

You're welcome;-)

kuchiki

 

[kuchiki]

So I have the final answer to the Logitech Kernel Panic problem (my personal answer).
As written before Steermouse (3.6) first caused kernel panics also when used with my VX revolution. USB Overdrive was good but had a few hardware related complications (especially my USB keyboard macally ikey5). Then I found a workaround where I woke my MB out of sleep mode by using the keyboard rather the mouse. This worked pretty good without a kernel panic but after a week or so the kernel panics started again:-(
While testing all this Steermouse came out with a new version (3.7) so I thought why not give it a try! Now I have been using it since release and man oh man...this is the solution. No more kernel panics...all buttons configurable...the scroll works (hyper fast)...the only down side is that there is no quick search function in steermouse like in the logitech software...but oh well...maybe the Steermouse team will implement something similar to that into their next version.

kuchiki

ps: for a detailed review visit my blog (and there is a surprise event (post) planned tomorrow in cooperation with the steermouse team!