Hi guys, not really a hardware issue, but not sure where else to put this. Just a simple question really.. I just got a Logitech MX310 optical mouse to replace my Logitech MX700 which lags due to it being wireless. My MX310 has the old fashioned standard mouse adapter added to the end of the USB connection so that I can plug it into the mouse's usual connection point. My question is, what is better for response? The PS2 connection or the USB connection? Thanks in advance for anyone who can give an answer.
hmmm, personally i prefer the PS2 connection, rather than USB. usually you can increase your PS" samplerate too, to increase mouse responsiveness. im not sure how accurate my thinking is.... but doesnt USB rely on the system processor to handle traffic on the usb bus? surely that would lead to a drop in performance if your using usb (although, its probably a negligible amount). where the ps2 interface has its own hardware controller chip that doesnt require the processor to be able to read the mouse data. i may be 100% wrong, this is just thinking out loud, but i'd go for the PS2 connection with a high samplerate if you want the absolutely maximum performance.
1st, I would say you are having other troubles because I have been using a MX700 for about a year and I have never had any lagging. I use it for quake, Halo, and Doom3 without any performance issues. You should know that the wireless transmission is actually faster than that over a cable (the speed of light actually goes around the world 3 times a second and radio waves travel at nearly that same speed). I have another cordless mouse (MS) and it has no lagging issues either. Both are just as responsive as the USB and PS2 mice I use. Actually, on any work day, I go from a USB mouse on one machine to a cordless USB mouse on another machine to a normal PS2 mouse on a 3rd machine. There is no human perceptible performance difference. However, if 1/1000th of a second has great meaning to you, the USB will be the slowest medium. It has far greater lag and over head than the PS2 interface. If you have a percetible lag in any mouse you are using, its time to run ad-aware and get a virus checker, or simply toss that 286 and get a new system.
Actually I did notice lag on a wireless mouse but that was like a very old version something like a wireless optical with two sensors? Man I have no idea it happens when you click and move quickly but I doubt you will have any in Mx700 however I still prefer wired dunno why. I think PS2 is faster aswell but I use USB.
Ok, thanks guys, I'll be keeping it plugged into the PS2 connection then. riluve, I can definitely notice lag with my MX700, although not with the keyboard that's wireless too. My system spec is, if I may say so, VERY good so I can't see what could be wrong with that. Oh and of course I have ad-aware and a virus scanner. AMD 64 3500+ ASUS A8v Deluxe 1GB Corsair Low Latency GeForce 6800 GT (overclocked to Ultra) etc etc etc
seriously, it has to be your driver or some setting then. There is no way you should feel a lag. Not even close.
Sure, radio signals are faster, but the thing that makes wireless mice lag is the encoding and decoding, especially with low-end budget wireless mice. Also, many wireless mice have a battery saving feature, where they run their LED at reduced power untill they sense movement. When done poorly, this can give a quarter-second or more of lag when you start to move the mouse. (I've worked with a mouse that bad.) Personally, I love my MX518. It's light, comfortable, and quite responsive enough for all the gaming I do. (and, the on-the-fly sensitivity adjust is a great feature.)
Blah - maybe you have a dead battery or a bad setting but its not an encoding/decoding overhead issue. The speeds we are talking about are 1/1,000th of a second. There is no way for a human to notice that. Even a PS2 mouse has encoding decoding. A USB mouse is even worse. It is encoded, then sits around forever waiting to be polled, then it goes to the hub and waits to be polled again - Then it is decoded from USB data and encoded into PS2 data. Then its placed in memory where it waits around forever again for the CPU (or GPU) to get to it. At this point its encoded again . . . blah blah blah. A USB mouse is already encoded/decoded 3-4 times. Adding an additional encoding/decoding does nothing significant to slow it down. It sits around in buffers 100 times longer than it spends getting encoded/decoded. Now encode/decode it 100 times and yeah sure, you have added maybe 1/100th of a second lag to the process. Good luck in noticing that though. Let me re-iterate. I have no idea what you guys are doing wrong. I use a wireless mouse everyday (even for gaming) and I have never seen any lag what so ever. Ergo, when the mechanism is set up properly, you to will not see lag. This precludes the idea that the transmission or encoding is a noticeable overhead. If anything, when the battery is low, I get dropped data (skipped movement) or a connection issue, but I still do not get lag. However, the cursor not moving at all when the mouse is moved is not lag. Maybe that’s where you guys are getting confused. If that’s not it, you simply do not have your mouse configured properly. Because I have never seen this issue and I can not fathom what is really causing it I am sorry that I can not suggest a way to fix it, but thats where you should be looking (configuration).
I've got an mx700, and it seems to be quite picky about where the reciver is placed. If you can put it as close to the mouse as possible, and away from any big metal things (ie your computer) and any electrical things, especially CRT monitors, it will probably work a bit better. Moving it by inches can make the difference between only working one second out of two, and being as good as any other mouse I've used. Well, on mine at least. But when it works, it's avery nice mouse.
PS2 would give your mouse its own individual IRQ, whereas your USB controller will share an IRQ with other random onboard components or a PCI bus... Dunno if that will have much of an impact? FWIW, my Logitech keyboard/mouse combo seems to advise using PS2 if present...
PS2 is always the best option if you don't see some implementation advantage with USB. E.G. I have a USB KVM, so i have to use USB, but if there is anyway possible to use PS2, use it. It has about 1/100th the overhead of USB - even if USB has its own IRQ - which it usually does (on Intel chipsets anyway). You would never notice the difference though.
