Mouse instability in Guild Wars

[Optiker]

I'm running Windows Vista Basic on a Dell notebook computer with ATI
Mobility Radeon X1400 graphics, and using a Microsoft USB five button
optical mouse rather than the notebook's touchpad.

Since I installed Guild Wars on that computer, the mouse has been
unstable - but only in Guild Wars. I also play City of Heroes on that
computer and there is no instability with CoH or any other application -
just with Guild Wars.

The instability is of the form...when using the mouse to steer the
character's movement (mouse look I think it's called in some games),
when trying to make a small direction change, the direction will
spontaneously flip by large amounts - often 90 degrees or more, but it's
hard to tell exactly as it appears instantaneous. This doesn't happen
all the time, but I'd estimate 50% of the time or more - hard to
estimate. I've tried to do a controlled test, but haven't been successful.

I do not find mouse sensitivity settings in the game, and do not have a
detailed mouse configuration in Vista's "Mouse" control panel aplet. The
detailed pointer aplet entitled "Mouse" is mostly for the touch pad, but
for the mouse, only a few settings with no sensitivity type setting.
I've tried to update the driver for that mouse, but Vista tells me the
latest is already installed. The mouse itself is several years old, and
among other things, I've tried cleaning it and using it on different
surfaces other than the mousepad I usually use - emphasize that this
behavior is only in Guild Wars.

I posted the issue to a forum on Guild Wars Guru and the only reply
directed me to a discussion on the nV (nVidia) News forums entitled
"Vista Mouse Acceleration in Games" and referenced "render N frames
ahead" setting. My graphics card configuration doesn't have anything
like that that I can find, and other posts to the thread were in the
context of keyboards.

I've tried to watch carefully and it looks like the cursor "jumps" to
the center of the display from where ever it is when I click. I recall
there being some setting someplace that is for autocentering, but could
be wrong. But, it doesn't do that in any other program that I've
noticed. Is there such a thing in Vista, or if anybody here is familiar
with Guild Wars, is there such a setting there - I could have missed it?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
Optiker

 

[Andy [YaYa]]

Wow that's quite a novel you got going there for mouse problems, I wish I
could reciporcate with such flourish, but I'm at my other job so I don't
have much time.

Have you tried a different mouse pad? Some mice that are optical based have
trouble tracking on some surfaces. Mice are basically CCD sensors (cameras)
that watch whatever image/texture is under the mouse to track movement. if
you're using a surface with a design (or shiny surface) on it, sometimes the
mouse will get confused and mistrack.

This problem is less prevalant on "Laser" mice, and some higher quality
mice. I use a Logitech MX518 "Gaming" mouse. it's amazing, never mis-tracks
ever, cheap too, can adjust the sensitivity on the fly.

Yes, some games can mistrack more often than others, lots of factors
involved.

Try swapping out your mouse pad for a piece of white paper (no print on it),
see if that helps.

Also if your mouse is wireless, the occasional radio interferrance will
cause this problem as well.

in other words, I don't think this is a Vista Problem. it could be Guild
Wars, but I doubt it.

 

[Optiker]

Wow that's quite a novel you got going there for mouse problems, I wish
I could reciporcate with such flourish, but I'm at my other job so I
don't have much time.

Have you tried a different mouse pad? Some mice that are optical based
have trouble tracking on some surfaces. Mice are basically CCD sensors
(cameras) that watch whatever image/texture is under the mouse to track
movement. if you're using a surface with a design (or shiny surface) on
it, sometimes the mouse will get confused and mistrack.

This problem is less prevalant on "Laser" mice, and some higher quality
mice. I use a Logitech MX518 "Gaming" mouse. it's amazing, never
mis-tracks ever, cheap too, can adjust the sensitivity on the fly.

Yes, some games can mistrack more often than others, lots of factors
involved.

Try swapping out your mouse pad for a piece of white paper (no print on
it), see if that helps.

Also if your mouse is wireless, the occasional radio interferrance will
cause this problem as well.

in other words, I don't think this is a Vista Problem. it could be Guild
Wars, but I doubt it.

Andy...

Thanks for the reply - I was beginning to give up hope for help from
this discussion group.

I have tried white copy paper and while that helped, it was far from
eliminating the problem. I have also tried swapping the mouse with the
3-button Dell branded (Logitec?) wired optical mouse. No significant
change. The mouse I was using when I reported the problem is a 5-button
Microsoft Intellimouse (wired, optical).

