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?"

Comments

Welcome to the 21st Century

[Anonymous Coward]

Now they sell mice without balls. Yes, it's true. They use optical sensors which don't have those pesky cleaning requirements.

Not wheel, rollers

[Hard_Code]

Usually it is not the wheel that is dirty, but the axial rollers inside the mouse. I usually pop out the ball, and then scrap my fingernail against each of the rollers to get off the crud that accumulates in a stripe where the mouse ball hits the roller.

HERE - DO THIS!

[Asprin]

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.