Sidewinder x8 tracking issues

Well, I suppose I'll introduce myself first. Name's Adam.
I have a huge problem: I recently bought a Sidewinder x8 and the damn thing keeps having tracking problems [ie the cursor jumps around...a lot...so much in fact it makes it nearly impossible to play games.] I've been told by people that it might be the polling rate of the usb port, MS told me it might just be a bad mouse [it's not, im on the third replacement].
so that has led me to believe it is most likely 7. would anyone care to enlighten me as to why the HELL it's doing this? [and yes I've googled and found only that it 'hates' cloth mousepads, im on a wooden desk now.
Help?

Edit: I've also searched the forum