Hey, my wired Mighty Mouse track ball just crapped out on me (I can't scroll down anymore) so I guess I am looking to buy another one.
Does anyone have any experience and/or opinions on the Wireless Mighty Mouse track balls being any more reliable or longer-lasting than the Wired Mighty Mouse track balls? Or are they both pretty much the same quality-wise?
Many thanks.
MacBook Pro,
Mac OS X (10.5.2),
iPhone, Time Capsule
Simple solution. Take a piece of blank piece of paper, or an old letter and rub the roller ball on the paper. It should leave a nice trail of dirt and grim. You may need to gentle tap it too release the dirt.
I'm currently debating whether to buy a wired mighty mouse because I find my tracker ball gets clogged up quicker. I use a wired one at work to compare. The batteries are always draining too.
I have used both the wired and wireless. The are essentially the same mouse with the only difference being the wireless is heavier. The track ball is the same in both. I agree with the other poster about cleaning the ball. I had a non-responsive track ball that a bit of alcohol on a kleenex cleared right up.
If you do decide to go with the wireless, invest in rechargeable batteries. You won't be sorry.
I am ready to go back to my cheapo usb driven mouse by microsoft. All I ever had to do was change batteries in that one!
I have had nothing but trouble with my mighty mouse. Who wants to spend so much time every day at the keyboard "cleaning" the track-ball??? I am most disappointed in this piece of junk . . .
hi Debra... i too am having a cleaning situation with my Mighty Mouse as does most of us after some time... i just wanted to mention that is why we have this ability for feedback to help improve the products we so love from Apple... you will not be as happy with the quality from your USB cheapo (by Microsoft) if you need better control from certain applications that require it... for general things like internet and word processing, i am sure it will be fine... for the more creative applications, Apple makes wonderful products to support the accuracy needed (like photo, modeling, 3D, CAD and video work)... i agree it is a drag having to maintain our wonderful equipment but it can be an opportunity to honor the equipment also knowing we (with Apple products) have some of the best computing devices available today... the Mighty Mouse is not a piece of junk because we have to clean it... BTW do you have rechargeable batteries? hehehe... have phun...
same thing happened to me! i can scroll up and left and right but not down. seems like if the track ball were dirty, then it wouldn't scroll at all. since it can scroll every way but down, i'm thinking it might be a hardware problem rather than a dirty problem.
Trust me, copelander, a mighty mouse that will not scroll in one direction is almost always simply dirty. I have two (one BT one wired) each of which I bought very soon after they first came out. Essentially failure to scroll in one direction means that one of the four directional sensors that it relies on has got clogged.
Cheby (above) describes the usual solution very well. Simply disconnect the mouse, hold it upside down, and rub the ball vigorously in all directions on a clean piece of paper. Try to avoid "running over" any of the tiny black specs that will probably appear on the paper , as the ball is good at picking them up again.
If things have progressed beyond the this, the tip of something like the plastic toothpick that comes with swiss army knives, or a cable tie, worked gently in around the edge of the ball, can help, but be gentle so you don't damage the mechanism. Some people also use a dab of isopropyl alcohol on a clean cloth applied to the ball.
To keep your MM running smoothly for a long period, clean it using the "rubbing on paper" trick AS SOON AS you get the slightest sign of bad scrolling, or every few days, whichever comes sooner. Once you have done this for a while you will find that the problem becomes much less frequent, as the internals get rid of any accumalated residual gunk.
People who smoke, and those whose hands get oily or grubby for one reason or another, seem to have more problems with this issue, and might want to think about a regular 'wheel" mouse instead, but I've found that a minute of preventative maintenance every few days keeps my MM's scrolling beautifully in all directions. I haven't noticed any difference in the behaviour of the wireless or wired models in this respect. They both use the same scroll ball mechanism, so this isn't surprising.
As far as choosing between a wired and a wireless one goes for use with an MBP the wired one is lighter, and probably uses less battery than having bluetooth running all the time. On the other hand, the BT one can be handy if you are working in cramped quarters, and don't want a jumble of wire to deal with.
here i come to save the day....wired might mouse is on the way........i love mine makes browsing easy...all i need is a wireless keyboard and i will have touch my computer
Hi all, I have a MM wireless optical and my scroll ball on the top will not allow me to scroll up, only down and left/right. I am not sure what to clean as it is not the old style of mouse that has problems with the ball that touches the table surface getting dirty.
Hey!,
im having the exact same trouble. My mouse did it the first time and a few days later it kind of fell back into place, but now it won't scroll down again. I might try cleaning it, see what happens.
Thanks guys.
I followed some other threads and found a link to some good hints. Essentially, clean the scroll ball with a soft, slightly damp cloth and turn the mouse upside down and clean the ball vigorously to shake loose any dirt. This fixed mine! I am scrolling up down and all around.
My Mighty Mouse won't scroll down, only up. And it doesn't have a track ball, so I'm at a loss. I've unplugged it and plugged it back into the keyboard and also unplugged it and plugged it back into my IMAC. I'm at a loss, can anyone help?
Thanks,
Grace
