If your having trouble with your computer mouse you may need to clean it. There are two kinds of mice, those with a roller ball and those without. Chances are if you still have an old roller ball mouse, it’s just about dead. It certainly needs to be cleaned.
To clean a roller ball mouse:
1. Turn the mouse over and open the ball chamber. This is done by turning the little round retainer disk (with a hole at its center) to one side, usually counterclockwise. Look at the retainer disk itself for clues: There will almost always be an arrow or some other indication on the retainer disk of which way will open the mouse chamber and which way will lock it closed.
2. Remove and inspect the retainer disk and mouse ball. Both may be washed freely with soapy water to remove any grease, dust, or lint. A Scotch-Brite scrubbing pad works well and will not damage plastic. Set them aside to dry.
3. Blow any dust or hair out of the ball chamber. If there is anything down in the chamber that won’t blow out, pick it out with tweezers.
4. Look closely at the three spring-loaded plastic rollers that bear against the ball in the ball chamber. You’ll typically see an irregular streak of gunk wrapping around the center of each roller. This is the stuff that needs to be removed, and you must remove it with a tool that won’t scratch the plastic of the rollers. You’ll need to rotate the rollers slightly every few scrapes so that you expose the entire roller. Keep rubbing the stick against the rollers until all observable gunk has been scraped away.
5. Blow into the ball chamber to remove anything you might have knocked off the rollers down into the chamber.
6. Reassemble the mouse and test it. If the pointer still sticks or moves erratically, you may have missed some gunk on one or more of the rollers. Repeat the process and test again.
To clean the outside of a mouse or an optical mouse:
Clean it with a round cotton pad (sold at drug stores to help remove makeup) wet with soapy water or rubbing alcohol. Don’t get the pad so wet that water or alcohol gets inside the mouse body. Needless to say, don’t immerse the mouse in the sink or hold it under running water!
If you have problems with an optical mouse:
1. Clear any small imperfections in the surface over which you glide your mouse (the mouse pad’s fabric weave, scratches in the Formica, wood grain, and so on).
2. Remove any dust on the LED and/or the image sensor.
3. Don’t use the mouse on a transparent glass surface, mirrored surface, a wood grain desk, or a polished surface. It’s best to use an optical mouse with a new, clean mouse pad.
