External HID driver issues on Macbook Pro

[cjneedham]

Over the past few months (since I've had my new Macbook Pro), I've had issues with attaching external devices. Three types in all - keyboard, mouse and projectors/external screens.

I thought I'd post some of the solutions I've found along the way. I had trouble establishing where the faults were, as I'm running Windows Vista Ultimate on Bootcamp on a Mac. Right there are three large variables, each of which could be a cause.

I don't know if these issues apply to older macs... keen to hear responses from others. For the sake of being explicity, mine's got:
T9500 2.6Ghz processor
512Mb NVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphic card
4Gb 667Mhz RAM

MOUSE:
I found a great tip for mice that refuse to work - when seeking to update the driver software (from Device Manager, right-clicking on the problem device; usually "Unknown Device"), direct your search to C:\Windows\winsxs. Windows should detect a driver which may be unsigned as far as Vista is concerned. Go ahead and use it, and the mouse should be detected.

KEYBOARD:
Having an external LCD screen and keyboard to go with the Mac while it's unopened on the desk is a good ergonomic way to work. I found that the Logitech Setpoint driver software was the obstruction to successful use of my external keyboard. Not only does it cause issue when using Revit, but my guess is that it clashes with the boot camp or Vista drivers... Uninstalling it allowed the keyboard to work fine. This explains why the keyboard was detected correctly when I run the laptop as a Mac (in Leopard OS).

EXTERNAL SCREEN:
I'm still working on this one. I've had seemingly inconsistent results so far. Frustratingly, it appears that the computer has issues detecting a second display - moreso if it's a 'fresh' (perhaps by definition 'unknown') display. I attach my external Samsung 27" screen every day without troubles, but sit me in a meeting using someone else's projector, and it'll be guaranteed to fail!
It seems that you will of course get better results by restarting the computer with the external device attached and powered on already, but this is not always 100% successful. A few times I've managed to get a signal to the external screen/projector but it is extremely low-res and saturated with a blue wash through the display. Most frustrating!

I bought my own projector as a backup (Dell M1409X), on the premise that if I can get it working consistently (with plenty of time to configure it properly), I'd be equipped with at least one device that I can reliably connect to. In the end I didn't have too much trouble getting this to work *fingers crossed*, but will edit/respond to this post if I find out more of what is directly responsible.

Has anyone else found these sorts of issues? Hope this has been helpful for some...

P.S. Currently I can not get my boot camp update to install correctly while in Vista. Apple kindly told me they can't help me since they don't support Vista. I understand that, but it still irks me. I guess a complete reformat and install of my Windows partition might solve it... we'll see...