Customer Reviews

Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(37)

 

 

I purchased this mouse as a replacement for a ball type mouse that had just plain worn out. The worn out one performed better than the new basic optical mouse! It's true: The pointer randomly jumps all over the screen. I tried it on my desktop and on a mousepad...no difference. I lowered the speed even to the lowest level...no difference.
Having a pointer jump around is annoying enough while playing games, but it is downright dismal when working on important business spreadsheets.
There is no support for the basic optical mouse at Microsoft. I'm not one of those compulsive Microsoft bashers, but they are taking the money and running with this product.
Forget this piece of junk. Also forget the milktoast "It's still a good buy for the price" reviews. If it doesn't work reliably, it's a bad buy at any price.

The pointer jumps all over the place making this mouse absolutely useless. I have another MS optical mouse (not the Basic optical) and it works just fine. This one is a piece of junk. Would give it zero stars if that were an option.

Do NOT buy this mouse - under any circumstance!

This mouse is a complete waste of money. I would only buy it as a practical joke. Like most other reviews say, this mouse jumps around constantly. I work as a software developer and I told my boss that it would be great if we could get optical mice (we were still on the ball and chain mice) and he agreed. This is what we got. Every one of us decided to go back to our old ball mice because this piece of junk is very hard to work with. This mouse doesn't just jitter a bit (well it does that, too) it literally will go zooming across your entire screen. You go to close an application and next thing you know you're clicking on the start button - this happens about every minute or two. Other times you might be trying to click on something small, like a checkbox and this mouse will jitter as if you just drank four gallons of coffee, making it a chore to even click a checkbox. Also, sometimes this mouse will zoom off-screen and it can take a good 10+ seconds before it comes back.

I have no idea how this mouse passed a testing phase (if there ever was one). Spend the extra couple of bucks and get something better...

This is a moderately comfortable mouse that has very accurate tracking for its price... when used on the correct surface.

When I first used this mouse, I experienced the jumpy cursor problem which so many here have gone through. The mouse cursor would randomly fly off into the upper right corner of my screen, shaking uncontrollably for several seconds before control of the cursor was restored.

I discovered that the cause of this problem was a combination of two factors:

1. The mouse's optical sensor is easily confused by many surfaces. When this happens, the mouse's tracking is disrupted.

2. When the sensor became confused and sent certain data to the computer, Windows's "enhance pointer precision" function bugged out, causing the flying cursor problem.

Disabling "enhance pointer precision" under the "pointer options" tab of the mouse control panel in Windows XP fixed the flying cursor problem. However, even after disabling this option, I noticed that the mouse was having trouble tracking slow movements on my grey cloth mousepad, as well as my wooden desk. The mouse cursor would shake back and forth during slow movements.

I fixed this by using two sheets of 97 brightness rating (read: very bright) white printer paper as a mousepad. The mouse tracks flawlessly now during quick and slow movements.

I would recommend another mouse to anyone reading this, as computer paper doesn't make a very stationary mousepad, and Windows's "enhance pointer precision" feature is a nice feature when it works. However, if you've already bought this mouse and are reading this in search of a fix to your jumping cursor, I believe my instructions will fix your problem.

This rat is moving all over the darn place. Where did it go? Stay away from this one and buy the Microsoft WheelMouse Optical instead.

This mouse refuses to keep the cursor in place, but randomly jumps the cursor to the upper-right or lower-left corner. This is on a pure Microsoft computer running Windows XP.

I have tried multiple mouse pads and every conceivable control panel setting combination. No driver update seems to be available from microsoft.com.

My other mice (Microsoft, Logitech) do not have this problem. So, this product is going in the trash as soon as I buy a replacement from a different manufacturer.

We bought this mouse about 3 years ago,

Cons:

Somtimes it starts to randomly move across the page.
Randomly JERKS EVERYWHERE IN RANDOM DIRECTS. (Video Game hazard)

Somtimes it does this in a manner when you click, so then it gos up too the X on a fullscreen program
so fast that you acidently click out of it. this has happened to me several times
.....

We found this SAME MODEL, in a free box, and it has the same exact problems, on windows XP, Ubuntu, AND windows 7

Do not buy this mouse, unless you can get a super deal on them, (warehouse deal?)

Bought two a couple of years ago. All have the same problem. It happens on all the PCs that I tried.

It's a piece of junk. The optical tracking does not work well, so the mouse jumps around the screen at random, which is about the most frustrating thing possible in a mouse. Don't waste your time trying differetn surfaces; it isn't the surface, it's the mouse. Don't waste your time trying to find better drivers; it isn't the drivers, it's the hardware. Microsoft used to have extremely good mice; however I've just bought two in a row that were junk. The Intellimouse Explorer's left mouse button stopped working in a week, and this Basic Optical mouse jumps around. I can only conclude that someone at Microsoft has started cutting costs. It's a shame, because they're ruining a really good reputation. Buy Logitech instead.

I'm using this with a PS2 adapter, plugged into a new machine running Windows XP Home. The mouse pointer behaves erratically at times, probably 3 or 4 times an hour at least, jumping to extreme corners of the screen. Sometimes I lose it for seconds, trying to find out where it went to.

I have tried different mouse pads to no avail. I also tried uninstalling & reinstalling the default XP mouse driver that it uses. I bought 2 of these due to their low cost & my past preference for the feel of Microsoft mice, and both have the same problem. Unfortunately, this product's a piece of junk. I went back to the ball mouse that came with my computer, and will now hunt for a different non-Microsoft optical mouse.

Pros: Cheap (cost)
Cons: Cheap (quality)