I have been communicating with GW Tech Support. They had me run DxDiag
and send them the report. From that, they said my graphic driver needed
updating, but that often you had to get it from teh computer
manufacturer (Dell) not the graphic manufacturer, and that meant less
frequent updates. All true! Vista says it's the latest driver, ATI says
I have to get it from Dell, and Dell says there is no more recent driver
update.

Now, GW Tech Support says to run Hijack and send the report so they can
see what else is running that might be causing a problem. I will do that
later today.

Thanks for your suggestions. I'm not a hard-core gamer, but if I knew it
was the mouse, I'd willingly replace it. As it is, swapping the mouse
didn't seem to help, nor replacing the mousepad with white paper.

Thanks again!
Optiker

 

[Andy [YaYa]]

Andy...

Thanks for the reply - I was beginning to give up hope for help from this
discussion group.

I have tried white copy paper and while that helped, it was far from
eliminating the problem. I have also tried swapping the mouse with the
3-button Dell branded (Logitec?) wired optical mouse. No significant
change. The mouse I was using when I reported the problem is a 5-button
Microsoft Intellimouse (wired, optical).

I have been communicating with GW Tech Support. They had me run DxDiag and
send them the report. From that, they said my graphic driver needed
updating, but that often you had to get it from teh computer manufacturer
(Dell) not the graphic manufacturer, and that meant less frequent updates.
All true! Vista says it's the latest driver, ATI says I have to get it
from Dell, and Dell says there is no more recent driver update.

Now, GW Tech Support says to run Hijack and send the report so they can
see what else is running that might be causing a problem. I will do that
later today.

Thanks for your suggestions. I'm not a hard-core gamer, but if I knew it
was the mouse, I'd willingly replace it. As it is, swapping the mouse
didn't seem to help, nor replacing the mousepad with white paper.

Thanks again!
Optiker

Dude I don't know, I consider Guild Wars to be pretty hard core.

Yeah, could be something to do with Guild Wars.

I forget, which video card do you have exactly? I have a Toshiba notebook
and I get the ATI drivers for my x1200 (a notebook only card designed for
Vista Only Notebooks) from the ati.amd.com site. Just got 7.10 the other
day. Might try it, could work.

 

[Optiker]

Dude I don't know, I consider Guild Wars to be pretty hard core.

Yeah, could be something to do with Guild Wars.

I forget, which video card do you have exactly? I have a Toshiba
notebook and I get the ATI drivers for my x1200 (a notebook only card
designed for Vista Only Notebooks) from the ati.amd.com site. Just got
7.10 the other day. Might try it, could work.

Andy...I've got the X1400, and on the ATI site they say I need to get it
from the computer manufacturer - don't even list X1400. I suspect it's
like your X1200 - Vista only notebook card. But I don't think I'll try
it. I really don't need to screw up my system by installing some thing
that will break it. It sure is looking like a GW problem, but if it was,
I'd think they would be familiar with it and had a fix long ago. I'll
try Hijack as they suggested and see what happens.

As for hardcore...not me. I manage, especially when I'm teamed with my
son who graciously covers for me and keeps me from getting too lost. I
manage pretty well on City of Heroes - even without him - and survived
as a beta tester of Lord of the Rings without him, but needed him around
for World of Warcraft. I survived it alone, but barely.

Thanks!
Optiker

 

[Andy [YaYa]]

Andy...I've got the X1400, and on the ATI site they say I need to get it
from the computer manufacturer - don't even list X1400. I suspect it's
like your X1200 - Vista only notebook card. But I don't think I'll try it.
I really don't need to screw up my system by installing some thing that
will break it. It sure is looking like a GW problem, but if it was, I'd
think they would be familiar with it and had a fix long ago. I'll try
Hijack as they suggested and see what happens.

As for hardcore...not me. I manage, especially when I'm teamed with my son
who graciously covers for me and keeps me from getting too lost. I manage
pretty well on City of Heroes - even without him - and survived as a beta
tester of Lord of the Rings without him, but needed him around for World
of Warcraft. I survived it alone, but barely.

Thanks!
Optiker

Yeah, I could not get the hang of WoW, liked it, but too many young'uns.

In LotR:O now, Landroval server. Rumgrim or Cadfrid are my characters, stick
me on you're friends list if you drop on.

-A.