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 Cleaning a Mouse |
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Ever have your mouse run rough? See how that cursor sticks on the screen even when you move the mouse? You might have a sticky mouse ball, or grubby mouse wheels, or even hairy mouse innards. |
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| I use a Logitech three-button mouse with a track wheel too. I periodically clean the ball and wheels but once in a great while I open the thing up and de-cat-hair it. I'll walk you through the steps: | ||
First thing is to remove the top. This mouse has a single screw up front and then some plastic tabs to carefully ease away at the cord-end. Here's the mouse with the top off. I should explain at this point. I have a large cat. He's a short-hair but even so, he spreads his joy around everywhere. |
 Click the image for a larger and even more disgusting view |
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 Click the image for a larger and even more disgusting view |
I use, as a mouse pad, a large piece of leather sample from a furniture store. That's what you see under the mouse in these images. I keep it as clean as I possibly can but, even so, one or two cat hairs get picked up by the mouse ball as it rolls around. Those get transferred into the interior of the mouse. Over time this adds up to what you see here. This is about a year's worth of accumulated cat fur. | |
Here's the guilty party. Spots is sniffing at the ball of him that I removed from the mouse with tweezers and my fingers, trying not to rub the circuits inside too much. Spots is always interested in this. He's rather proprietary about his fur. He left this project only when he discovered the lens cap from the camera and kicked it under the sofa in the next room. |
 Click the image for a larger and even more cute view |
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 Click the image for a larger and even more pleasant view |
Here is a cleaner version. Now I'm ready to clean the wheels. There are three, two rub up against the ball and control up-down and left-right. The third is a tensioner that merely presses against the ball all the time to keep it precisely located within the ball-housing. All three need to be cleaned, as a ring of dirt collects around them, as you may see if you look closely here. In fact, this is the primary problem and needs to be done about monthly. | |
There is no need to disassemble the mouse as you see here to just clean the three wheels. Just remove the ball to get at the wheels. I use a bamboo skewer, cut off and sharpened to a flat-tip point at one end, to clean the wheels of accumulated grime. Normally I have to rotate each wheel to entirely clean it. But as I have the top off the mouse, here I can actually remove and clean the wheels. The white object at bottom is one of the wheels and its associated housing and spring. |
 Click the image for a larger view |
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 Click the image for a larger and even more disgusting view |
This is the crud off of ONE wheel. Even with just turning the mouse upside-down and removing the ball to get at the wheels, it is possible to scrape the wheels clean and then get the crud out with tweezers. This is what makes your mouse jump around and not work right. Take the ball out of your mouse (no, not now, you fool!) and look for a ring of black crud visible on each of the three wheels. |
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A clean and pristine mouse. The top is back on and I'm ready to screw in the one screw and then drop in the ball and secure the ball-cover. Last thing I do is to take the ball and rub it hard, all over its surface, on some carpet. Even if it looks clean it's a little greasy and this cleans it and roughens the surface just a bit, making it work better. |
 Click the image for a larger and even more pleasant view |
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 Click the image for a larger and even more pleasant view |
What it's supposed to look like. Without cat hair and cruddy wheels. This mouse happens to be easy to take apart. Yours may differ. Good luck. Things to watch for: Don't break the mouse taking it apart; there may be plastic snap-in tabs that need to be carefully eased out. Watch for tiny springs and be prepared to put them back from where they sprang out of. And try not to touch the circuit board or soldering if you can avoid it. |
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