Spoiler alert: it didn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have been happily using a Logitech MX Master 3S on my Mac for the last 2 years. A few months ago, an intermittent problem emerged: when I hit the menu bar drop down to adjust the volume, the mouse froze completely. Hitting the button underneath to cycle through the different machines it was connected to was the only way of kicking it back into life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A couple of weeks ago, I upgraded the machine in question – an M2 Mac Mini with a baseline spec – to Tahoe, and I hit a showstopper: the redrawing fell off a cliff. The lag was so bad that it made the machine unusable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some initial digging with the activity monitor didn’t immediately suggest the computer was struggling under load. Plugging in an old school USB mouse made the problem go away. Googling revealed a pitchfork wielding mob having the same issue with the 3S on their Macs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I did a few other tests like forgetting and repairing in case it was BlueTooth interference, and reducing some of the resolution settings. Nothing worked, and as the 3S seemed to be the smoking gun, I bought a KeyChron M8 which fixed… precisely nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some more digging allowed me to at least identify what was going on. This command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…returned results that looked like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Window Server process is reporting a transient failure to redraw the pointer position on the screen because it is resource bound. What has proven more elusive is identifying the root cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Googling (in the context of this problem) suggests that WhatsApp is particularly resource hungry. I think this is actually something that dates back to when it was written in Electron. I run it all the time and killing it alleviated the lagging issue a little bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Digging into the load, WhatsApp isn’t that resource hungry and, as it didn’t fix the problem outright, it’s more likely to be a cumulative load on the Window Server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve had pretty good mileage out of the M2 but I think its days are numbered. A gradual slowdown in performance I can live with. Not being able to use the mouse is like pulling teeth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spoiler alert: it didn’t. I have been happily using a Logitech MX Master 3S on my Mac for the last 2 years. A few months ago, an intermittent problem emerged: when I hit the menu bar drop down to adjust … Continue reading log show --predicate 'process == \"WindowServer\"' --last 15m | grep -i error<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\nWindowServer: (QuartzCore) [com.apple.coreanimation:Cursor] Cursor disabled: failed set_cursor_surface<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n