A Better Mouse-Fix the Left Button!

fizbin asks: "Every mouse I've ever had a chance to use for a long enough period of time (from cheap 5-dollar two-button specials to brand-name Logitech three-button things to those Sun optical ones that need the special metal mousepad) has developed the same problem: the first button (and I guess others as well, but I notice this on the first button) begins to slowly stop working. It lets up even if I keep my finger down. This makes it a royal pita to drag anything from one place to another (since what you're dragging gets "dropped" when the first button lets up), and makes using certain menus (such as the ctrl-button menus on xterms) almost impossible (since I can never keep the button held down long enough to drag down to the item I want). Is this expected behavior, and should I simply plan on replacing my mouse every six months? What about common computers (in labs, etc.) -- should they budget for replacement mice on a regular schedule? Is there some brand of mouse that avoids this problem?"

Comments

I was about to ask the same thing!

[unitron]

Well, actually what I was gonna ask was about keeping the mouse and replacing the switch.
I seem to wear them out pretty quickly myself.
I've unsoldered them and switched them with the secondary or tertiary switches but that still leaves a not fully functional mouse.
Although quality varies from brand to brand, the form factor seems the same.
Anybody got a source for good replacement switches? I don't need 'em in OEM quantities, just about 5 or 10 or so.

Try using 2 mice

[falser]

What I've been doing lately is have 2 mice connected to my computer.

Mouse 1 (for games):
Razer Boomslang (www.razerzone.com)
Killer accuracy 2000 DPI, very high quality construction, great for games

Mouse 2 (for everything else):
Microsoft IntelliEye
No mouse-ball, so it doesnt get gunked up with dirt and dust on the inside of the mouse ball. It'll never have the problem of "sticky" moving that's associated with regular ball mice.

By having 2 mice, you effectively double the time you'll have to replace either one. Personally I've been going without any problems for 8 months now.

"I can only show you Linux... you're the one who has to read the man pages."

Mouse abuse!

[schnurble]

I really don't know your usage habits, but I personally have a trackball that's 7 years old, has been used -continually- for all that time, and still works perfectly. Are you beating on the mouse? Did you submerge it in/spill on, coke, lemonade, coffee, etc? Are you working in a high humidity environment? Wet lint ruins mice.

I've only retired mice when I desired new functionality (like replacing the aforementioned Mouse Systems 3 button trackball with a Logitech TrackMan+ on my primary computer, and moving the old one to another box). I did have one that lost a button once, but then it turned out the dog was chewing on it. That'll kill 'em.

-j

They don't make 'em like they used to.

[toh]

I think this is simply a consequence of the poor manufacturing quality of the mice that you and most other people have used. I've never found those Sun mice or keyboards (any revision) to be worth squat, and Logitech isn't exactly the Cadillac of consumer devices either - they're just another company that sells mass quantities of low-margin plastic stuff as cheaply as possible. If you want good input/output equipment, you've always had to pay for it. Though it's only useful as an example (not for X, given the single button), Apple's older one-button mice and notebook trackballs were built to last - the ADB Mouse I that came with my Apple IIgs is still going strong after 14 years (about half of them very heavy-use) and countless thousands (millions?) of clicks. Likewise, I used a Powerbook Duo for at least five years without a problem, and it was bought used. Both of those used the same tried-and-true microswitch for the clicker, actually (made in the United States for whatever that's worth - nowadays they're from Malaysia, which coincidentally means the
people who made them probably got paid crap to boot). I also had a decent mouse on an SGI Indy2 once, but then the computer cost $50k (and SGI has sold junk too).

Contrast to Apple's current offering, which besides the love-it-or-hate-it design just isn't any better quality than any other random PC crap, Microsoft, Logitech, or whomever - expect all these things to break, and quickly. The leaf-switch trackpad button on my last Powerbook (2400), which was built by IBM and sold by Apple, wore out after four months. (Then again, the whole notebook died a year after that, and then again another seven months after having the dead motherboard replaced at my cost. Bye, Apple (and by implication, IBM)).

There are better devices out there, but you won't find them at your local megamart. I've never heard anything bad about a Contour mouse, for instance; besides the fact that they have an actual ergonomic design (no hockey pucks or shiny tail-lights here), you can get them sized to your hand, and even right or left handed as appropriate. The same applies to keyboards (the best ones going are made by Kinesis, and they're totally worth the one-time cost). Now that there's a reasonable cross-platform attachment standard that probably won't disappear for a while (USB), it seems particularly worthwhile to spring for some really high quality, lasting input devices that you can take with you from upgrade to upgrade.

In other words, the x86 PC accessory industry you've grown up with is a poor horizon. There's just no doubt that all of the mass-market stuff out there is complete crap (especially anything that comes with the computer system when you buy it). Look to the people trying to provide small-volume ergonomic devices, and chances are you'll find something that's built to last as a bonus.

You get what you pay for...

[Mark F. Komarinski]

I bought a mouse in 1989 for $50. Used it for about 8 years. Any mouse I paid less than $30 would last only about 6-8 months before it wore out. Only reason I got rid of it was because it was serial.

Save your time, money, and sanity and buy a nice Microsoft or Logitech mouse. If you want real fun, get the MS IntelliMouse Optical. No wheel to get gummed up.

From a Sun Microsystems bug report (#4102680):

[Wakko Warner]

"Workaround: don't pound on the mouse like a wild monkey."

- A.P.
--

"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad

Fingerpounding

[toh]

There's one other thing I've noticed about mouse and keyboard use that might bear mentioning. Any physical device but the most tank-like will wear out more quickly if you use it harder, and most people click and hold buttons and hit keys much harder than they need to. One reason my old ADB mouse lasted so long was probably the fact that I almost obsessively try to use a light touch wherever possible. The nicest thing about doing this is that you'll also be preserving the other, more important parts of the mechanical input system - your fingers and wrists. If your mice wear out consistently more often than other people's, you might want to ask someone to watch you compute and see whether you're unintentionally being a little harder on yourself and your equipment than you need to be.

Manufacturing quality and cost still makes a difference, though; the last University lab I administered had 10 (pre-USB) Macs and 10 PCs, and it was only the PC mice (M$) that had problems. The Macs were more heavily used, too (I'll leave aside questions of whether GUI design inconsistency and unreliability increases people's stress and causes people to press more anxiously on the Wintel mice, though it probably does). In fact they were constantly used, twelve hours a day. And there's the obvious corollary that a higher quality button will probably respond more consistently in the first place, making it less likely to create hard-clickin' habits.

Anyway, that's enough out of me for this thread. Wonder why this subject wasn't deemed interesting enough for the main page?