Microsoft Habu Laser Gaming Mouse (Black)
by Microsoft
|
Our Price: $70.00 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $45.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Microsoft Habu Laser Gaming Mouse (Black)
Customer Review: Smooth Mouse!
Summary: 5 Stars
Item received promptly and in new condition. Mouse is smooth and precise. Never noticed how crappy standard mouse could be. Great buy!Customer Review: Habu Mouse
Summary: 5 Stars
Great mouse for gaming. Everything is great on it but I ran had a little trouble with the driver update and the firmware update.Customer Review: Habu Gaming Mouse
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the best designs to date. Recommended. I am an MMORPG gamer and love this Microsoft mouse.Customer Review: Habu For You
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a bit of an older model gaming mouse (mine has a manufacture date of Nov. 2006) as 2000dpi is as high as it goes where the new 'gaming' mice tend to have upwords of 4000dpi. However you're not going to get a 4000dpi mouse for $25.00. But does one really need a 4000dpi mouse?
The look and construction of the mouse is very good, it feels great in your hand, and the blue lights surrounding it (in my opinion) are very cool and a nice change from the usual Red you see on every other optical mouse.
I was a little worried the two buttons on the top of the mouse to turn up and down the dpi would get in the way of gaming and the mouse wheel, but they're actually well placed and very accessable when you need them in the heat of battle and they don't get in the way in the slightest.
The reason I gave the Habu a 4 star rating is that it was an utter pain in the (pick your favorite body part, I'm going with posterior) to get the thing recognized by Windows. At first I immediately pluged the Habu in my Windows 7 machine and it saw a USB device but it didn't know what it was and just said 'unknown device.' I mean grr, A Microsoft OS not recognizing a Microsoft device?!?! I'm guessing the device recognition problem was due to the mouse being manufactured in 2006 which of course is well before Windows 7. I wasn't ready to give up though so I spent a few >>HOURS<< looking at forums and such trying to get this thing recognized by Windows and everything kept pointing to the firmware not being up to date. Now don't get me wrong, I was more than willing to dive into updating the firmware, but again it wasn't even recognized by Windows so how could I update it? And to boot, Windows 7 was disabling the Habu/device saying it was malfunctioning. I finally decided to take the Habu to work where they're still using XP and try pluging the mouse in there... again, unrecognized USB device message... so I was about to give up and send it back but then I found the solution...
Now I can't speak for all of the Habu's as maybe you'll get one with the latest firmware or a later manufacturer date but I bought the one listed at $25.00 (if it's still available when you read this) so if you get that one you'll most likely need to do the following to get its firmware updated and recognized by Windows...
I had to jump through a few hoops and combine a few downloads worth of drivers and firmware, but now it's working perfectly so hopefully this will save you some time and a headache.
First get the latest driver from [...] and install it (without the Habu pluged in). The firmware however isn't located in the latest driver (at the time of this writing). I had to download an older driver (which indicated it had a firmware update in its description) that had a separate folder called firmware that I grabed and put to the side.
I then had to get their, what I'm guessing is a generic version of their interface software called 'Copperhead' and install that. Basicly all we're going to use the Copperhead software for is to be able to point it to the firmware file for the Habu. I tried the firmware update option through the latest Habu interface software but it just opened the Razer web page when I clicked on the firmware update option.
Next (still not having the Habu pluged in) hold the small button on the bottom of it down and plug it in and continue holding it down... it should hopefully be recognized not as a mouse but a 'Freescale USB JW32 ICP Device.'
Finally, open the Copperhead software and click on 'save/load settings,' you're going to see an update firmware option, click it, and point it to the firmware you downloaded and put to the side earlier... you should then see a progress bar indicating it's updating.
Once updated, unplug/plug the Habu and it should then be seen by Windows as 'Habu Mouse' and you should be good to go.
Other than the pain described above, this is an excellent mouse and I'd go through all the problems again for it as it's that good and you simply can't beat the price!
Customer Review: great mouse, software needs work
Summary: 4 Stars
First thing, the drivers are poorly implemented. I followed the directions on the razer site and once I got everything done and I thought I was in the clear, I rebooted and I could never get the mouse to be seen by the drivers. again.. so I started searching for fixes and read this is an issue with these mice.. great! I returned my last razer mouse because the drivers were buggy.. sort of the same issue also, wouldn't detect the mouse sometimes.. anyways, I see not much has changed. But I was determined to get this working because I fell in love with the feel of it.. So, I did get it all working finally, but this what I had to do:
--> uninstalled all Habu software..(which is just the driver pack)
--> installed the 2.01 drivers from Razers site from a clean slate.
--> said YES to the windows warning about non WHQL drivers
--> then said NO to the reboot now option and went into the firmware folder (part of the driver pack) and installed the new firmware!! (with /no/ reboot).
--> after the firmware is successfully installed, it tells you to unplug and re-plug the Habu.. do that, /then/ reboot.
NOTE: It's very important to not reboot before attempting the firmware update because the OS and the drivers see the mouse ONLY after the driver install but after a reboot with the old firmware the mouse was never detectable by the drivers again.. it was very frustrating! anyways.. it seems any of the Habu/Razer drivers will only detect a mouse after a reboot with 2.01 firmware installed. My mouse had 1.0 firmware..
I as I said, and the more I use it the more I love the feel of the Habu.. so much like the old IME 3.0 which I still adore.. the only mouse which really just felt like a key in a lock with my hand. The buttons click is awesome and the wheel is PERFECT (resistance for up/down and depress center). The side (thumb) buttons come with an alternate panel which has the two buttons more out of the way.. I have yet to try it but that's a nice extra.. the mouse tracking is spot on! very precise and very smooth.. me likey!
giving it 4 stars because the mouse is awesome now that I have the drivers working, but wow that was frustrating.. it's a mouse for crying out loud.. it should be a no brainer install. whew.
I hope this helps some people who are thinking about this mouse!