Microsoft working to remedy gaming-related Windows 8.1 mousing issues

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,256   +192
Staff member

windows microsoft mouse tracking windows 8.1 mouse issues

If you’re a gamer and are thinking about upgrading to Windows 8.1, you might want to keep reading before you make the jump. That’s because a number of threads on Microsoft’s Community forum detail a significant issue for Windows 8.1 gamers.

It would seem that multiple gamers are having pointer-related issues ranging from mouse jitters to movements not scaling correctly even when acceleration is disabled. Forum moderator Naman R said in one thread that the mouse lag issue is actually several different problems that vary based on the game and input method used.

The moderator listed three specific scenarios that Microsoft is investigating. The first is mouse jitters which are said to occur in some games because Windows 8.1 handles the games’ checks for the mouse status differently. Redmond is also looking into why turning off mouse acceleration is causing the distance on the screen not to match the distance you move the mouse

Another issue is being looked at wherein if you have a mouse with a high frequency, you may discover that it is reporting a lower frequency (polling rate) than advertised.

As you could imagine, a combination of these issues can have some seriously adverse affects when gaming. One player reported random mouse movements in League of Legends/DOTA, unresponsive / inaccurate movements in most FPS games and camera lag / jerkiness in World of Warcraft. The good news is that Microsoft is working on a fix “as quickly as possible” although Naman R didn’t have a specific release date for the patch.

Have you noticed any gaming / mouse-related issues with Windows 8.1?

Permalink to story.

 
No problems for me. Playing Far Cry 3 right now and mouse is doing everything it's supposed to. Still hate Windows 8 and the illustrious 8.1 upgrade. The only reason I have it is for work purposes.
 
Or maybe they can just get 8.1 to not corrupt people's hard drives. Right after I upgraded to 8.1 on both my and my wife's computers our hard drives crashed. Fortunately, I have three other hard drives but the hard drive in my wife's laptop had to be replaced.
 
No problems for me so far.

razer mamba @ 5600 dpi 9 Acceleration, 1000hz polling rate

League of Legends
Civ 5
Borderlands2 are my most played games lately.
 
Reminds me of when the iPhone 4 came out and it had terrible reception during phone calls. Now Windows 8.1 has mouse issues. Both cases of new technology failing at something that has been taken for granted for years.
 
Or maybe they can just get 8.1 to not corrupt people's hard drives. Right after I upgraded to 8.1 on both my and my wife's computers our hard drives. Fortunately, I have three other hard drives but the hard drive in my wife's laptop had to be replaced.

Windows 8.1 (and probably 8 as well) installs something into your low level drive format that "virtualizes" your MBR - basically, its a virus that insures you can't simply restore an image of a previous OS when you realize 8.1 is no better than 8.0. The only way I've found to be rid of it is to perform a low-level drive repair. Its insidious and just another example of how Microsoft is trying to freeze out competing OS's including older versions of Windows. BTW, Windows 8.1 adds absolutely nothing that a normal PC user will care about..stick with Windows 7 until Microsoft gets desperate enough to release a real desktop OS again.
 
Reminds me of when the iPhone 4 came out and it had terrible reception during phone calls. Now Windows 8.1 has mouse issues. Both cases of new technology failing at something that has been taken for granted for years.

The big difference is MS is looking into the problem where Apple blamed the users for holding the phone wrong.
 
Windows 8.1 (and probably 8 as well) installs something into your low level drive format that "virtualizes" your MBR - basically, its a virus that insures you can't simply restore an image of a previous OS when you realize 8.1 is no better than 8.0. The only way I've found to be rid of it is to perform a low-level drive repair. Its insidious and just another example of how Microsoft is trying to freeze out competing OS's including older versions of Windows. BTW, Windows 8.1 adds absolutely nothing that a normal PC user will care about..stick with Windows 7 until Microsoft gets desperate enough to release a real desktop OS again.


I'll keep this in mind when I work on my drives this weekend. The drive that got corrupted happens to be the drive that has all my games and my saves.
 
None of this is even remotely surprising. We must remember Win 8 is designed for mobiles & touchscreens first & foremost then adapted to the desktop. There are bound to be glitches like this. If we think Win 9 or whatever will be any better than 8, we're probably in for a big disappointment. Win 7 was the last decent OS for us desktop users. Hopefully under new leadership a bit of sanity will prevail but I won't hold my breath.
 
I have not had any problems gaming in BF4 multiplayer but singleplayer was kinda jerky when aming. Just played a game of Ghosts this morning and it is terrible. It is spinning me around in all directions when the mouse is barely moved, but only when walking.
 
MSFT better fix this and soon. You want gamers to abandon your platform in droves in favor of SteamOS, keep this up....
 
MSFT better fix this and soon. You want gamers to abandon your platform in droves in favor of SteamOS, keep this up....
If the Steam OS pans out, MS has already lost this gamer. I'm waiting for my test drive of the Steam OS, before I make my final decisions. Ohh and my reasoning has nothing to do with this issue, my reasons predate this issue.
 
Back