Mighty Mouse Extra Clicks

This might be a hardware problem but whenever I place my fingers on my Mighty Mouse, it would trigger the Button 4 action, and make a little click from the internal speaker, as if I had used the side buttons. This makes things incredibly hard to use (button 4 is mapped to Dashboard) since anytime I want to work with the mouse, I'd have Dashboard constantly coming in and out. I found that turning that button off will stop the clicking and triggering, but now means that I can't use that button anymore. Turning the action off, then on temporarily fixes the problem for about an hour and rebooting the computer did nothing to help.

Suggestions as to what might be causing this and how to fix it?

17" InteliMac, Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Posted on Feb 1, 2006 8:17 PM

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45 replies

Feb 14, 2006 5:28 AM in response to Justin D.

I have exactly the same problem. Its intermitent. I loaned my mouse to a friend with a G5 and he reported no problems at all. I think we've bought ourselves a beta hardware paltform and some beta software in OS X.

The problem gets so severe that I've switched to using a MS mouse because I need a scroll button and use the dashboard a lot.

Do Apple support staff ever read these postings and comment? I tried to use the chat with an agent feature a couple of times to discuss this but it won't work on my new iMac - Safari just sits there with a blank window.

Feb 16, 2006 7:05 PM in response to Erik Volkman

I have had the same problem.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=359574&tstart=0

For the first few weeks it happened all the time. Now it is not happening at all. An Apple support tech called me back today saying that someone else had had the same problem and had found that the problem was due to some sort of electrical interference. When the other person move his iMac into another room, the problem disappeared.

At the same time I updated my system to 10.4.5. Maybe that solved the problem. If you haven't updated to 10.4.5 you might try that. And try moving the iMac to a different location and moving the monitor up and down as I did (see link above).

The electrical interference makes a little since since it is a capacitor switch iirc.

Good Luck,
Michael

Dual 2 GHz PPC G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Feb 16, 2006 8:27 PM in response to Michael Mays

I had the same exact problem too. It happened only once so far and that was when I was using my iMac in a different room (it's not too difficult to move thanks to the slim design) and without a mousepad.

The slightest touch would cause the 4th button to activate along with the clicking noise from within the mouse.

The problem disappeared after I put my iMac back in it's normal place and rebooted.

Feb 17, 2006 8:02 AM in response to suzuken

This morning after a few days of working correctly, the Mighty mouse began to click the fourth button when touching the buttons one and two.

Now I can even wave my fingers over the front of the mouse and cause the fourth button to fire.

This time I touched the base of the iMac and the extra clicks stopped.

The problem does seem to be electrical interference.

Michael

Feb 23, 2006 11:43 AM in response to Michael Mays

I updated to 10.4.5 shortly after I got my iMac set up -- the problem I have is that after using the Mighty Mouse for a while, my "Button 1" actions quit; it starts acting like my Button 2 (giving me the contextual menus inside windows, not activating icons in the Dock, not letting me click links in my browser, etc.). I end up going into the System Preferences and reselecting everything, and that seems to clear it up, but it's a bit annoying.

My Mighty Mouse setup is: left side Primary Button (Left-click), right-side Secondary Button (right-click), side buttons Dashboard, and scroll button Off (I had that button as Dashboard but was giving me some problems).

Feb 24, 2006 8:44 AM in response to J Morris

I don't think that is the mechanical click associated with the mouse being pressed. I think it is an 'electrical' click that is suppose to be generated when the side buttons are squeezed.

There is a problem with these buttons on the Mighty Mouse and its capacitance sensors in the environment the iMac produces in certain environments. If the user is grounded somehow, I don't think this problem exists.

Maybe the Mighty Mouse is sensitive to the conductance of the user. In which case it could have an additional function as a fat meter!:)

Michael

Apr 1, 2006 9:31 AM in response to sharpeiboy

I'm also having this problem. The Apple Support tech suggested it was the mouse, but it worked fine on several other Macs in the house. A friend came to visit with his mouse and a driver CD and the situation was the same.

I plugged the iMac into an UPS/surge protector instead of the wall and that didn't change anything either.

I can get a click to happen when my finger is about a centimeter above the mouse; if I touch the metal base of the iMac, it doesn't click until I'm about 2-4 mm above the mouse. Certainly sounds like a capacitor issue. The weather is very dry here right now, maybe when the humidity comes back up it won't be an issue. . .



iMac G5 (Built-in iSight) Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Apr 3, 2006 3:12 PM in response to Erik Volkman

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one having the problem. I was starting to think I was loosing my mind. I've tried moving it around - tried different USB ports. It didn't make the noise on a PC, but the side buttons don't work on a PC. I've disabled the side buttons for now, but even the clicking is getting old. I just bought the mouse last night, so I might have to take it back and try something else.

Apr 8, 2006 11:48 AM in response to Erik Volkman

I am having the exact same problem. Chatted with Mac support and this is advice I received:

First, new mouse...problem remained
Second, cleared the PRAM...problem remained
Third, reinstalled OSX...problem remained

Now they suggested I take the computer in to get looked at by an authorized apple service provider, which I really don't have time for.

I can't even use the side buttons and even when they are turned off the darn thing keeps on clicking like crazy, as if they were being activated...

I would be greatful for any help I can get! Thanks.




iMac CoreDuo 1.83 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

iMac CoreDuo 1.83 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

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Mighty Mouse Extra Clicks

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