Mouse lag in video games since upgrading to Windows 8.1

Anonymous
2013-10-31T03:24:23+00:00

Since I’ve upgraded to Windows 8.1, when playing some games the mouse doesn’t behave right. It lags, or the pointer jumps back and forth, or I can’t click fast.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Gaming

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Anonymous
2013-10-31T03:29:40+00:00

Updated (11/8)

We want to thank our gaming community for the detailed feedback many of you have provided on these issues.  We have released some fixes and workarounds that will allow you to get back to your gaming.

The “mouse lag” issue is actually several different issues that could vary based on the game, input methods used, etc.

The three following issues are addressed by a fix we have provided in **KB 2908279**:

  1. Mouse jitters (jumps forward and back) as you move it through a game – This occurs in some games because Windows 8.1 introduced changes to mouse input processing for low latency interaction scenarios and this causes some games to respond differently to mouse input than in previous releases of Windows.
  2. Mouse movement is not to scale even after acceleration is turned off – If you have turned off acceleration to make the distance on the screen match the distance you move the mouse, that may not work correctly anymore.
  3. Measured mouse Polling Rate has a lower reporting frequency than expected – If you have a gaming mouse that has a high frequency, when you test it, you may find it is reporting a lower frequency than you expect. Note: if you previously encountered issues with measuring the polling rate you will need to follow the instructions in **KB 2908279** to ensure that, not only the patch is installed, but also the app used to measure the polling rate has an appropriate registry entry to enable the fix for that specific executable.

We have also included workarounds here for the following issues:

  1. Mouse may not be able to reach all areas of the game window – This may occur with games that do not use DirectX, when run in window mode. See **KB 2907016** for the workaround.
  2. Can’t left-click with an integrated pointing device immediately after pressing a key – This is a setting for touchpads, like those used on laptops, to make typing easier. You can work around this by changing the mouse delay to zero, but this may make typing more difficult. For instructions to change the setting, see **KB 2907018**.

Some users have also reported success in older games and apps by turning on compatibility mode. To try that:

  1. Right-click the game’s icon.
  2. Select Properties.
  3. Select the Compatibility tab.
  4. Select the version of Windows for which you want to run the game in compatibility mode.
  5. If you want to apply the settings for that program to all accounts on the PC, click Change settings for all users. You might be asked for an administrator password or to confirm your choice.
  6. When you're done, tap click OK.

When we have more information from our investigations, we will update this post. Thank you very much for your patience.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-11-13T05:40:20+00:00

    RMBSW means update all Windows programs (drivers etc.) to their most recent version, but "at their highest settings" is a confusing way to say that.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-11-12T23:24:31+00:00

    Right....the Rat program will take over.  But the windows program has to be set at the highest.  Try it it worked for me.  That is all I can tell you.  Had to do the same with my sound and video if I wanted to have the soundcard drivers and the video drivers to run everything.  Otherwise the win drivers tell it that they are limited.....I hope this makes sense to you because it does to me and it worked for me.  But I still needed the fix that the guy gave me, which you stated earlier that you already installed it.  Without it I could not get the win drivers to max out and in turn would not give the power for the other drivers to set to where I wanted them.  Later,     try it it worked for me with no problems.  If you cant get the rat drivers to come down to 28 then the problem is with the rat drivers.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-11-12T09:10:02+00:00

    What do you mean setting on highest setting? If I set my "mouse sensitivity" setting in program or game to the max, it would be unplayable because on the lowest dpi setting on my mouse, the movement would be too fast... Rat 7 can do up to 6400dpi, I use it ingame on 2900dpi.

    What we NEED is a proper windows usbhid driver that doesn't limit usb pooling rate to 200Hz and there is no way your gonna fix this by some workaround/lazy fix/registry entry...

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-11-11T15:43:31+00:00

    Another thing you can try is set all the windows programs at their highest settings.  With the Razer I had to set all programs pertaining to the mouse at their highest settings and this straightened out the problems with the other mice too.  The Nvidia drivers keep regressing to the stock 320's.  I have to dig deep and get them out of the system and install the newest drivers by themselves.  Thanks to HP they actually already have the 8.1 drivers out and they straightened everything out in no time.

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