Mac Hints & Tips

Q: After a long time troubleshooting and with the help of the Genius at the Apple Store, I found why my Finder was freezing. It was the Logitech MX 300 optical mouse. They suggested trying the standard Apple mouse and it worked fine. I dumped the Logitech Control Center software and installed SteerMouse. Would SteerMouse work with Leopard and this mouse? It has more options than Logitech’s software anyway. After all, a mouse is just a mechanical pointing device.

A: That $30 mouse came out in 2002 and is no longer sold. Maybe the problem was hardware, as the electronics in the mouse may have failed and causing the Mac to freeze because of that. Even the 1984 mouse had electronics in it that could fail. That would explain why replacing the mouse with an Apple one solved the problem.

If it was a software-only problem, then consider that Logitech’s latest version of their software, version 2.4 came out in November of 2007 and was supposed to work with Leopard. SteerMouse 3.9 ($20) is a newer, generic multi-button mouse driver. Many people found the Logitech software to be flaky. Leopard’s built-in mouse driver would control a left and right button as well as the scroll wheel and most people find that is enough.

Still people use SteerMouse with Apple’s Mighty Mouse for the extra control offered by the software. There is also the software USB Overdrive for controlling multi-button mice which has a longer history. If you don’t care for Apple’s Mighty Mouse physically, then consider a new Logitech mouse, and just use SteerMouse software instead.