Alienware TactX Mouse - Replaced

My Alienware TactX mouse has been acting weird lately.  It has been acting erratic.  If I move it slowly to the left, it warps to the left or may not move at all.  I think the cord has a short in it, creating an intermittent connection.  It is not the mousepad, nor the DPI settings.  I used a standard Dell mouse (laser mouse with multiple DPI settings) and it works fine.  Sometimes the TactX mouse works fine, other times it doesn't.

I've e-mailed Alienware support, as there's an entry in their online knowledgebase that directs the user to try certain things and if they're still having issues, to e-mail them with the issue that's being experienced.  The mouse is less than a year old (it is still under warranty).  I was hoping they'd respond and replace the mouse, but they haven't responded.  I'm not sure the issue will even be fixed, as I think it's a design issue that won't be fixed by just replacing the mouse with a new one that still has the faulty part.

The TactX mouse is soooo damned nice, but it needs to live longer than a year for users to be happy.  This isn't an issue that I'm only experiencing, either.  I saw many complaints when searching Google and my favorite Alienware forums.

I replaced the TactX with a Logitech G700 wireless gaming mouse.

The G700 is badass.  It is physically bigger and heavier than the TactX.  It is more configurable, as well.  It is rechargeable, has a AA-sized battery that can be replaced, has 5 DPI settings, up to 5700 dpi, can be used while charging or when the electronic environment is unfriendly toward wireless devices, has internal memory, and each button can be mapped independently.  It has powder-coating on the sides of the mouse, which a really like.  It has performance settings that can dictate how much power is used.

The only thing I'm wary of is the SetPoint software.  I'm installing it now and will play with the mouse tonight and throughout the week...I'll update this post with my thoughts in about a week.

Ever Wonder How to Use A Mouse & Touchpad in X?

I remember, awhile back, I got a USB mouse and touchpad working in X on my first laptop (using Suse). Many people still ask this question in ##slackware.

All you do is ensure you have the following within your xorg.conf file:


Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"

.
.
.

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "mouse"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Name" "Autodetection"
Option "Protocol" "imps/2"
Option "Vendor" "Logitech"
EndSection

You'll notice that the bold print is the print that you have to add to your pre-existing configuration.

The whole file is here.

Give it a whirl...and good luck!