Mice are inaccurate on my PC

[Eon the Wolf]

So here's the set up. I've had Win7 ultimate for a bit over a year now i THINK (June/July 2011) and it was my thought/understanding, at least back in XP days, that reformats were only needed 1) when needed or b) if 2-3+ years have gone by). Figured I had another year, as it were, even/especially with Win7.

Bro's friend is telling me "nope, 1 year sounds bout right". Course he LIKES to reformat, and he has the space to easily back up cause he's not running 4 HDDs with 2 filled with steam games x.x (also tells me I cant/shouldn't play/be able to use steam after reformat even though its on a secondary HDD with no OS files and it isn't getting reformated....which is weird since one of the hdds came from my friend, filled with video files and games already installed on it and i had no problem with any of them on this system...)

Anyway problem: Mice are being inaccurate. I figured it was just my G9 dying since it was 3.5 years old....but then I noticed the problem with a newly bought Taipan (which I returned cause it also gave me some cramping in between thumb and index due to how i had to hold it). Got a G500 for the exchange yesterday...and the problem is still there. The G9 and G500 are pretty much fine on my friends laptop when I tested, too!

Also, I noticed I had to move my hand and mouse a bit more and more to get the G9 or g500 to cover the same amount of screen that the g9 used to cover with only 1200 (level 3 for me) DPI...Then I noticed I had to put g9 to 1600 (level four...which I like NEVER had to use) to have it cover. The g500, however, feels/seems to only move a bit too slow or way too fast for the settings I had it on.

The best way to describe it is as being a mix of visual and a 'feel' regarding how much I'm seemingly having to use the mice. For small, precise movements, it feels inaccurate and always goes a bit over or too short when the movement I'm doing before would've had it exactly where I needed...even when I slow myself, I still feel/see the problem showing when it overshoots or undershoots or skirts around where I'm trying to point it towards. For longer motions it's remained relatively consistent, though recently, at least on g500, I've noticed it erratically moving a bit too little or overshooting a bit too much (such as in LoL) and making the screen pan when I didn't want it to....

I really first noticed it on minesweeper because I usually do a 40 mine (intermediate/medium) level game in 58-72 seconds, and I go pretty fast for the first 30-35...but ever since this issue started, I've noticed it not going to the exact square I want it to, when before I would've had no problem getting the cursor to stop on the square I want.

Something my bro's friend tells me could be the cause is what my friend (the one who gave me the HDD) did to help me clean my computer (and he says he does it for his computer so thats the only reason I let it happen)...he used an electric air duster/compressor (high powered), which my bro's friend is telling me could've potentially broken something or maybe even blown oil somewhere which could cause these problems (and account for the delay between cleaning and start of the problems since it could've taken some time to become an issue)

Oh and just to mention, I'll be trying these mice on my brother's set up hopefully later today, so I'll be testing them on a second desktop instead of a laptop. If I cannot find/feel/see any issues on his like I do with mine, I'll certainly report it. It's just becoming more and more aggravating over the past 4 days to have these problems with various mice, have the inaccuracy/sensitivity problems persist, and now I've got the worry of a broken set up (with no idea what is/isn't potentially broken/breaking) and to top it all off...my mice seemed to work relatively fine on a laptop, and even the standard mouse my grandmother uses felt more responsive and accurate than my 'high quality gaming mice' did on my own gaming set up!

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Help? Sorry if it seems a bit rambley just trying to get this fixed...Don't wanna reformat if I don't have to, and I'm frustrated after having bought two different new gaming mice and having both, as well as my old one, all show the same issue :/ (Not to mention the weirdness of the two mice since they're no G9, but that's neither here nor there lol)

EDIT - Oh and to clarify, this issue started like 2-3, MAYBE 4 weeks ago...and seemed to get progressively worse/more inaccurate as time went on, then it leveled off...and now it's seemingly started getting a bit worse again (Since I've had to increase dpi levels just to make the same amount of movement cover the same amount of screen 'ground' as before)

EDIT - Oh, and my system specs listed on site are out of date for some parts. I'll attempt to get the exact info/models and update it in a few hours.

[3870x2]

What exactly is the mouse doing? The first thing you should check is that mouse acceleration is turned off in the mouse properties.

[Eon the Wolf]

By acceleration you refer to 'enhance pointer precision' and 'pointer speed' right? Or something else? Cause they're at the levels/set ups/settings they've always been at, I'm pretty sure, and it never caused any problems/issues like this up until the start/near start of December :/

As for what it's doing...it's seemingly more inaccurate. Where as before 1 inch of mouse movement = x movement on screen, 1 inch of mouse movement now = say... .75x on screen, with entirely all the same settings. And for small precise movements, quick or slow, it always goes over or stops short at where I'm trying to aim. Same movements and settings as I've always had/done, and now the past month, they're being less and less accurate on the screen...yet if I take the same mice to a friend's laptop to test, I can play minesweeper and move the mouse and play other games with no problem, same as how it used to happen/feel/show on my pc before these issues started happening.

EDIT- Oh, and I tried different usb ports on my PC as well. Made no difference, so I don't think it's an issue with a specific USB PORT...

[sneekypeet]

Sounds to me like you have bits of the old driver and software either in the windows folders or in the registry. That will cause issues with tracking and such.

With DPI it should be universal across all mice, but not all other settings are set equal. You not only have pointer controls in the windows menu, you also have ones set in the software by the manufacturer. Unless they are all set exactly the same, this is why you will experience needing more/less DPI to travel the same distance.

[95Viper]

Here is a nice read: GUIDE: How to get better mouse precision

Edit:
Here is a google search that list a lot more guides and info: fix mouse pointer speed registry entry

I did the registry stuff a while back, when I had a Logitech mouse, and it worked... just some FYI.

[Eon the Wolf]

K i'll look at these n test em. Question: why would it happen in early december? What caused it? I hadn't had any logitech updates/driver or software changes in months, at least not that I can think of...maybe logitech software updates but that'd be it... I didn't start getting/testing new mice until 3-4 days ago, long after problems first appeared O.o

EDIT - Yeah, and both g9 and g500 had a polling rate set to 500, so unless it's due to difference(s) in sensor(s), I have no idea what would cause 2 mice to get different results from same DPI O.o

EDIT - And I'm not even 100% sure I got any logitech updates either. Every morning it asks me to check for updates n basically tells me 'nothing new!'...

[Eon the Wolf]

Sorry to bump but I never got a response;

If it IS software/registry related, why would it spontaneously start in early/mid december with seemingly no cause? Also, I don't know if it changes your opinion(s), but I forgot to mention I DID check out my system by booting it up with fedora on a disc, and the mice still felt a bit OFF, though I couldn't test for sure in games since it was a fedora disc and I couldn't play any of my games....

[Fourstaff]

Mousepad, whenever I get jittery mouse movement its almost always dirt/mousepad.

[Eon the Wolf]

Nope. Used desktop itself for past 3 years with no problem. Started using mousepad (new, clean, never used) when issues first appeared. Made a tiny difference, but not enough to 'remove it' and it's still getting worse.

I honestly can't tell if it's a registery/software/driver issue, or something wrong with the hardware, because the mice mostly work fine on other PCs and they feel/work like they used to on other set ups, but mine it happens both through booting up via disc with fedora and via win7 OS installation...

[95Viper]

Well, since you tried it with a different OS, you can, probably, rule out software.

Have you reset your BIOS (CMOS)?
Un-plugged other USB devices and tested with the mouse only?
Check your power output on the USB ports?
Do you have an USB adapter card you can use or borrow... to test with?
Updated to the latest BIOS for your Motherboard?