Shaun Haber

I recently purchased a new mouse: Logitech VX Revolution

The mouse rocks. The software that drives it does not.

Here’s a short list of issues I’ve had since using Logitech Control Center (v2.1.3) on my MacBook Pro (2.33GHz, 2GB):

• Turning on/off the mouse, or removing/attaching the USB receiver triggers kernel panics at random.
• It takes 10-15secs to register mouse clicks after awakening the computer from sleep.
• Safari stops changing cursor states after a while. e.g. Hovering over links doesn’t show the hand pointer. (This is NOT a CSS issue).
• The software quietly installs APE, which may have contributed to a downgrade in performance and crashing applications. E.g. iTunes had been crashing a lot recently.

That’s enough right there. In fact, the first bullet point is enough. I’ve been too afraid to turn off my mouse at night because I didn’t want any more panics. I’d rather let the batteries drain.

Fortunately, I’m not the only one with these problems. Since reading other users’ comments, here’s what I did:

• Uninstalled LCC with the Uninstaller program that comes bundled in the dmg.
• The uninstaller does NOT remove APE, however, so I had to do that manually by removing the following:
  • /Library/Application Enhancers
  • /Library/Frameworks/ApplicationEnhancer.framework
  • /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/ApplicationEnhancer.bundle
• Restarted the computer.
• Downloaded SteerMouse, which seems to be a much more stable driver and provides the same button-mapping functionality (hint: use keyboard mappings for Dashboard & Expose settings).

SteerMouse is a $20 shareware program, but has a 30-day trial period. I am testing it out now, and so far it’s been fine. No strange happenings.

I’ll follow with an update in a few days after seeing how this goes.

Bottom line: Logitech makes great peripheral products with lousy software.

UPDATE (3/31):
SteerMouse has been working flawlessly. Digg!