ok i know how to Successfully clean the Mighty Mouse ball

[uniserver]

This is a issue I have been battling over the years.

Finally a solution that works.

I submerge the whole damm mouse in alcohol, let it sit, 10-15 min, that goo trapped in the mouse ball unit needs to soak in order to come off.

then pull it out and let the mouse drain,

get some paper towel and lay it flat on the table. take the mouse and set the ball on the towel, and do a bunch of figure 8's, go one direction,

then go backwards following the same pattern, by now crud should be coming out.

toss it back in the alcohol, then take out and repeat again.

Toss it back in the alcohol again, only this time, take it outside to the air compressor and blast that ball out,

wiping anything that comes out with paper towel,

just for giggles toss it back in the alcohol again, and then blast it out again with the air compressor.

now hang it up by the cord for a day….

and it should be as good as new, the 2 I did like that back in February are still going strong,

any other way is just a temporary solution.

 

[markyb86]

Not bad. any before/after shots?

 

[uniserver]

ok here is the deal,

do not take the mouse apart, no need.

Here is one that i pretty much destroyed last year, it was destroyed before i took it apart.

it died on me at work, so i used windex and hot water, bad. it ate up the electrical connections of the magnetic pickups.

This is why you do not want to use anything other then alcohol.



per picture all your trying to do is clean those little textured rollers, and the goo that gets caked in the surroundings.

The mouse in the middle is the one i just cleaned per my instructions at the top, and it's now restored to like new working order.

Now I tend to eat alot at my desk, so this one lasted a total of 9 months new out from the package, so we will see how long my clean job lasts.

 

[Gorgonops]

The best treatment to fix a "Mighty Mouse" is to set it on a hard surface and beat it repeatedly with a sledgehammer. Over and over and over again, until both mouse and hammer are reduced to a fine powder. Don't throw the powder away, of course; you can use it to polish your iMac hockey puck mice, a *far* superior pointing device.

 

[uniserver]

To go along with what you just said,

It's kind of a natural cave man instinct to smash things when they don't work.

And might even provide you a much needed stress relief.

The mighty mouse scroll assembly is flawed. No doubt about that.

And the Puck mouse is pretty annoying as well.

All i can think of to relate to this is, My Saturn Vue has the 3.0L DOHC British engine.

They have a timing belt that wears out and needs to be replaced, if you don't change it

catastrophic failure permits.

If apple can design a Magic Mouse that is literally 100% maintenance free.

( in theory could last for ever )

Then why can't they make a car or develop some transportation that operates the same way?

 

[mcdermd]

I've always cleaned them with the "roll on a piece of paper" method you described but without the alcohol. Seems to work alright.

 

[CC_333]

I recently discovered that I can run it on a record player platter. It works surprisingly well (and also must get that roller going at several hundred RPMs).

Cosmetically, it tends to leave a black stripe on the ball, but I don't care much if it allows it to work again.

c

 

[Cory5412]

When I had a Mighty Mouse, I just rolled mine upside down on a mousepad every few weeks and it staye dworking more or less the entire time I had that iMac, about two years.

I ended up using other mice more often, however, that's a whole lot of maintenance for the scroll wheel on a mouse that had other problems anyway, like registering clicks on the correct side.

 

[beachycove]

Some of them get badly gummed up, especially with children and/ or food around, so the advice from uniserver is useful. In the normal run of events, a quick rub on a clean sheet of paper does restore functionality, most of the time on most of these mice, but you have to keep at it regularly, and there are some that just get so bad that more serious action is called for. I have used alcohol on a swab in the past, and combined that with rubbing on paper, but I think I will give the more thorough uniserver method a go next time I encounter a really bad case.

It has to be said, mind you, that the overall design is so poor that the Gorgonops method might prove the more satisfying approach.

 

[mcdermd]

registering clicks on the correct side.

Side?

 

[James1095]

One of the best cleaners I've found for this sort of stuff is called Oil Eater. It's designed as an automotive/workshop de-greaser but the stuff works great to clean off finger oils and all manner of other crud. For really stubborn stuff, try using it full strength and warm it up in a microwave. Gloves are recommended, otherwise it dries the hell out of your hands. Supposedly it's non-toxic and biodegradeable too.

 

[Gorgonops]

The nice thing about my method for dealing with the Mighty Mouse's issues is you can apply it immediately after taking the device out of the box.

(Seriously, that thing... the teeny little trackball isn't a *terrible* idea, a well implemented way to do both vertical and horizontal scrolling would be welcome. But the touch-sensitive "lift up your finger in this cruel and uncomfortable way while pushing down if you want to register a right-click" lack of physical buttons is horrendous. It basically requires your hand to do exactly the opposite of a normal mouse, and it's ergonomically *really bad* to be forced to pull a finger *up* from the resting position rather than push it down in order to register the proper command. Someone is going to end up in a really interesting part of purgatory for a few million years for designing that thing, and they deserve it.

Out of an office full of people that received those things when the engineers were all treated to brand new Mac Pros back in 2007 I don't remember a single person sticking with the MM for more than a day. They're just that bad.)

 

[uniserver]

I don't remember a single person sticking with the MM for more than a day. They're just that bad

Do any of them have the Magic Mouse? I would appreciate a USB version of this.

 

[gsteemso]

I am very grateful for this cleaning technique. I shall try it tomorrow, though I have no idea where I will find access to an air compressor. My dad's is 200 miles away in another country.

As far as the Mighty Mouse's lousy design, it is a hell of a lot easier on my wrist than the otherwise brilliant Magic Trackpad (multi-touch is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but having to hold my fingers up off the pad for hours hurts like a railroad spike driven through the wrist). Can anyone advise as to the usability of the Magic _Mouse_ in this regard? I'm hardly about to speculatively drop $70 on something that may offer no net improvement.

 

[uniserver]

ok today the mouse ball died again.

This is my work MM, It's lasted quite a while. about 7 months.

I just now tried to scroll up and it wouldn't. I went up and down real fast and its working now.

but….. it's going to keep doing it, and progressively get worse until i give it the clean treatment again.

Not too shabby considering the design flaw of this mouse… at my desk here is not really all that super clean.

That mixed with lunch at my desk every day.

 

[mcdermd]

Remember the days before optical mouses? When cleaning the mouse ball was on the list of accepted regular maintenance? You have to get back into that mindset if you use a Mighty Mouse.

 

[CC_333]

When cleaning the mouse ball was on the list of accepted regular maintenance? You have to get back into that mindset if you use a Mighty Mouse.

Yeah, especially since I'm using an older mouse with a ball (because I like the fact that the scroll wheel works ).
c

 

[RickNel]

Uniserver's most important warning is about not using the wrong solvents - eg windex. Alcholol and water are safe, I wouldn't risk anything else.

Myself, I always use dry tecniques to clean the innards of a mouse. The ball itself can do with a wash if the surface has become so slick it is skidding - but that's pretty rare.

In most cases, what leads to gunk buildup is the tiny fibres that are picked up by the ball, often by a static charge. They transfer to the rollers, then wind around the axels, gluing themselves together with any oily residue. I generally pick it off the axels with a pin, and scrape it gently off the rollers with a blade. Then a final wipe with alcolhol on an applicator like a plastic stick that won't leave new fibres behind - ie don't use cotton buds or towel paper for that. About the only other point of failure is if something is blocking the action of the contact switches, like an actuator that has gone off-kilter due to gunk buildup somewhere.

When I say "fibres", I'm not ruling out pastry flakes and other human detritus 8-o

Rick