Slow/Laggy mouse on secondary computer with Multiplicity

Hello,

I have forwarded your report to the Stardock support team for their review and recommendations.

Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates.

We really do appreciate your feedback, thanks.

AzDude
Stardock Community Assistant

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

But do you have any other clipboard sharing accross your other Win10 devices:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/clipboard-in-windows-10-c436501e-985d-1c8d-97ea-fe46ddf338c6#:~:text=%20Clipboard%20in%20Windows%2010%20%201%20To,Settings%20%3E%20System%20%3E%20Clipboard.%20Choose...%20More%20

If so, try disabling it for testing.

Also, when this happens, look in task manager to see what is getting thrashed (process: CPU \ Mem) on the Secondary.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

I do not have clipboard sharing across my Win10 devices. I checked the link you sent and when I hit Windows Key + V to pull up the clipboard, I can see I don't even have it turned on (Honestly didn't even know about that feature). I also went to the clipboard page in settings and verified that nothing is enabled there either. On the Sync across devices section on my primary computer, it says "get started" and on my secondary machine it says "sign-in".  As I'm not signed in to sync the clipboard, I'm under the assumption that it is not enabled.

I opened notepad and moved the mouse over it several times while having the Task Manager open and watched what was going on.

When I moved my mouse back and forth over a notepad window on the secondary computer:
The most noticeable thing was that the CPU usage for both Multiplicity and Notepad jumped.  Where Multiplicity tends to sit around 1-2% while I'm controlling the secondary PC, when I move over notepad it jumps to 10-16%. Notepad went from 0% to 6% at the same time. Desktop Window Manager jumped from .7% to 3.5%, and System went from .8% to 2%. Those were the top 4 processes while I had the mouse slowed down by moving it back and forth over Notepad.

I didn't notice any significant jumps in the Memory column.

When I got it to slow down while over my desktop (no open windows) by moving my mouse around on the secondary computer:
Multiplicity jumped as it did when I was over the notepad app, but this time it was Windows Explorer that also jumped up from .3% to 7%.

Just wondering if you had any other suggestions that I should try or look out for?

It difficult to troubleshoot as all that is running is not known. 

How frequent are we talking about here and is it at all readily reproducible? If so, what exact steps need to be performed?

It would also be prudent to ensure you have the most recent version of MP on EACH box.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

There was a recent update to Multiplicity, which seemed to help a little, but the issue still comes up very frequently, most notably while dragging files or icons around on the secondary computer. The primary computer never slows down.

This is a very frequent issue. Notepad always sets it off, web browsers like Chrome don't do it as often same with Adobe software. Right now though, I have noticed a slow down when I have everything minimized and I'm just on the desktop. 

I opened up the control panel and the cursor moves fine when over the control panel window, but as soon as I travel outside onto the desktop it slows down and lags. I even opened the Mouse Properties window (to check to see if I had Motion set to Slow -I don't- and in that popup window it lags. Only over the main Control Panel window does it move normally.

This is such an odd issue.

Would you be willing to attempt a clean boot on the Secondary?

https://forums.stardock.com/486104/multiplicity-support-faq#cleanboot

This would go a long way to seeing if a 3rd party app \ setting is causing the issue.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

I see similar laggy behaviour when running Microsoft Teams on the secondary - specifically when any party on the call (including me) is sharing their desktop via Teams. I don't see any process thrashing in either the primary or secondary though, its quite odd.

I'm afraid I can't do that as I can't create new accounts on the secondary

I am having the same issue with laggy mouse on the secondary system. It is most noticeable when use dragging a windows and doing circles.  I have done clean install on both system and the issue still happens. I am out of ideas on how to sort the issue out.

This is a rather long thread with many questions asked and possible solutions.  We need to know that you have tried them and the result.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

I have done the uninstall and clean install for both systems.

The laggy mouse action is notice the most when dragging windows metro applications on the secondary computer.

What is the CPU and Network load on either PC at the time?

How are they connected (WiFi, Ethernet)?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

The two computer are connected through hardwire ethernet on 10gbe connections. This is happening on clean boot with nothing running.  The cpu load are under 25%.  Is there a setting somewhere I can toss a debug or log what is happening to see what could be causing the lagging?

So it is not consistent, meaning it only happens at certain times with certain apps?

Are both PC on the exact same version of MP (About tabs in the MP UI)?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

sdRohan, I have reinstall both windows system to the latest update of 21H1. The metro based menus are still laggy when being dragged on the screen. If i don't drag them around then there is no issues anymore for normal mouse usage.

I need to know that the exact same version of MP is installed on each PC (About tab in the MP UI):

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Here are the screen shot of the main pc and secondary.

Main Computer

Secondary

This is my test with 'Weather' on my Secondary, a native 'Modern app':

https://cdn.stardock.us/support/uploads/2021-08-23_15-50-34.mp4

What is your experience with it?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Not sure if the link will work. The first windows is file explorer. The second window is using the windows metro layout display setting menu.

The second screen mouse movement is laggy.

https://filebin.net/lvmtt1z18vh89er2/2021-08-23_16-02-05.mkv

Are you using DisplayFusion or any other monitor software - and if so - if you disable it, does it continue?

Also, are you using a gaming Mouse (Logitech for example) with crazy high DPI \ polling?  If so, dial them way down and try again.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Interesting, I am using a gaming mouse. My default DPI is 3200 and polling rate of 1000. Leaving the DPI as 3200 and turning the polling rate down to 125 was the only way to resolve it. Is there any other way to resolve it beside turning down the polling rate?

No, not currently.  MP simulates the mouse \ keyboard input on the Secondary so you are crushing the GUI with that very high 'where is the mouse at' polling rate. 

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

The reason for the lag in this case is the blur on the left hand side of the settings window.  On a low polling mouse you would move say 10 pixels per mouse movement.  On a high one you might move 1 pixel per movement so you end up doing 10x the rendering in the OS.  The mouse messages all back up because of this.  The explorer window has no blur so moving it is much quicker.

I don't know if the same may well happen if you had that mouse physically plugged into the secondary computer or not at that polling rate, depends on if the lag causes the OS to sample less and reduce the issue or not.  As MP is on another computer it doesn't know the secondary is lagging like that.

High polling rates are generally a bad thing on the desktop as you end up causing a lot more work for each mouse movement for very little gain.  Some mice have options to have a button on the mouse to toggle such things I think.