[scratt]

Hi all,

Public service announcemet this.. I have found the ultimate fix for a Mighty Mouse with a track-ball that has crapped out...

This is for those of you who are now beyond the stage where rubbing the ball vigorously on your trouser leg gives any relief...
Incidentally how many of you have had funny looks from other people when you are franticly rubbing your leg and getting out of breath... ?

OK.. Get a big aerosol can of Alcohol. The kind you use for electrical cleaning, or spraying on hot components to make them cool down when they have had a close call with some incorrectly routed electrons on a PCB. I found mine in a lab I have been hanging out in over the last few days and thought "Well I've got nothing to lose 'cos this Mighty Mouse of mine is useless now!".

The first time I did this I thought I had killed my mouse.. It was dead at bed time (ie - Not even little occasional erratic inputs from the mouse ball worked any more!). Completely dead, apart from as a mouse with two buttons. But the next morning it worked fine. I am guessing that the 'non-residue' Thai alcohol I used does in fact leave a light residue which takes a few hours and some ball spinning to work itself out. Also, probably some dampness from the alcohol still hangs around the mouse ball for a while. That's fine because at that point it is doing it's job and breaking down oil and gunge to some degree.

So...

Turn your Mighty Mouse off. (You don't have to remove the batteries - but can if you wish)

Put the nozzle on the can of alcohol and spray the alcohol down and round the sides of the mouse ball. You can push the ball in a bit to make space for the liquid to flood in... You can also move it around a bit while you are doing this. Put a big load of alcohol in there, and it should start runing out the bottom of the mouse before you are finished...

After it has had about a minute or so to dry, and the alcohol evaporate, turn it back on and give it a try.

At this point it will not work at all, and you'll be cursing me.. It will also feel like something has melted inside, and you'll start cursing scratt, and wonder if alcohol is actually corrosive...

Do it again.. Really! And I mean with feeling this time.. Put so much bloody alcohol down that ball hole (insert joke from Murbot here) that it spills out the bottom of the mouse and runs down your hand and drips on the floor.

During this time you can use your alcohol soaked fingers to spin the mouse ball around a bit.
Keep doing that until it dries.. Basically by repeating this process we are breaking down oil and skin and crap that has cludged togeter around your mouse ball components. The alcohol will not harm the mouse at all as long as it's not powered up.

You can even give the mouse ball a quick razz on some nice lint free trousers afterwards. This (I think) helps to get rid of some of the residue from the alcohol and also get out some of the now dislodged 'people crap' that gets into the mouse ball area.

Do it a couple more times for good measure if you wish. There is not harm being done to the mouse as long as this alcohol all evaporates before you turn it on.

Then turn it on, and try it.. It won't work. So wait half an hour or so and give it another try. It will be a bit better.
You might have to use the ball a little firmly to get it to work the first time. Don't worry it will work.
And, yes it might feel like there is sand paper down therre as well for a while.
Wait until tomorrow and it'll probably be perfect....

If it isn't the next day. And I mean if it is not like brand new, then do this all again more vigorously.

Eventually it will work. Have faith.

Believe me I have done this on four of our six Mighty Mice now. The other two have not reached that stage yet, but are on fair warning that they are next... All of them have literally been swimming in alcohol several times each, and all are now like brand new, and the mices' balls are not discoloured at all any more (insert another Murbot joke here).

So there you have it. My ultimate tip for cleaning your mouse's balls.

[psmith2.0]

Amazing...what a timely thread!

I was just about to start a thread about this very topic...last night, my Mighty Mouse started to become very unresponsive in the ball area. Wait a minute...

The scroll ball wound up not working, except for side-to-side.



But up and down was spotty. Came on very sudden (was working perfectly, and then, 10 minutes later, it wasn't. I went to bed pretty bummed, wondering what - if any - fix there might be (or a reason I could latch on to).

I do love the mouse (I've always liked those pill-shaped Apple mice), and I've REALLY grown attached to this Mighty Mouse, with the scroll ball and right-clicking (I use them both all the time, to the point that this regular Apple mouse at work is now a hassle to use).

Thanks...I'll try your advice. Or I'll go to the Apple Store and demand an exchange.

[Bryson]

I've been doing exactly this for weeks. It's irritating how often you have to do it.

[scratt]

It does seem that the up down goes a long time before the left right scrolling. But then I guess that is a function of how much you use each direction.

I can confirm again that all my Mighty Mice are behaving awesomely still, no ill effects from the alcohol at all.. WIsh I could say the same on weekend mornings!

Anyway.. Do give it a blast and post feedback here. For a few $$s of alcohol in a can I think this is a great fix, and simply another product to keep in your computer care box, alongside screen wipes, emergency bag of weed, etc..

[InactionMan]

As a sort of poor man's version of scratt's fix, when my mighty mouse gums up I'll spray lens cleaner on a cloth and rub the snot out of the scroll ball. This usually gets it working for a couple of weeks before I have to do it again.

If the mighty mouse wasn't so awesome when it's working properly I probably wouldn't put up with a product that craps out so easily.

