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Cleaning Your Mice Wheels?
frink_exp asks: "Cleaning mouse balls (and the rollers they contact) has been the source of many a pun and the subject of countless junk e-mail messages. As more optical mice replace their mechanical kin, such hygiene is becoming unnecessary. However, the mouse wheel is nearly as common as the mouse itself and human hands are grubby, sweaty, oily appendages. Invariably, a nice coating of gunk envelops the wheel. Sometimes it's just unsightly, but at it's worst, it'll sap the rubber wheel of all its grip making it difficult to scroll. Cleaning the wheel can be awkward as it tends to spin and unlike mouse balls, it doesn't just pop out (rehashing of the balls joke intended). The best method I've found is scraping sideways, parallel to the wheel's axis of rotation, slowly working my way around the whole wheel. This is tedious and annoying. Is this a common affliction? What is a better, easier way to clean the mouse wheel? Solvents? A wheel brush? Fire?"
No, it is not a comnon problem. You are just a very very dirty man. Please do not "ask slashdot" about your hygiene problems again.
Wash your fucking hands before you use the mouse if you have a problem like this.
Before I switched over to optical mice, I used denatured alcohol (purchased at any pharmacy) and those foam swabs that electricians use to, well, clean things.
Once you crack the thing open there'll be a lot of crud caked on the rollers, but it usually comes off quite readily once you swab it with alcohol. If you want to be thorough, wear latex gloves and be sure to clean the ball off, too.
"Max, come over here. French-Canadian bean soup. I want to pay. Let them leave me alone." - Dutch Schultz
Most mice (especially optical mice) only have a couple of screws on the bottom. Open it up and pop the little wheel out, then wash and dry it. If you hate the clickiness that the wheel has (as I do), or the weight that Logitech inserts into their optical mice (as I do), now would be a good time to remove them. Be sure to keep all the little parts handy.
Is this a common affliction?
:-D
Go wash your hands immediately, you naughty naughty boy. *smack* How many times must I tell you not to handle your balls with dirty hands?
Um, yea. Same goes for the scroll wheel, too.
(Spudley Strikes Again!)
Use an exacto knife, scrape the rollers, hope the junk falls out. I do this pretty regularly, and when I tell others about it, they lament on all the mice they've replaced over the years. Usually they can be saved quite easily. When I switched to an optical mouse, problem solved, except that the accuracy sucked and I couldn't use it on my glass table. Oh well, gotta get back to scraping my mouse. Thanks for the reminder, and editors: what were you thinking?
Put the Doritos down. Either use your other hand for eating, or wipe it off before you need to scroll. I know this seems like a pain in a heated game of Quake or whatever, but it's the price you pay. Maybe you can get a feed bag and just strap it to your face.
Flip the mouse over, locate the screw(s), unscrew them, and gently take the covering off.
There's a spring pushing the wheel up, so take a moment to figure out how the wheel is lodged onto the spring and plastic parts before taking the actual wheel out.
Scrape the dirt off the wheel or wash it or whatever you like and pop it back in. Put the cover back on, the screws, and voila, clean mouse wheel.
Of course, if you have an optical mouse, you might want to unplug it or turn off the computer before looking for the screws on the mouse bottom...
...and blast away!
Just make sure it's the stuff that evaporates 100% or the problem will be worse.
The x-acto that many people described is fine for modern mice. (I prefer to hold the knife at just shy of a right angle to the of the roller, and the blade at a right angle to the roller surface, and scrape along the length of the roller. Do this with the blade at a right angle or slightly tilted BACKWARDS; never cut into the roller!)
But look out for some of the older steel mice, such as on the Xerox Alto or earlier Symbolics Lispms. Those can be seriously damaged by x-actos. From Peter Payne's FAQ:
dude, he specifically mentioned that he's using an optical mouse == no rollers.
Take a strong paper towel and get it moist with 90+% isopropyl rubbing alcohol. Remove the ball and use your finger wrapped up inside the paper towel to rub the wheels, as you say, parallel to axis. It'll all come off in a jif.... gif.... whatever.
90% isopropyl is about as close to solvents as you want to get around PC parts. It'll remove any crud you got in there, and it won't damage the parts any..... probably.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
Ive never thoght of it until you mention it! now I ll have to clean my mouse...
\m/
Not very long ago at all, I had this habit of smoking a vegetative green substance as I would surf the web. Copious quantities, in fact... I would frequently tamp the substance in the pipe down with my forefinger as I smoked away (yes, I have a monstrous, largely fireproof callus on there from years of doing this.) This would lead to a black, sticky buildup on both my finger and the mousewheel. And probably the inside of my lungs...
