Mighty Mouse (#6): More on problems tracking with wood, textured, or light-colored surfaces

We continue to receive reports from readers who are having issues using the Mighty Mouse on various surfaces -- including wooden desks, textured or light-colored mousepads, and more.

Mark Bolick writes:

"I just tried to use our new Mighty Mouse today on my work computer that sits on a pressboard wood desk with fake wood laminate on top. The Mighty Mouse jumps all over the place and has forced me to return to my MS Intellimouse (an excellent mouse in itself). Too bad. "

Another reader writes:

"I have the same experience -- I have been forced to lay a small stack (3 or 4 sheets) of paper between the desktop and the mouse."

Alan Forkosh compares the behavior of the Mighty Mouse to another optical input device from Kensington:

"I've been using a Mighty Mouse on a circular Apple promotional mouse surface with a grayish Apple symbol on an off-white background. The cursor occasionally jumps to the bottom of the screen, I assume when I cross between the dark and light portions of the pad. It's not doing it as much now as when I first got the mouse, so maybe it was due to some internal glitches. I previously was using a Kensington Optical Elite Mouse on the same surface with no problem."

Meanwhile, Mark describes issues on a formica surface:

"The mouse does not work on a formica countertop. I had to go back to a mouse pad. The rep at the Comp USA store in Tulsa was more than happy to give me a couple when I told him of the problem. I am happy with the scrolling and can live with the mouse pad, at least for now."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Previous Coverage:

• Mighty Mouse (#5): Problems with surface tracking
• Mighty Mouse (#4): Problems tracking on wooden surfaces
• Mighty Mouse (#3): Solution for Firefox scroll-button conflict; Usability issues; more
• Mighty Mouse: Problems with horizontal/diagonal scrolling

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