Grumble

[stoutfellow]

As you may recall, I had to replace my old mouse when it developed an aversion to moving the cursor rightward.

The new mouse - which I purchased a week or so ago - is now intermittently refusing to move vertically.

We are not amoused.

Comments

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

Meece recalcitrance. One is merely happenstance. Two is an invasion!

Love, C.

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

I didn't see anything about your trying to clean the old mouse. Just got through cleaning DW's mouse - one of the rollers had picked up lint, and, like yours, would not go in one direction. Removing the lint restored the operation. Also, balls get dirty and can benefit from cleaning.

I admit it is a bit early for the new one to have picked up lint.

Question always is in these cases: is the problem between the ball and the roller or is it more fundamental? This can be checked by removing the ball and rolling the roller with the finger. I don't know of any way of curing unreliable behavior seen in this case. I expect your new one will fail this test. Your old one might not.

If your new one does pass the finger test, and it is as clean as one would expect, check the ball, particularly for a ridge. I've had some problems with them.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

I'm familiar with the tricks you mention. The problem with the new mouse seems to be with the contact for the roller; my guess is that the connection isn't always solid. It works often enough that I can use the computer reasonably well, but it flakes often enough to be irritating. I'm considering getting a trackball. That, at least, would (I assume) be a little less lint-prone.

[gryphons-lair.livejournal.com]

I didn't ask this the first time around because it seemed rather obvious, but you did check the connection points on the mouse, right? Meaning the little wheels and points that hold the mouse in place? Because I periodically have that problem with my trackball, and it's because lint (cat hair, mostly) has built up on the points or grunge on the little rubber wheels, so the debris acts as a drag. When I clean the debris out, it works fine.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

I decided to circumvent that family of problems by buying an optical mouse. (Not cordless; my experience with that was less than satisfactory.) We'll see how it goes.

[gryphons-lair.livejournal.com]

I decided to circumvent that family of problems by buying an optical mouse

My home trackball is optical-- one of the first ones Logitech offered-- and I still have to de-lint the points the ball sits on occasionally. But at least I'm not scraping gunge off little rubber wheels anymore. :)