Attention USB Overdrive users

I have noticed a lot of slowdowns and weird behaviour with Parallels and OS X, especially under low free memory conditions. This includes general lags, the dock becoming unresponsive and the dock bouncing choppy, early pageouts for no apparent reason,
and messages in system log like: IOHIDSystem: postEvent LLEventQueue overflow,
or the Dynamic Pager of OS X not being able to assign virtual memory swapspace,
and iTunes stuttering when playing music at the same time Parallels is loaded.

Trying to solve the issue I discovered that USB Overdrive is to blame in my case at least.
After I removed it, no more problems! I even stressed the system to the point of 200.000 pageouts and no physical memory left free, with 3 Parallels VMs loaded, all Adobe CS3 suite, Safari, iTunes playing, and everything was working, slow but steady.
After I closed the programs everything returned back to normal, where with USB Overdrive installed the general chopinness remained, especially in the Dock, until I restarted my Mac. Something goes very wrong between the ConnectUSB.kext that Parallels loads, and the USBOverdrive.kext.

Without wanting to advertise, I found another much more modern mouse driver, that has no such problems, and Parallels works like a dream after that, even on extreme low memory conditions.

I wonder how many of you guys that complain about choppiness and unstable Parallels, have USB Overdrive installed.

 

As to Mouse controllers for the Mac, please feel free to tell us what program you found that worked with parallels. Its not a competitive thing with Parallels, but perhaps some of us could use it.
Thanks

 

Artt, that sounds like something you should post as a new thread instead of hijacking one that's just starting? It seems more than just slightly off topic.

 

Point taken. I was trying to find out what product did not cause his problem, and in giving the background, it sounds very different on reading it today. Think I will start a new thread, perhaps on a more general forum, to work on my 'double click". In the meantime, I will edit or delete my original post.

How's that?

 

It's called SteerMouse, it's an excellent driver, you can use it for 30 days before bying,
you can find it in http://plentycom.jp/en/steermouse/
and it has all the options you need, like configuring a double-click to a single button.
The most important thing for me though is that Parallels runs like a dream, no choppiness, no hangs.

 

Whoah, thanks for the report on this. I'm using USB Overdrive for my Evoluent Vertical Mouse 3, and it probably would've taken me forever to figure this out.

I haven't noticed any problems with Parallels yet, but I haven't used it much recently either. If I do see problems I'll try disabling USBO.
thanks again!

 

Please note that during my tests USB Overdrive caused the same messages and choppiness in low memory conditions even with out Parallels loaded.
The IOHID overflow messages dissapeared after I uninstalled it, and the system is much more stable and responsive. Also note that if you have iTunes stuttering USB Overdrive causes that too, according to my findings.

 

Well, back to my original question to Stefdar, I got Steermouse, and it allowed me to double click, and after an tweak shown in the FAQ, I got the wheel to free spin. So now I have it (MX Revolution) back to the same capability it had in windows. Thanks for the tip, Stefdar.

Parallels works just fine as well. Thanks, again.

 

Okay - after reading this, part of my questions may have been answered. I have a MX Revolution and have been using Logitech's Control Center. When I switch from XP to OS X and back, I loose access to the Control Center until I turn the mouse off and back on - then the connection is restored and the Control Center features are once more available. I also have the free spinning wheel issue in XP.

From what I am reading here if I use SteerMouse to control my MX that when I switch into XP, my MX will act normally, except for the free wheel spinning action which is available in a FAQ?

ART743 you appear to note this tweak is in a FAQ - could you point me to that link?

If I am not understanding this please feel free to let me know.

 

It is the second question on this page.

http://plentycom.jp/en/steermouse/support.html

But I am still not sure how I got it done. But it does work well. I used the setting "-2" because I like the wheel free spinning all the time. As to you going from OSX to XP, I do not have that problem. Mine just goes from the OSX destop to the XP without any change. But I think there are some mouse settings in Parallels, if that is what you are using. Check both the configuration, and the preferences in the upper tool bar at the top of the OSX window.

Good luck, I hope you get the same great result I did!

 

Art - thanks for the link. I did see that but thought you might be referring to another link. I'll certainly give it a try.