I reclaimed the 750Mhz Pentium III and reinstalled Dapper on it, to see if there was a chance the newer kernels were part of my mouse lag problem.

The idea was that the 2.6.15.xx kernel might not include whatever Edgy and Feisty (and Arch, with the 2.6.20 kernel) did to trip up my processor and create all this wretched stutter.

No luck there, either. If anything, the lag in Dapper is worse, not better. At times, the pointer spatters across the screen without any semblance of control. Then it freezes, then it’s usable again. Very weird.

I should note that it happens with the mouse unplugged, with the touchpad or pointer stick, with the same results each time. I’m sure it’s not actually the mouse that’s doing it.

To be honest, I’m more and more convinced that this is some sort of hardware inconsistency that I have stumbled on, and can’t avoid. The funny part is, I’ve had this setup for about six months now, with the machine serving as my music center and I don’t recall any issues before December.

But it’s incomprehensible to me, that all of a sudden, out of the blue, with no warning and no precedent, I suddenly have overwhelming uncontrollable mouse lag that won’t go away and can’t be fixed.

My last resort measure will be a frugal install of DSL, as a way of completely circumventing the 2.6-series kernel, and maybe find a tolerable system. But even if that works, this machine is destined for ebay. I can feel it.