Installing a Microsoft Razer Habu mouse

How to install your Razer Habu / Microsoft gaming mouse.

If you're reading this, you've probably already found yourself in a quagmire. Let me just say I know exactly how you feel. I actually went back to the store and exchanged a Habu that I thought was defective!
Razer says they don't support the mouse (even though the software is very clearly Razer-derived) and Microsoft's support site is less than stellar. I have installed 2 of these mice, so hopefully you find these instructions useful on your own system.

I'm going to cover 3 topics here:

1. Installing the mouse for the first time under XP or XP x64
2. Installing the mouse if you've already tried and failed
3. Using the mouse under Mac OS X.

Installing the mouse for the first time

The most important thing for you to do, is to not read the 'quick start guide', the 'Important' addendum sheet, or the 'little tag taped over the USB connector'. There are directions that don't work in there, as well as directions that conflict with other parts ofthe written docs and parts of the web page!

1) Get the mouse and set it on your desk, do not plug it in

2) Get the Habu Driver Disc out of the box and place it next to the mouse, do not use it yet.

3) Go to the Razer Support site (razersuport.com) and download the latest Habu software. You can unzip it, but don't start using anything in there yet.

• Click 'Downloads', then in the middle of the page there is a link to 'Microsoft Habu Driver/Firmware v2.01'

4) Figure out which USB port you are going to want to use the mouse on. There are a couple places with dire warnings about the mouse not working if you change USB ports, I don't know if that is true but given how frail the rest of the setup is I'm taking it for truth.

5) Plug the mouse in to that port. Notice that we haven't installed anything yet, we're throwing the included directions to the wind baby!

• You should hear the XP 'found new hardware' sound, and see some popups near your notification area (that's the little area with the clock and all the other random little icons like Volume Control in your task bar, lots of people incorrectly call it the 'tray'). Don't worry if you see something called the 'Habu Mouse' pop up and then disappear being replaced by a 'Generic HID Device', that is expected.

6) At this point you should actually be able to move the mouse cursor around the screen with the Habu. Don't claim victory yet, in this mode the mouse is no better than the free mouse that came with your system.

• Do not disconnect your original mouse yet, you're going to need to keep using it for the remainer of the process. I'll note when it is safe to remove it.

7) Put the CD in the drive, and run the setup program (it will launch itself if you have autoplay aka 'security hole' enabled on your system). When it tells you to reboot, let it.

• If you are on an XP x64 machine you'll get a warning about unsigned drivers, and asking if you should continue or abort. Go ahead and click 'continue'. I can not explain why Microsoft would brand a product that didn't have signed drivers.

8) Now that your computer is back you should see a Razer logo icon in your note area. If you do, congratulations you are halfway there, continue to the next step. if you don't see it, do not dispare it isn't game over yet, jump down to the 'Oh no!' section below, and follow those steps before you jump back up here to continue.

9) Double click the icon, and the horrible Razer UI should pop up, and you should -not- see any error/warning messages displayed. If you see error messages cancel out of them all, and jump to the 'Oh no!' section before continuing. (re: bad ui. I love dark interfaces, but this one is a travesty. Try setting your desktop color to black and then using the UI with some error messages popped up, it all blends in to each other. Even a 1 pixel 25% gray border would have helped)

10) To make sure things are really working part 1: look at the top of the Habu config window and you should see a line that says Driver Ver: 1.00, Firmware Ver: 1.00. If the 'firmware' number shows 'n/a' then skip to the 'Oh no!' section before continuing.

11) To make sure things are really working part 2: Underneath the picture of the mouse you should see 'Light-options' (which apparently is a compound word nowadays?) Click on one of the 'on' icons until the illumination behind it goes off, then click the 'Apply' button. You should see the associated light turn off on the real-world mouse. If it doesn't, the 'Oh no!' section is where you need to be.

• On my x64 system this change was really slow, be patient. Shaking the mouse actually helps, it seems to wake it up and then it realizes it needs to do something.

12) Assuming both of those steps worked, close the configuration app (don't waste time tweaking settings yet, we're not done)

13) Find the v2.01 folder you got from the website, open it, and then open up the 'Firmware' folder. Close all other open apps. Do not plan on doing anything (even typing instant messages) while the next steps are happening (normally I think that is stupid, but as I said before this is a frail setup, better safe than sorry)

14) Launch the 'Update' application. You'll probably get a warning about it being a non-verified app, go ahead and click 'Run'. (Again, don't ask me why Microsoft is letting this crap fly)

15) If all goes well you'll get a success message that tells you to unplug the mouse. Unplug it, wait for the XP 'hardware removed' sound to finish, then plug it back in -to the same USB port it was just in-. and you should hear the 'hardware inserted' sound. A few seconds later you should be able to hit the 'Exit' button on the firmware upgrade dialog.

16) Go back to the v2.01 folder you got from the website, this time go in to the 'Software' folder, and run the 'setup' application. This should 'just work' if you follow the on-screen directions and reboot when it wants you to.

17) Claim victory, but do not laugh at the other Habu forum posters who are still fruitlessly begging their mouse to work.


Oh no!

1) Make sure that the software actually got installed to the hard drive. Do a start:run:'%programfiles%\razer\habu' (without the quotes) and there should be a bunch of stuff in that folder. If you only see a 'Driver' and 'Driver64' folder that is not good enough! You'll need to re-run the setup app on the original CD, and reboot.

2) If you see the tray icon, and can launch it with no error message, return where you started.

