Howdy,

I was wondering if you can wear out a mouse.
(not the rodent you bastards )
I never thought about it before, I just buy a new one when the old one starts pissing me off because it wont move correctly.

I would imagine an optical mouse would work better than a wired one.
Is an optical mouse better because it is not effected by dust and other crap that is on the mouse pad ?

Just my random thoughts...

Woodmann

optical has much more durability than the ball type, and does indeed gather less dust and crap and requires less cleaning, i personally dont like the wireless ones though or the usb one.. perhaps im old fashioned, but i prefer cables, not usb and no batteries.. the other advantage of the optical one is you can hold it up and try and blind your work colleagues heh

I read "I was wondering if you can wear a mouse" at first reminds me of someone I know that wore a dead 286 as a necklace.

The only part that wears out on optical mice are the feet. They slowly grind down due to the friction and the mouse becomes harder to move. Not using your mouse on sandpaper will make the feet last longer.

Other than that and the button switches, they can last almost forever.

Interesting........ however you can injure you hand and/or arm with improper use of it. A nice little explantion is here: hxxp://ergo.human.cornell.edu/ErgoPROJECTS/97projects/eriksen.htm

totally agree, however i found that spraying the mouse with wd-40, or some isopropyl caused it to glide across the desk quite nicely, and if you're bored you can play table hockey with it heheh

howdy,

you used a ball mouse? optical is much less worry !

lives longer, is by far more _precise_ and causes not so much trouble .... however its better working in general :]

there are some from microsoft which are really hard to kill, i have one over 2 yrs in use ha! ;]

cheers, 0xf001

WD40! talk about aggravating the dust and gook problem! Isopropyl's fine but I would never use WD40, I still prefer the old gaming mice with the extra heavy ball - much nore tolerant of gook build-up, when the rollers get clogged, simply clean them with a Q-tip soaked in Isopropyl, optical are ok and don't have the cleaning problems I just don't like the response, and try using one on glass - I have had a Logitec plain die on me. I also prefer the PS2 port variety, moving them to a WIN98 machine is no problem, USB wont work unless the driver is already installed. My wife uses a cordless optical and it's a pain in the ass when the battery starts to die, what do you do if you're out of batteries at 2 AM? - Woodmann, usually what seems to be a mouse gone bad is actually dirty rollers, they rotate an optical encoder wheel that transmits the mouse position info, if they stick the computer thinks the mouse hasn't moved. As for the pads - I'm sure an inventive mind can solve that, if the mouse is used on a relatively smooth pad or table top they can be replaced with stick-on felt dots, and I also believe there are stick-on plastic/rubber pads available also, but with the price of mice - the trash and a new mouse is also attractive.

SiGiNT

actually the wd40 made it glide really really well, i also sprayed the table for optimal lubrication, mouse still works, about 4 years later.. no dust and no gunk

I'm amazed, endless uses for WD40, engine starting spray for carbeurator engines, bolt loosener, but actually it should not normally be used as a lubricant it's meant to displace water (that's where "WD" comes from), and was never meant to replace oil or grease.

SiGiNT

This is great,

I checked the bottom of the mouse and the ball is clean but the pads have crap on them.

I cleaned the pads and the pad but it is still accumulating who knows what.

An optical wired mouse sounds like a good choice. I never thought about the batteries crapping out at 2 AM .

Now before I purchase a new one, I will conduct a study on which household items will make a shitty mouse work better.
(Nothing will go untested. Errrr.... except for bodily fluids :eek

"For duty and humanity"

Woodmann

OK,

I cleaned the thing again and the pad and the desk surface.
Pad = samething, mouse skips.
bare desk = samething
new pad = no change

Astroglide = no change
vegetable oil = no change
mayo = no change
Crisco = no change

So lubricants are not working, maybe we need more grip ?

Grape jelly = no change pain to clean
Hoisin sauce = no change pain to clean
honey = no change damn that was a bitch to clean.

So, now I have a mouse full of gunk, get out the q-tips and start cleaning.
No, we better opener up and look under the hood.

AH HA, what do I see, cat hairs and other groob all mashed around where the rollers are.
Tweezers please, WD-40 for some fresh lube and VIOLA, its alive !

Woodmann

Well actually if you soak it in... no never mind.

Isopropyl + Q-tip works well though sometimes the rollers and such need a bit more persuasive cleaning with something harder to scrape the crud off. I like cordless but it does suck when the batteries die (did I glitch Windoze or is the mouse dead?). Don't throw out the old corded mouse!

The biggest problem I've found is the left mouse button starts to miss or give double clicks. The reason is usually because a groove has been worn into the plastic tab making plastic contact with the plastic button. I been able to resurrect a couple of meeces by building up the groove with nail polish and easily gotten another year or two out of them.

KY-jelly!
KY-jelly!

That is what KY-jelly is suppossed to be used for. . . Right?

BAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAA...

At least one person knows what Astroglide is .

Woodmann

C'mon, everyone knows Astroglide is just a poor substitute for the real thing.

You know, those "bodily fluids" you were avoiding earlier in this same thread.

LOL

At least one entrepreneur thought there was a market for "mouse lubricant"...
http://www.dansdata.com/mousewax.htm
http://www.dansdata.com/mskatez.htm

I find the Microsoft optical mice very good. The cheapest one is under US$10 and the one I have has lasted over 3 years of moderate gaming use. Just clean the lens once in a while and change the teflon tape on the pads, and it just keeps working like (better than) new.

hey woodmann, try glue, you never know, it might work differently than expected, and if it doesnt you end up with a nice table ornament

Welcome to Reverse Porn Engineering, where we turn adult-oriented products into cracking tools. Next up, dongle reversing using nothing but a pack of batteries and a... uh.... never mind.

Oh shit...........

That would make a vibrator an I/O device ?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAA..............
I am so glad I think of stupid things.

Woodmann

WOODMANN!

I didn't think you had it in you!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAA..............

hehe i hope that statement wasnt meant literally :P

Eww

I must have misread when I signed up to Woodmann's Perverse Engineering forum.

I suggest we drop the this thread right here. . .
While the DMCA investigators are not an example of reason, they are not the cadre of fanatics that enforce the Communications Decency Act. Ask the legal experts around here, those Talibans will close the board in a split second . . . because our "lurid" contents!

I am half serious

Concerning the 'batteries suck' problem:

http://www.a4tech.com/en/product1.asp?CID=90&SCID=92

I recently bought one of these and I'm quite happy about this choice so far.
They're relatively cheap, optical, battery free and wireless (well, not really, 'cause the pad has to be attached, but imho 'wireless' is all about more freedom of mouse movement).
The concept has some small disadvantages like being locked to one specific (not very wide) mouse pad and you should get some additional teflon tape as the pre-mounted gliders aren't very effective, but imho that's well worth it.
Usually I tend to stick to PS2 mice as well, but by switching to USB in this case I even got rid of some erratic mouse behaviour in SoftICE...


regards,
Pyrae
(A4Tech marketing department)

I was working on an industrial site recently and had the task of removing duct tape that had been sun-baked onto chemical-resistant, plastic cabinets. Nothing would touch it except...you guessed it...WD40.

One other tip: It's "extremely" flammable. I was squirting it into the contacts of a clothes drier to free up the mechanism. When I turn the power on, a flame shot out about 2 feet from the contacts, very nearly singing my eyebrows.

Sadly, it's not a good mix with Canadian Club. :-)