I've found with optical mice is that they are surprisingly sensitive to the surface they're on. On a bad surface they'll often behave exactly as you describe. They seem to not only stop responding, but occasionally misread movement and dart off in completely unexpected directions ... like a mouse scurrying for cover.
The best surfaces for the mouse would be something with a slight texture, and a constant surface. Make sure there's no high contrast text or images as well.
Optical mice use a form of digital camera to sense motion. Example: If a white piece of paper is used it has nothing to base movement on. Or if a mouse pad with a congested pattern is used it will jump sensing images and hopping to parts it remembers. I have also seen where the 3D type mouse pads will cause jumping too because of the split image. Try using a piece of dark graph paper and see if it still jumps.
I'll give that a try. So far I have gone through 3 mousepads and just the wood grain surface of the keyboard tray.
edit
right again! we had one solid blue colored mouse pad with a fine weave running through it and it's been perfect! thanks!
Topic: Help: game doesn't play quite right on new computer (xp pro not vista) (Read 3871 times)