Trackball choice(s) question

[Box Brownie]

Hi All

I have used an MS Trackball Explorer for some time and have found it usefull for all things including PS and of course LR but with my new build running W7 64 bit I am having stability issues that could be down to the Trackball???  Yes, up to date drivers and Intellpoint are installed

So looking at new trackballs and the other brands I find are Kensington or Logitech.  Both have models where the fingers control the ball rather than the thumb (need that as I found thumb type almost more of a strain than a mouse!  So what are you using and would you recommend it???  For the record the Kensington Slimblade looks very interesting likewise the Logitech Cordless Trackman Optical

TIA for any insight & feedback.

[KeithR]

I also use the trackball explorer(I've had it through XP and vista)and recently installed win7-64 and am not experiencing any problems at all. What kind of stability problems are you experiencing. Have you gone into control panel>mouse and made any adjustments to the settings?

[Box Brownie]

I also use the trackball explorer(I've had it through XP and vista)and recently installed win7-64 and am not experiencing any problems at all. What kind of stability problems are you experiencing. Have you gone into control panel>mouse and made any adjustments to the settings?

Hi

The oddity is a random situation where the system freezes i.e. the screen locks up the keyboard becomes un responsive and the LEDs in the trackball are off.  Most of the time I have had this happen when returning to the PC and it is the screensaver that is frozen on the screen but on one occassion it was whilst browsing..............and the most recent time the Trackball LEDs were still on.

I have set the power management to 'not to sleep' and the graphics drivers are up to date, the only thing that will regain control is hard reset ~ there is nothing in the event logs to indicate what the trigger event was that causes it???  W7 64 bit is kept fully patched apart from I am not (yet) updated with IE9 or its two hotfixes offered at the time that was offered in the Windows update list.

As for the settings ~ all default but I disabled "let mouse wake computer" in the power settings in case that was associated with the issue!

So very odd and as the cause cannot be duplicated so darned annoying.  My next step will be change to a plain vanilla mouse and see how that behaves but be ready if needed to get a new trackball, hence the question

The timeframes are typically many days between it happening though having said that the last three times were on consecutive days and for the record I do not leave the PC on 24/7, it is shutdown whenever I am out of the house.

Edit - the Trackball is plugged directly into the USB on the motherboard not a hub.

[john beardsworth]

I've also got one and haven't had any problems

[KeithR]

Have you contacted MS? Do you have another computer to try it on. Could be a connection problem(cord or usb). Sometimes connectors can work their way out.
I'm ruling out the ball being dirty because I assume you clean it out. At one time I thought it would be interesting to look at other trackballs and looked around. The salesperson asked why, and if something was wrong, I could go online and check the MS website and found that it might be sent in for repair. Since I didn't have a problem I didn't pursue it, but it got me thinking that if I did have a problem I could send it in since I really haven't found any other trackball that I like as well.

[JimAscher]

I use the Logitech trackball on my desktop and the Kensington on my laptop.  Both computers operate Windows 7 64-bit, and I also have Photoshop ES5 and Lightroom installed on both.  (As well as Silver Efex Pro 2 and True Grain.)  No problems at all.  (I use trackballs on my doctor's recommendation due to elbow pain from using a standard mouse.)