While I am certainly not proud of the aforementioned habit, that is not quite as nasty as having spooge or snot or filth build up on it due from lack of bathing or something. It was just ashes and a certain dark, tarry substance many of us are familiar with.
My mouse wheel is made of rubber or something similar, so I very firmly held an alcohol-soaked cloth on one side of the mouse wheel, and got my girlfriend to turn the mousewheel by digging her freakishly long nails in the wheel and turning it for me. After a few rounds, it was fine.
We all get older though, and I have left such habits behind me (mostly), so I find it is not a problem any more...
why bother cleaning it, for the price you spend on the booze buy another damn mouse. Also do not forget to get a pail of hand scrubs. Yes I said pail, contains 100 towels presoaxed in chemicals to give your hands a throurgh cleaning.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
There is a little stick in the middle of my keyboard and it works real good. I do keep a little cover on it for protection but am shure to change it when it gets too dirty or slippery. I affectionately refer to this as a 'mouse stick with condom' in non-techical conversation and this eliminates all the worry of having to talk about cleaning your balls in mixed company.
I've had luck for 10+ years using rubbing alcohol and a q-tip.
scrape side to side
And here I was buying new mice all this time.
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
Don't you mean....
Worst... Ask Slashdot... EVAR!
Anyway, to be on-topic... I agree with those that post about getting a new mouse.
I've never had a problem with scroll wheels, although they still give us mechanical mice at work. I have to clean the rollers in it pretty regularly. Pencil eraser to scrub the stuff off, and then shake the gunk out...
Set yer wheel on fire... what is left is dirt. There you go...
\m/
Wipe your ass with the other hand!
Unfortunately, no one can be told what my sig is...
And that helps his problems cleaning the scroll wheel how?
Christ, it's bad enough that people can't read the article, and worse when they can't read the one-paragraph blurb that was submitted, but now we have people who don't even read the four-word title of the article??
has been the source of many a pun
Oh, puny puns...
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
>> How do I clean mouse rollers?
The same way you clean the heads on your tape deck. Rubbing alcohol and Q-tips.
The mouse I have is a fluffy hamster type I got from the pet store. Its cage does tend to stink once in a while but a monthly cleaning fixes it. I also let it exercise in the plastic ball all over the house once a day at least.
Make sure you feed it diversely and allow it a good level of exercise and it will retain a good coat and healthy other-body-parts. I'm really not sure of other suggestions here of popping the ball out and scrubbing with knives. I could never suggest that.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
You stumbled on the solution yourself with your last suggested cure: fire. Simply dunk the mouse in cleaning fluid and ignite. The heat thins the hand-oils and forces them to the surface, where they burn off.
Make sure you do it outdoors, though. You'd hate for the nitrogen fire containment system to go off.
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
Plain old key off my keychain. The curved divots on it are perfect, and i dont need some special tool when at a users desk.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
i wondered why this would even be asked on /. at first, but then i started looking at my mouse.... man, that scroll wheel is dirty... i feel dirty... must go shower!! must get clean!!
They're so cheap now that you can just buy a new one when the old one gets dirty.
Do you mean what is usually called a "wheel"? The thing on top of the mouse? Or do you mean the "wheels" the mouse ball touches to make the mouse move onscreen?
I use my fingernail and tweezers.
ESD Product service support subject: New Retain tip
Abstract: Mouse balls now available as FRU (Field Replaceable Unit)
Text:
Mouse balls are now available as a FRU. If a mouse fails to operate, or should perform erratically, it may be in need of ball replacement. Because of the delicate nature of this procedure, replacement of mouse balls should be attempted by trained personnel only.
Before ordering, determine type of mouse balls required by examining the underside of each mouse. Domestic balls will be larger and harder than foreign balls. Ball removal procedures differ, depending upon manufacturer of the mouse. Foreign balls can be replaced using the pop-off method, and domestic balls replaced using the twist-off method. Mouse balls are not usually static sensitive, however, excessive handling can resutlt in sudden discharge. Upon completion of ball replacement, the mouse may be used immediately.
It is recommended that each servicer have a pair of balls for maintaining optimum customer satisfaction, and that any customer missing his balls should suspect local personnel of removing thes necessary functional items
(Copy typed from the rec.hummor.funny archive. Typos are mine, the origonal posting was in all caps, which does not pas the Lameness filter)
in a container of acetone over night. That'll clean it... Yeah, it'll be really clean then.