[WrestleEwe]

My fix; go to mac store, complain, hand it over, wait 1 week, get a new one.

I always use the same argument; "If Apple didn't design a mouse that can be cleaned by the user, a dirty mouse ball can be seen as a product defect and Apple should repair it under warranty"

I'm still on my third MM, but I don't use it anymore since I got my intellimouse.

[InactionMan]

Mine crapped out again. No amount of rubbing or cursing could get it to do anything but scroll side to side. So I took the fucker apart. I'd describe the mess but it's easier to post a picture.



No wonder it wouldn't scroll anymore. It now is working better than ever and it only took me half an hour to take it apart, clean it and piece it back together. I remember in the good old days I could pop the ball out of mouse and have it cleaned out in a matter of seconds.

[PKIDelirium]

Care to post instructions on opening up Mighty Mouse?

I tried recently to clean it and it wouldn't budge.

[InactionMan]

The instructions from this site should help.

A few words of caution:
-The little grey rim around the bottom easily breaks and may not snap back onto the mouse. Mine is held on with scotch tape.
-There are four little tiny metal rollers under the ball. When you remove the ball they can easily fall out. If you lose one you're screwed.
-The little metal rollers are magnetic. They are immensely irritating to work with. Using a metal screwdriver to try to nudge them back into place is zero fun.
-As with all of Apple's hardware that they didn't intend for users to open up at a certain point you'll have to apply a bit more force than you want to get it opened up. Pretend it's part of Apple's charm.

It really isn't that hard and well worth it if all other cleaning methods have failed.

[Bryson]

Just done some mighty mouse surgery! It's fiddly, but not excessively difficult if you are careful. The only pig is the glued grey rim - not getting it off, but getting it back on. In the end I've used a small amount of superglue. But I suspect that means that this will be the last time that I disassemble this mouse!

[InactionMan]

Was yours as shamefully filthy as mine? I honestly couldn't believe how much crap was stuff under the ball.

[Bryson]

Yep, almost as dirty. And I've been doing the Scratt method as mentioned above every week for the last 6 months, too. I should buy a new mouse, but I'm just too damn lazy.

[ronmexico]

I spit in mine...it does work...damn mighty mouse

[psmith2.0]

Argghhhhh...now my scroll ball is messing up again. Here's the thing: it lets me scroll sideways or scroll upwards. I simply can't scroll down, and since that's what you do the most - start at the top of a web page, message forum or document and work your way down - it's extremely annoying and puts a definite cramp in your productivity/efficiency!



I've tried all the usual tricks and fixes, but nothing has worked. I'm going to throw it against the wall in a minute and see if that helps.



I'd almost rather the entire scroll ball not work than to work in only three directions (the three I use the least, of course)...

[Sketch]

How many of you actually do like the mighty mouse? I do own one too, the one I hate the most about it is that the friggin' wire. When it is near to the connection point in the mouse, you can't click left or right button. Anyway, how long did it take for your mighty mouse to stop working because it is dirty? Just wondering, it would be good to know when I would have to start raping it.

[turbulentfurball]

I have one, but I've got back to my MS mouse. Like pscates, mine won't scroll down, and I'm not prepared to clean it all the fscking time! I've never had to clean any of my other mice since I started using optical. Worst piece of Apple kit I've ever come across.

[psmith2.0]

I finally got mine working again (when it doubt, fling it across the room in anger...always does the trick).

j/k

I just kept working the ball back and forth with my finger, and all around. And even added a bit of spit.

This is a horrible-sounding post, and I regret ever writing it.

[scratt]

Spit!

Have you tried my alcohol soak solution? You really have to be generous with the alcohol, and do it two or three times.. My theory on that is it takes a couple of goes to break up oil and skin etc. So initially it makes a paste which makes the ball worse.

I love the Mighty Mouse and can't live without it these days and I kind of work on the assumption that we are at the same place with the 'ball technology' in the MM that we were with 'ball' based mice back in the good 'ol days. Do people remember opening those up and clawing hair and crap out of the thing?

Hopefully someone will come up with something funky based on a removeable ball, lasers, or track pad technology for the ball in the near future....

[Banana]

What a bunch of weenies. Apple should have had used optical instead of a nipple-ball.

[thegeriatric]

Originally Posted by scratt Hi all, So there you have it. My ultimate tip for cleaning your mouse's balls.

Does this work on sabre toothed squirrels?

just asking that's all.

[scratt]

I like the way the alcohol makes me feel cool when it evaporates...
That's all I am saying.

[turbulentfurball]

I've just cleaned mine out of necessity since my other mouse was in use. A brand new toothbrush seemed to do the trick!

[kieran]

My MM just stopped letting me scroll down, but using Turbulentfurball's advice with the toothbrush worked very well.

A couple seconds of "brushing" the scroll ball and all was back to normal again.

[RichieB]

Youse guys rock! Such a wonderfully informative thread. I have been having problems with my MM ball and so far the only thing I could do to get it to work was slap the damn thing silly. Seemed to dislodge the dirt long enough for it to work for a day or so. Now I know how to actually clean the damn thing