3) If the software was there, make sure the device is actually showing up. Click the start button, point to 'My Computer', right-click, and select 'Manage'. This will launch the Computer Management console. Click on 'Device Manager' and then in the right pane expand the 'Mice...' section.

3a) You should see 1 (or more) 'HID-compliant mouse' entries. Double-click the first one, then go to the 'Details' tab in the window that opens. Set the drop-down to 'Device Instance Id' if it isn't already, and then look to see if it says HID\VID_1532... If it says 1532, than you have found the Habu, if not move on to the next one.

3b) If you don't have a '1532' HID-compliant entry, then your computer isn't seeing the mouse. Try a different USB port.

4) Once you find the right one, go to its 'Driver' tab and click the 'Uninstall' button, then click 'ok' to all the popups. Once the 'uninstall' is done, reboot the computer.

5) If you see the tray icon, and can launch it with no error message, return where you started.

6) Okay, something's messed up let's start all the way over.

7) Run the setup program on the CD and it should do an 'uninstall'. At the end it will ask you to reboot -do not do it yet-.

8) Do a start:run:'%programfiles%\razer\habu' (without the quotes) and see what is there. If there are a bunch of files, then the uninstall didn't work, you'll need to do it again. if there are only a 'Driver' and 'Driver64' folder that is good. Go up a directory level and move the 'habu' folder to the trash.

9) Find the '1532' HID-compliant entry again and 'uninstall' it (steps 3-4, and the reboot at the end of step 4 will take care of the one that the setup program in step 7 wanted)

10) Now you should have a fairly fresh slate so you can start the main directions over from the beginning.

Installing when you're already failed

1) There are any number of ways you could have gotten yourself in to this situation - you could have tried using the software from the internet to install your mouse, you could have randomly mashed keys while doing the install, or you could have followed the direction provided in the Habu box, either way these steps should get you back up and running

2) Get the mouse and plug it in to the USB port you want to use

3) Get the Habu Driver Disc out of the box and place it next to the mouse, do not use it yet.

4) Go to the Razer Support site (http://razersupport.com) and download the latest Habu software. You can unzip it, but don't start using anything in there yet.

• Click 'Downloads', then in the middle of the page there is a link to 'Microsoft Habu Driver/Firmware v2.01'

5) If you have installed the software and haven't uninstalled it yet run the setup program on the CD and it should do an 'uninstall'. At the end it will ask you to reboot -do not do it yet-.

6) Do a start:run:'%programfiles%\razer\habu' (without the quotes) and see what is there. If there are a bunch of files, then the uninstall didn't work, you'll need to do it again. if there are only a 'Driver' and 'Driver64' folder that is good. Go up a directory level and move the 'habu' folder to the trash.

7) Click the start button, point to 'My Computer', right-click, and select 'Manage'. This will launch the Computer Management console. Click on 'Device Manager' and then in the right pane expand the 'Mice...' section.

7a) You should see 1 (or more) 'HID-compliant mouse' entries. Double-click the first one, then go to the 'Details' tab in the window that opens. Set the drop-down to 'Device Instance Id' if it isn't already, and then look to see if it says HID\VID_1532... If it says 1532, than you have found the Habu, if not move on to the next one.

7b) If you don't have a '1532' HID-compliant entry, then your computer isn't seeing the mouse. Try a different USB port.

8) Once you find the right one, go to its 'Driver' tab and click the 'Uninstall' button, then click 'ok' to all the popups. Once the 'uninstall' is done, reboot the computer.

9) Now your system should be clean, so you can follow in the 'installing the mouse for the first time' section, starting at step 2


Using the mouse under Mac OS X

1) Why is this here? Mice are plug & play on the Mac right? Yes, they are. But, someone decided to pre-program the mouse buttons, making use of the on-board memory in the Habu. By default buttons 6 & 7 are set to dynamically change mouse speed. If you use software on the Mac to configure your buttons, you'll find the buttons do what you want - plus randomly changing your mouse speed!

2) The Habu software only works on Windows, so you'll need access to it. If you have access to a Windows XP machine, then follow the 'installing the mouse for the first time' directions, then come back here to step 4

3) If you use Parallels then do the following

3a) Plug the Habu in to your Mac

3b) Launch Parallels, and when your virtual window opens click the USB icon and click the 'Habu Mouse' entry, so that a check mark appears beside it.

3c) If you got that done before Windows got to the desktop then proceed to the 'installing the mouse for the first time' directions

3d) If you didn't, reboot your Windows install and then proceed to the 'installing the mouse for the first time' directions

• You will probably not be able to do the firmware update via Parallels, at least the version-of-the-day doesn't allow it to work. I assume it is becuase of how the USB proxy/emulation stuff works conflicting with how the firmware updated wants to access the mouse. If you can't do the firmware update part, don't do the version 2 software update part either. This doens't really matter becuase you won't be using this software anyway. The updated firmware does fix some bugs that occur when you are moving hte mouse really fast, so if you have access to an XP machine and you flail the mouse around a lot you may want to do it.

4) Double-click the icon to launch the Habu configuration window

5) Click the box next to the '6' (which will default to DPI up or down) and set it to 'Click', do the same for the box next to the '7'

6) At the bottom of the configuration window there is a 'Profile' line with the '1' illuminated. Switch to profile 2, and repeat step 5. Repeat for all 5 profiles.

7) Click 'OK' to save the changes to the mouse.

8) Return to your Mac (i.e. quit Parallels if you were using it, bring the mouse back to the Mac if you had a separate computer)

9) Configure the mouse buttons as you wish without worrying about random speed changes. I'll post a seperate blog in a few days on configuring input devices with an awesome piece of software I recently found.