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    sluggish trackpad in snow leopard

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by Damonkashu, Jan 6, 2010.

  1. Damonkashu

    Damonkashu Notebook Consultant

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    So I installed snow leopard onto an external USB harddrive, just to test it out with my computer (macbook pro, 17-inch, not sure which year it's from, I've had it since 2007)

    I ran into a major issue, the trackpad response is extremely sluggish (about a 1-second delay between the movement on the trackpad and the movement on the screen)

    Interestingly enough, when I boot snow leopard on my friend's laptop (macbook pro, 15-inch, also from 2007), the trackpad responds just fine.

    Has anyone else experienced this before? Any possible solutions?
     
  2. ClearSkies

    ClearSkies Well no, I'm still here..

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    Was it normal initially when you first ran SL, and then changed?

    If not, maybe this is a consequence of running the OS via an external drive since the directives from the touchpad would have to run out the USB to interact with the 10.6 kernel and then back to the LCD? One of the really smart SL users here might shoot this theory down, but I'm curious about it.
     
  3. Damonkashu

    Damonkashu Notebook Consultant

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    no, it was sluggish from the first moment SL started
     
  4. Damonkashu

    Damonkashu Notebook Consultant

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    I've also noticed that an external mouse is sluggish as well.
    Will these problems be resolved if I just install snow leopard directly onto the hard drive? On the other hand, I'm afraid I'll just run into it again.
     
  5. Luke1708

    Luke1708 Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    did you play with the mouse acceleration? this may be the cause of it.
     
  6. mmoy

    mmoy Notebook Deity

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    I have an external disk setup at home (Firewire; not USB) and everything works fine. I use a virtual mouse and keyboard via Synergy from my Windows desktop and see no lag at all.