Wheel scrolling acceleration...

I have a Wireless Laser Mouse 5000 and I'm having trouble getting the wheel
scrolling tuned just right. I'd like to have a small scroll amount when I
move the wheel slowly (to get really good precision) but then go really fast
(screens at a time) when I "flick" the wheel to roll it quickly. The
Intellipoint 6.2 software doesn't give me enough of a difference between slow
scroll and accelerated fast scrolling. In fact, I don't see much of a
difference, if any. I have the vertical scrolling speed almost set all the
way to the left (slow). I have Enable accelerated scrolling checked, and
under advanced, I have the slow/fast slider all the way to the right (fast).
Seems as if this should be VERY exagerated--the dif between slow and
accelerated should be VERY obvious.

I searched the regsitry for any hint of settings. Nothing interesting or
obvious under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Intellipoint, HKCU\Control Panel\Mouse.

Under HCKU\Control Panel\Desktop I can see WheelScrollLines but this seems
to be the slow scroll rate. It is at 2 and it changes when I change the
slow/fast slider under the Mouse control panel vertical scrolling speed
(nothing to do with acceleration).

I can't find any registry setting that changes when I change the Accelerated
Scrolling slow/fast slider. I find this very odd.

Can anyone shed light on this? Is the vertical scroll acceleration a
per-app setting? Is it something to do with how many scroll wheel interrupts
happen per second and have to be set in a HID or mouse driver somewhere?

I've tried MANY Microsoft mice to see if it something peculiar with this
particular mouse and I see the same symptom with the new Natural Laser mouse,
the Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0.

It's not the mouse or software, it's Windows, and your Video device. The
scroll puts messages in the system message Queue, and the GetRect() function
in Windows executes it, then accepts another message to scroll. No
acceleration in messages would speed up your display. Only more Ram, or a
better processor or video card would do it. Turning off the Aero theme would
probably help.

I have the same wireless mouse as you. You have checked all the
relevant settings so there's no problem there. You can try uninstalling and
reinstalling the mouse software. You can also reset the receiver and mouse.
Hold down on the receiver button until the light goes out and try it again.
Also, hold down on the receiver until the light goes out and then use the
reset button on the bottom of your mouse.
If these steps don't solve the problem I would contact Microsoft,
regardless of where you purchased the mouse. You have 90 days of support
from the date of your first call regarding the issue. Did you purchase it
recently? I had problems with a Microsoft Fingerprint Reader and also the
same mouse as yours. The mouse was defective and Microsoft replaced it
immediately. I had purchase both from Dell but Microsoft tells me it doesn't
make any difference where I purchased them.

Mark,

I have a 256MB ATI Radeon X1300PRO video card. Is this a low end device?
Is there a way that I can "sniff" the window messages created by the mouse?
If the mouse was creating a ton of messages and the video card wasn't able to
consume them at that same rate, wouldn't I see a lengthy queue building up
and subsequent scrolling after I stop scolling the mouse wheel?

BTW, how do I turn off the Aero UI? I was poking around in the Control
Panel a bit and didn't see anything that will flat our turn off Aero.
Although I could swear I've seen it someplace in the past when I was
twiddling with things.

No, you get the equivalent of a 'wait cursor' for mouse input. The extra
input is lost, much like keystrokes during that period.
You can easily set the system 'theme' to "Classic Windows" in Control
Panel/Personalizations.

In the IntelliPoint (Mouse) control panel, try selecting a mouse that
does not support horizontal scrolling, such as the IntelliMouse Optical.
Accelerated scrolling should then work. This trick works for me,
although I don't know why. There seems to be a scrolling bug in Vista
and/or IntelliPoint.

[dan@kagool.com]

I'll be interested to know if you managed to find a resolution to this problem. I'm running Vista in classic mode with 2Gb ram. Interestingly if you look in help it tells of a setting which I remember seeing in xp where you can adjust the number of lines the screen will move for each movement of the wheel. I think I remember seeing it prior to installing the mouse software although cannot be sure?
Dan

My problem was that the difference between normal scrolling and accelerated
scrolling wasn't enough. When I set the setting to be nice for precise
control (line-at-a-time) then the accelerated scrolling was unacceptably slow.

I never did find an adaquate solution. I tried 4 different current models
of Microsoft mice. They were all laser mice and they all have the same
problem.

Now I went back to the old Intellimouse Explorer 2.0 and I have a good
solution. I can set the scrolling so that I can precisely control
line-at-a-time (like what I am using now to write this posting). When I want
to scroll a screen at a time, I just roll the wheel really fast and I get
very fast scrolling and I can whip through a multipage document or website
quickly.

It's beyond me why I seem to be the only one who is picky enough to want
this range of scrolling speeds. I think this old Intellimouse Explorer 2.0
scrolling capability is operating as it should. In my opinion, the laser
mice are not as good as the older mice. I don't see what the laser
technology buys me. It's a step backward.

[xyglyx]

I've had this problem before, where scrolling acceleration doesn't work. From another forum (can't remember which one), I found a workaround. Apparently, the problem only happens when you identify your mouse as one with horizontal scrolling support in the IntelliPoint (Mouse) control panel. If you select a non-horizontal-scrolling mouse in the control panel -- disregarding the fact that your mouse in fact supports horizontal scrolling -- then the scrolling acceleration should work. That's my experience. Try, for example, selecting the IntelliMouse Optical. You will lose the horizontal scrolling if you use this workaround, but to me that's a very small price to pay.

I wish someone would write a control panel (or extension to the Mouse CP) to give users complete and predictable control over scrolling speed and acceleration. Besides acceleration, I would love to be able to adjust the scrolling response rate -- that is, how far you have to turn the wheel before the OS responds with a scroll event. That would be great for mice with smooth-turning wheels.