[mkalus]

Hello fellow travellers....

I have some weirdness with my Powerbook.

The first thing is that the mouse (external) occasionally just "jumps" all over the screen. I haven't figured out why. It's a Microsoft optical mouse by s+ark.

The second problem is with the display, it seems that the brightness fluctuates at times. It is really irritating, like the old CRTs when your refresh rate was set to low. It doesn't always happen and I would attribute this to the light sensor for the keyboard.

Anybody else having those experiences? I am wondering if I should get Apple involved now, or wait?

[Brad]

On what kind of surface are you using that mouse? If there's any shine, reflectivity, or transparency to it, that can confuse the optical sensor.

Regarding the lighting, have you tried turning off the ambient light sensor?

[mkalus]

Originally Posted by Brad On what kind of surface are you using that mouse? If there's any shine, reflectivity, or transparency to it, that can confuse the optical sensor.

It's a normal wooden desk, not very reflective, though there is some "grain" in it, maybe that's confusing the sensor?

Regarding the lighting, have you tried turning off the ambient light sensor?

I tried it with it off and on and it seems to happen regardless... A short maybe?

[fneeb]

I get the screen brightness thing with mine, but it's definitely light sensor related as if I cover up both sensors on my 15" pb just slightly, the brightness dips but doesn't activate the backlit keyboard. It's only when I cover them fully that the brightness drops to the low light setting, and the keyboard illumination kicks in.

[alcimedes]

i have an MS optical mouse connected to my PC downstairs on a wood grain desk, does the same exact thing. it's really annoying. now that i know i'm not alone, maybe i'll try putting something down there to provide a better surface for it.

[Brad]

Now that I think about it, back when I lived in the dorm I had to keep a sheet of paper under my MS IntelliMouse because there were gouges in my desk making it skip too.

[elvia]

Just where are these ambient light sensors located???

[billybobsky]

To tell you I would need to kill you and then stuff your eyes into the speaker grating...

The answer is somewhere in there.

[midwinter]

I have the same problem on two Macs, and my Dean was having the problem on her PB the other day.

[fneeb]

Originally Posted by elvia Just where are these ambient light sensors located???

On the 15" model (new one), there's one under each speaker grill at the display end.

I found mine by covering different bits with my hands - took me a while to figure out that there are two and the overall light reading takes into account a sum of the signals these provide.

[slyinthedam]

I too had the problem with the fluctating screen brightness. It only started with 10.3.8. Still not fixed in 10.3.9.