QUANTUM and other trackball games. Odd behavior / errors?

[chemame]

OK, I've had an issue ever since 0.92, and I've just kind of dealt with it, but now something's made me want to know what the deal is.

QUANTUM, and other trackball games (though to be honest, I only really play Quantum, so most of my experience is there) have a strange quirk under Windows2000:

Sometimes (hard to quantify, maybe 25% of the time) after the rom loads, the trackball reads VERY slow and jerkily, with odd high-pitched whines coming from the emulator. Trackball is very erratic and slow, and after a few seconds the emulator exits with error (-2 I think?)

ANYWAY... fast-forward to today... I'm on 0.9x, something just before 0.100 but I forget which exactly... and was still having the trouble, until this weekend, when I tried my hand at a debian install. AND THE PROBLEM DISAPPEARED!

Which, you know, I was kinda hopeful, but didn't really expect.

Anyone else notice erratic behavior like that in Quantum or other trackball games?

Chemame