So I'm having an issue with games that are run through DOSBOX. My mouse seems to have a deadzone, similar to deadzones you'd get with a joystick. If I don't move the mouse quick enough, or if I don't move the mouse far enough in a single stroke, nothing happens. This makes things tough all around, but especially when precision clicking in a timely manner can affect the game. I've changed my mouse sensitivity in both DOSBOX and the mouse settings, as well as changing the mouses DPI. None of that fixed the issue. I'm still looking around settings for something like what I'm describing, but I can't find anything. I'm not sure if it's possible that DOSBOX is detecting a joystick no longer plugged in and some of those settings have been imprinted onto the mouse settings or what. Rebooting/reinstalling does not fix the issue.

If anyone has any advice on how to proceed, please let me know!

*edit: Jacking my DPI all the way to max, 5700, and turning off windows native settings has reduced the problem but not solved it.

Could "Mouse Acceleration" settings have something to do with it? That's the only setting that comes to my mind which makes any difference with regard to whether the mouse is moved over a short or long distance.

DOSBox has a mouse sensitivity setting (sensitivity=); the default is 100 and it accepts values from 1 to 1000. Try increasing that to see if that works better.

What is your mousepad? Does it have photos, slick spots, worn spots? Try changing your mousepad to something "bland" and monocolor and see if that helps.