I'm afraid I don't have a solution for your cleaning problem, but I do have a suggestion for future purchases. There are a number of companies (logitech kensington ect) that are doing mice with a push/pull button instead of a wheel for scrolling - a sort of 2 directional nub. This will make the parts that get dirty more accessable.
Though I havn't tried it (try at your own risk) you might even try coating the nub w/ some sort of non stick coating for easier cleaning. Clear nail polish? plastic fixative? Check your hardware store.
In my experience, everyone calls those "nipples".
I metamoderate all Redundant and Offtopic moderations as Unfair.
Just take the mouse to bits. Then clean the parts individually and put it all back together - end of problem...
I have a logitech trackman Optical and find that I need to pop the ball out at least once a week to clean the little plastic balls that provide a mount for the speckle ball to ride on. The Ball will get sticky and not travel well. A quick cleaning of the contact balls and it rides well again.
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
Yep, designing "stuff" to work out in the field is hard.
WAY back when, starting during the Summer between HS and college, and continuing through college, I worked building and putting up crane systems. You know, the kind that looks like a moving bridge that you see in movies all the time
Man, that job was rough on men and equipment. The joke is, as rough as that job was, my next job required me to build stuff for the military. There is an expression - "Grunt Proof". The average "Grunt" is a heck of a lot smarter than folks give him credit for. It's just that he's living outdoors, has to lug around everything, is in a rough environment, and given a choice between carrying two tools that do one job each (perfectly), or one tool that does two jobs "well enough", that weighes 1/2 as much, he'll take the 1 tool, and some more ammo - as the ammo will keep him alive. Kinda makes it hard on your gear, as they will figure out how to break things that you never thought of
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
The answer is, of course, replace your obsolete ball-mouse with an optical mouse. Opticals are so cheap now, anybody can afford them. I believe somebody up above said they could get them for 10$ US? I've never seen them that cheap, but I have seen them for 25$ canadian.
Back in the day when I had a ball-mouse, I used to just pop open the bottom compartment, remove the ball, and scrape the rollers with my fingernail while slowly rotating the roller. I'd do that for all 3 rollers. If the ball was dirty, I'd wash it with tap water and let it dry.
But seriously man! Get an optical! No excuses!
Just put it in the dishwasher with your dishes, wash, allow to dry.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
Here's a novel idea. Try rubbing perpindicular. Rubbing parallel will only spin the wheel. Perpindicular (ie, at a right angle to) will keep the roller steady while you scrape the cruft away.
The Ask Slashdot pool must be running really low these days for something as stupid as this to be posted.
One of the dirtiest machines I ever saw was a POS terminal at a tire store. When you install a few dozen tires every day, the rubber dust particles get EVERYWHERE.
:)
When I picked the machine up and set it on the counter, the whole thing was pitch black, except for 2 nice, clean hand prints
I can't believe how many people in this thread can't read. the guy is talking about the WHEEL, not the mechanical ball mice.
My home mouse doesn't have a problem with the wheel, but at work, many different people use a machine in a week, and I've seen wheels that no longer can be turned. I haven't done it, but I'm sure soaking it in alcohol and scrubbing it with a brush would fix the problem.
Another solution: clean your hands, filthy pig. 6 hours of Quake 3 makes some nasty grim coe out of your hands. Wash them, and keep some alcohol gel in a squirt bottle by your computer.
-- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
I use a piece of tape twisted into a probe, sticky side out, the crude/lint inside the mouse ball opening, sticks to the tape. I feel this is safer than a blade of any sort, and it seems all corporate PC users always have a tape dispenser on their desks.
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
A good question would be "how often" to clean these things too, although that probably depends on the user. I still think that the grossest devices are those used by smokers (icky yellow coating on keyboard/mouse) - we get these at work and I prefer to replace rather that have to handle them.
Mice are pretty easy to clean though, the exacto solution mentioned above works well. Keyboard can be more of a pain. If you're the type who sometimes *gasp* snacks at the keyboard especially (little crumbs between keys). I've heard that dumping it in soapy water shouldn't be a problem, so long as you give it a good drying interval afterwards (electronics don't mind water so much as water+electricity). A dishwasher will do ya good as well, as long as you don't put anything on high-heat so that plastic/sensitive components get damaged (again, decent drying interval afterwards)
This would probably work well for ball-mice too, at least for general cleaning, but probably not for optical as you don't want any soap coating the IR sensor???
With the invention of all these funky robots etc etc, you'd think somebody could come up with a useful mouse-cleaning tool? I'm kill for these at work... perhaps something where I could send all my dirty ugly mice down a conveyer on have them come out sparkling clean.
