Sealed mouse
 

My laser mouse was behaving in an erratic way this morning so I dismantled it and - yerch ! Full of fluff, hair, grease, and...well you get the picture. So much it had gotton into the left hand click switch and as for the scroll wheel it looked like it had been off-road. Shake out, spray with contact cleaner, hairs pulled off with tweezers, dry on cloth etc.

Now I know they are very cheap and when it doesn't work, you just buy another one, but seems a waste to me and if they were designed to resist penetration of gunk they'd last longer.

Has anyone had a satisfactory long-life mouse under their fingers ?

yup, got a Microsoft USB optical I've had for at least 6 years, no complaints or cleaning ;)

I used to clean my mouse's balls regularly. Also the little metal spindles that are driven by the ball. All problems solved by optic meeces, but they don't work as well on all surfaces.

- a lucky pet, indeed.

Mine has gone to the great recycling centre (along with an expired hard drive) and I have already forgotten which well-known make it was - although made in China. I had a spare handy - a Netway (also made in China) and a back-up to that, an i-Rocks (also made...yeah, right). None had any balls.

I wish I'd photographed the inside. Sufficient organic matter to make a human being, albeit a very small one, of course.

If it's a lAser mouse, does it still have a ball to gather the fluff?

Optical ones aren't all they're cracked up to be, either. I lashed out a whole £9.49 last week for a Microsoft Comfort Mouse 6000 (optical, bells and whistles). It didn't work. MS forgot to write a driver for it - the vast MS "Keyboard and Mouse Suite" thinks it's a 4500, which is different and whose driver doesn't work with the 6000.
I found lots of complaints on the web from folks who'd bought them and hit the snag. MS apparently are oblivious to the problem.

A fun hour ensued until I found some helpful person had written some software to solve it. Happy now, and it is a comfortable mouse :)

Not too long ago I read that Logitec had made its one billionth (10**9) mouse. Apparently they contract manufacture (in China) for many brands.

Having used optical mice since my first Sun Workstation in the early 90s, I never understood anyone using mechanical ones. I think I had to blow into the LED hole once when I hair got in there, otherwise it was maintenance free for the years I had it at work.

The hint is in the name my dear. :rolleyes:

(It uses a laser - or, more likely, an LED - to establish its position on a surface)

I'm also using Microsoft Optical Mouse for 3 years and still 100% in good condition. :)

Targus wireless laser mouse (and its keyboard, too) has been totally magic for years. It started doing slightly odd things a couple of days ago and I thought that its end was nigh so looked for another the same in Makro with no success. They said they hadn't seen one for ages. Getting home I changed the AAA rechargeables and all of the silly stuff went away - result!

In the man-cave there is a box of "this will come in useful sometime" IT stuff.

When my wireless laser mouse died a while ago, antique Acer wired laser mouse was found in the box. Working fine.

Dunno why the wireless mouse died. Wireless keyboard is doing really well.

My optical mouse came out of a Christmas cracker! Had it few years now, works a treat.

Many years ago before a mouse had become the mandatory method of providing a computer with some of its inputs, I found myself in the radar room at EGBB ATC unit and was invited to have a "play" with their system. This was driven by a large, heavy trackball and I have been a fan of trackballs ever since having gone through quite a few since those days. The main problem seems to be the "click" switches developing contact bounce after a few years of use necessitating replacement. Although my first trackball was a mechanical one, the remainder have been optical ones and when they start to have difficulty responding, it is a moments work to pop the ball out of its holder and remove the offending fluff with a finger. This invariably resumes normal service.

P.P.

Mine was a laser mouse and seems to have sucked fluff and 'other organic matter' in through the slot which the scroll wheel pokes up through.

Looking at Mr Pilcher's post, I wonder whether one could not have one of those very large tracking balls set into the seat of one's office chair, so one could simply twist and shake one's behind to move the cursor. Secondary advantage would be getting a bit of exercise while on PPRuNe and warding off DVT. Terciary advantage would be massaging one's piles.