cursor jumping around

[Jim]

I'm inquiring here because I run DP on two computers, and only having this issue on one, which leads me to deduce it's a Mac and not a DP issue.

90% of the time, my cursor goes where I lead it with the mouse, but also, especially after clicking, it makes wild sudden jumps to another location on my screen. This is especially vexing when I'm dragging a Soundbite and it goes way beyond there I want it to, or adjusting a parameter that goes to extremes when I'm trying to make a fine adjustment.

So far, I've swapped out the Mac USB mouse (rollerball type) and Mac keyboard with spares, and the issue persists.

I wonder if this is a sign my GPU (Nvidia Quadro K5000) is crapping out.

Has anybody had a similar issue and found a solution?

[HCMarkus]

Do you have any other attached device that can control the cursor? Like a trackpad, perhaps?

[Jim]

Do you have any other attached device that can control the cursor? Like a trackpad, perhaps?

No, but I've had a similar experience on other computers with a tablet and mouse connected simultaneously. Vibrations from using the tablet caused some jittering to the cursor. It took me a few minutes to figure that out.

So, good question!

My cursor excursions are extreme - half way across the screen in many cases.

[mikehalloran]

For most, this is an old issue that has nothing to do with DP. There are a number of old threads on this.

Open the Bluetooth control panel and see if anything else has paired with your Mac. Unpair everything. Now pair only known devices that you need. For most of us, it’s a keyboard and mouse or trackpad.

This used to be somewhat common back in the OS 10.7 days. When it happened on my wife’s iMac back in the day (she uses a wired mouse), it took three support calls before someone at Apple suggested it to me. My daughter’s trackpad from her MacBook was the culprit. Since my wife had no use for BT, I turned it off and the problem went away. Nowadays, it’s much harder to accidentally pair BT — still possible, though.

[Jim]

I'm reporting back on this, in case anybody else sees this issue. I tried three different old mice, and the issue persisted. Issue was solved by trying a Bluetooth Apple Mouse and Keyboard.

I've usually retired those old wired mice (six or eight by this point in time) because the ball ceased scrolling reliably. The cursor jumping was something I hadn't experienced before. I had also tried installing Catalina on a spare partition, and the issue persisted.

Otherwise, I don't see much of a benefit to running Catalina on this old MacPro5,1, other than I can run a more current version of BRU PE, my LTO tape archiving app.

Anyway, it turns out the issue was a defective mouse (mice).

Thanks again for the replies.

[James Steele]

Otherwise, I don't see much of a benefit to running Catalina on this old MacPro5,1, other than I can run a more current version of BRU PE, my LTO tape archiving app.

There IS another benefit with DP 11. If you use the Movie Window in DP 11 and you're running Mojave, there's a bug where DP's UI slows down dramatically. I've experienced it. It's not good and it's only happens on Intel MacPros, running Mojave, using the Movie Window in DP 11. There's not going to be a fix for it, so being on Catalina or back on High Sierra is what you're going to want to do in that case.

[HCMarkus]

James has a really good point. Worth thinking about and acting on.

One other thought, re: Bluetooth and the Cheesegrater...

The 4,1/5,1 Mac Pros had notoriously bad Bluetooth performance, likely due at least in part. to that beautiful anodized aluminum chassis. The best workaround is to disable the built-in bluetooth and use a dongle attached to a USB port as closely proximate to your wireless devices as practicable.

Although I'm pretty sure you can disable the internal Bluetooth module via software, I took the bull by the horns, almost literally, and simply physically disconnected the module in every Mac Pro I ever owned (and I had a few!) All that is required is to pull a socketed connection on the mother board.

With a bluetooth dongle plugged into my wired Apple keyboard, I never had any reception issues.

[James Steele]

The 4,1/5,1 Mac Pros had notoriously bad Bluetooth performance, likely due at least in part. to that beautiful anodized aluminum chassis. The best workaround is to disable the built-in bluetooth and use a dongle attached to a USB port as closely proximate to your wireless devices as practicable.

Along those lines, same goes for WiFi. I accidentally messed up the antenna leads swapping Airport cards in two different MacPros, because one of them wasn't compatible with Mojave... at least I think that was it? So I ended up getting a inexpensive USB dongle for WiFi and it was MUCH faster than the old Airport card.

By the way, Markus... don't know if your experience is the same, but I'm getting pretty good WiFi with the Mac Studio. Even though it's tucked away behind my 43" 4K TV. I'm really happy with it. I think the Mac Studio is going to be a classic.

[HCMarkus]

By the way, Markus... don't know if your experience is the same, but I'm getting pretty good WiFi with the Mac Studio. Even though it's tucked away behind my 43" 4K TV. I'm really happy with it. I think the Mac Studio is going to be a classic.

Glad to hear Wi FI is working well for you James. Mine is hard-wired via Ethernet; haven't even tried the Wi Fi!

I fully intend to make my Mac Studio a classic... don't want to drop that much coin in one wishing well very often.

[James Steele]

By the way, Markus... don't know if your experience is the same, but I'm getting pretty good WiFi with the Mac Studio. Even though it's tucked away behind my 43" 4K TV. I'm really happy with it. I think the Mac Studio is going to be a classic.

Glad to hear Wi FI is working well for you James. Mine is hard-wired via Ethernet; haven't even tried the Wi Fi!

I fully intend to make my Mac Studio a classic... don't want to drop that much coin in one wishing well very often.

I think we done good! I really am growing to love this little box and not missing my tower at all now. It's just so amazingly quiet and powerful... even with the M1 Max. Very happy I popped for 64GB and 2TB though.

I have a stack of used stuff to sell now...

[Jim]

Otherwise, I don't see much of a benefit to running Catalina on this old MacPro5,1, other than I can run a more current version of BRU PE, my LTO tape archiving app.

There IS another benefit with DP 11. If you use the Movie Window in DP 11 and you're running Mojave, there's a bug where DP's UI slows down dramatically. I've experienced it. It's not good and it's only happens on Intel MacPros, running Mojave, using the Movie Window in DP 11. There's not going to be a fix for it, so being on Catalina or back on High Sierra is what you're going to want to do in that case.

Thanks for that info and advice, James. I don't use the movie window in DP. I've got Mojave and Catalina on two partitions of my boot SSD, so going back and forth isn't a huge burden. I may give Catalina another shot, as I suspected the issue I was having with the cursor could have been OS related. Now I know that's not the case.

I was also suspecting the OS of a lot more frequent crashing in DP 11 than I've been used to, but that could have been misplaced as well as I've added other plug-ins, some of which don't pass DP's inspection (mainly GeForce synth VIs), but I have enabled anyway. DP warns me that's risky.