I have cats, you insensitive clods!
This sig no verb.
...are PhoneKleen found here, which are grem killing wipes, and are great for getting the black gunk of the keyboard and mouse exterior,
...and CaiKleen found here a rubber cleaner that restores that stickyness to rubber.
When I had to do desktop support, I always carried these with me.
First I lock the doors and unplug the phones so no one will bother me.
Once I get comfortable I pull out my mouse cleaning toolkit that contains cleansers, brushes, scrapers, and discombobulaters that I've acquired over the years for this specific task. I typically spend about an hour sanitizing and boiling these tools before I begin operation: clean the mouse. Thanks to optical mice, I have cut this procedure down by about 3 hours, although I still reserve about 9 hours to do this properly.
With all the tools cleaned and laid out in alphabetical order, I dismantle the mouse using very precise screwdrivers. I place each part I disassemble into custom built trays to keep everything in order.
Each piece is carefully scrubbed, about 45 minutes spent on each tray. When it is clean to the naked eye, I load all the trays in my car and drive to a lab nearby and have them examined under an electron microscope. Once they pass inspection, I bring them back to my house and in my dust free work room, I carefully reassemble the mouse.
After a couple hours and a few thousand dollars in cleaning fluids, brushes, and lab fees, I have a near factory fresh mouse.
Regretfully, I haven't been able to do this in a little while because I'm in the middle cleaning my car and this is taking a little longer than I expected.
I've got a rather old mouse. (circa 1994)
And it's just recently stopped working,
and the reason is that the ball has become
too small! Just from wear over the years,
I guess.
It now only works when the mouse travels
down or to the right. When the mouse is
traveling up or to the left, the ball
looses contact with the rollers. It
strikes me as a rather odd way for a
mouse to fail.
I'm posting this late, but I have a mouse cleaning device from the nice accounting folks at delote & touch.. It looks like a short sqaute cylinder. On end has velcro on it. You remove the mouseball insert the velcro end where the ball was and twist back and forth. Works like a charm. A little too well as mine was at work and has disapeared.
If you want to be thorough, wear latex gloves and be sure to clean the ball off, too.
Remember: Always practice safe scrolling.
The very idea of a mouse wheel becoming dirty as a common problem shocks me, for a very simple reason.
I treat my peripherals like crap, because keyboards are cheap and plentiful, and my 1st gen logitech optical mouse has a 5-year warranty for another year and a half or so. In this 3.5 year period, I've gone through 3 or 4 keyboards due to spilling drinks and random gunk into them. I do wash my hands when I go to the bathroom, but beyond that I'm pretty unhygienic with regards to computer stuff.
If this problem is common, then it is common for people to keep a scroll mouse for more than 3 years and spill drinks all over it and never wash their hands. Given how anal some (really lame) people are about their computer peripherals, I'm sure this is not common at all excepting in the environments mentioned by some individuals (auto mechanic shacks, etc.). These things are indeed cheap as was mentioned and one might just buy more. But given how much wear and tear these mice must be getting wherever you are, why not buy them with a nice warranty from logitech instead? It would almost certainly save you tons of cash, and your workers would have better mice in the meantime since you wouldn't be paying for replacement costs. Sounds like a plan to me....
As a technican at a university I often find peripherals in various states of soiledness. All jokes posted in these replies aside, this is a very simple matter to deal with.
I usually use isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs to clean off dirty peripherals. This not only cleans the equipment very well, but gives the room an aroma that suggests you might be doing something important.
Rotating the swab while running it perpendicular to the mouse wheel seems to work best. Get a different swab often, however, or you'll just wind up depositing more gunk back on the wheel.
Hope this helps!
~Mike
Mike Rizzo
Most optical mice i've had have one or two if not all the screws underneath the pads (nylon, teflon?). They pry off easy enuf and stick back on ok, but they dont stay put too well after this. Having one of these pads come off and not knowing where the hell it went is a lot more detrimental to your mousing(verbing words weirds language) than a dirty scroll wheel.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
CLIT mouse, Cute LIttle Thumb mouse. ;)
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
...you missed the point. Use shit designed not to go to crap in its use environment. Since environments change, tools should too. This even includes mice.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
This mouse wheel question seems to have obvious answers to me. If it's corporate, just buy a new mouse - time is money. For home use, really, how often does one clean their mouse WHEEL?!
Now keyboards, I'd like to know how to clean quickly. Especially laptop keyboards...those are pretty inconvenient to replace at work and at home.
He said "wheel", not "ball".
A new low for Ask Slashdot... people who don't even read the title OR question before replying!
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