Mouse starting to become unresponsive to clicks

Zephiran

So a couple years back, I think it's been maybe about three years now, I acquired a Logitech M500 corded mouse to replace my old and dying mouse. It's been serving me well since then, and I dig the feel of it, but in the last few days I've started to notice some minor quirks that seem to only get worse.

Clicks are starting to become unresponsive, requiring me to use more and more force to get my clicks to actually register. When I click and drag something, and am not careful to use a bit of extra force, it has acquired a tendency to just drop shit in the case of moving tabs or icons around, and selecting different portions of text whenever I'm trying to, well, select a bunch of text. In a nutshell, it just seems to more and more often drop inputs unbidden.

Now, in my experience, this all sounds like a case of degrading contact surfaces - either the contacts have corroded or become gummed up from years of use, and that's what's making it unresponsive. However, that seems a tad suspicious to me, seeing as I've only had it for three years tops. I guess it's not unheard of, but I still find it a little odd that it should act up so relatively "soon".

On one hand, I'd be perfectly willing to fork out some dough and replace my mouse with another right off the bat, just for the peace of mind of having working hardware. On the other hand, it'd be a shame to go out of my way to acquire a new mouse if there's a bigger problem with my machine, or if I somehow could open it up and clean the contact surfaces of my defective mouse.

So I'm fixing for some advice. What would be the best course of action here? Any tips on fixing unresponsive hardware like this?

Hahnsoo1

Typically, it's one of the microswitches or contact surfaces. While it is possible to repair it, you might be better off just getting a new mouse instead of going through the hassle. Especially since M500s are, at most, 30 bucks.

You can rule out other hardware/software by simply borrowing a friend's mouse, if you'd like. Or buying a cheap 5 dollar mouse to test (and have around as a backup, just in case your main mouse suffers a cat-related cat-astrophe, as is often the case in my household).

If you are adventurous and you have the tools, there are numerous guides online on how to do the repair, like this one:
http://www.overclockers.com/mouse-clicking-troubles-diy-repair/

Zephiran

Honestly, if I wasn't a nightowl working this late on my thesis, I'd probably be out on the streets right now, looking for a replacement. Since I'm gonna have to wait ~8 hours or so until any stores are open and I could reasonably get up and buy one though, I figured I might as well ask for some additional input in the meantime.

I'm a bit miffed I wasn't able to get a bit more longevity out of this thing, especially since I do find it very comfortable, but it seems repairs are a no-go, leaving me with no other choice. The M500 doesn't appear to have any external screws, it's just holding itself together, so with the tools I have at my disposal any DIY attempts are dead in the water.

EDIT: Well would you look at that, there's a 3 Year warranty on this thing. If I'm lucky I'm not out of warranty just quite yet and could score a free replacement.

Daimar

if it's anything like my mouse the screws are hidden under the adhesive pads on the bottom, you have to peel them up to get to the screws.

Zephiran

I figured that might be a possibility, and well whaddaya know. Cleverly hidden, I must say, though sadly it's not of any real use to me. The screwdrivers I have at my disposal turned out to all be just a little too big, giving me no purchase on the screws.

That's a pretty sneaky hiding place though, I gotta admit.

Kamar

Based on my experience with many, many of Logitech's mice over the years, the little bit of plastic on the bottom of the big button you click which hits the actual tiny button has probably worn itself a tiny-button-sized groove. You can either try to fill it (methods on the internet), grind the rest of the bit down so there's not a groove (iffy), or buy a new mouse.

I don't know if this is just a Logitech thing or what, but yeah. Every 4-6 months I end up wanting a new mouse because of this problem. If any other company made decent thumb trackballs I would go that route in heartbeat, oh well.

fightinfilipino

Zephiran wrote: »

Honestly, if I wasn't a nightowl working this late on my thesis, I'd probably be out on the streets right now, looking for a replacement. Since I'm gonna have to wait ~8 hours or so until any stores are open and I could reasonably get up and buy one though, I figured I might as well ask for some additional input in the meantime.

I'm a bit miffed I wasn't able to get a bit more longevity out of this thing, especially since I do find it very comfortable, but it seems repairs are a no-go, leaving me with no other choice. The M500 doesn't appear to have any external screws, it's just holding itself together, so with the tools I have at my disposal any DIY attempts are dead in the water.

EDIT: Well would you look at that, there's a 3 Year warranty on this thing. If I'm lucky I'm not out of warranty just quite yet and could score a free replacement.

if you want to go the warranty route, make sure you don't try the DIY solutions just yet, as opening the body of the mouse will almost certainly void the warranty.

bowen

In my case with my MX mouse there was a piece of Doritos preventing the mouse from clicking down. just get a can of compressed air and go to town.

Be warned, don't remove your scroll wheel. Getting it back together is a dick.

Zephiran

No dice on the warranty, sadly, and my tour of the local shops left me wanting still for a replacement. I was, however, able to find a replacement to my liking in an online vendor, which in retrospect I don't realise why I didn't just go for in the first place...

Anyway. I'm gonna grin and bear it and leave my gear as is until my replacement arrives in the mail, but when I do get my spare (and a more suitable toolbox) I'll go to town on this sucker and just treat it as a learning opportunity. A quick cleanup doesn't appear to be doing me any favours, sadly, so it does look like I'm gonna have to get into the guts of this thing to find out what the problem is.

Anyway, thanks for the advice y'all.

iRevert

@Zephiran


You may need to de-static the connectors, its a common issue with logitech mice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWJk4EWfyOA

Zephiran

You know, as weird as it might seem to anyone who doesn't know how this stuff works, I gotta say that I think static might actually have been the culprit. It's been a dry ass couple of days around here, to the point where my skin is even getting sorta flaky, and the damn thing actually started to work as it should again once I went through the trouble of humidifying my room.

Now how about that shit. Well, good to know for future reference!

Thanks to all y'all, I sure learned something new from all this.

TalonSE

Thanks for posting that video @iRevert, my M570 trackball has been suffering from this problem during the winter months ever since I bought the thing. My previous "fix" was to blow air into the space between the mouse buttons (no, I'm not kidding, it was recommended on the Logitech forum) but that was merely a temporary fix and the problem always returned. So I decided I might as well try the method in that video and surprisingly it does seem to work, although I found kitchen plastic wrap to be ineffective and replaced it with some thicker plastic that was used to wrap a magazine for mailing and kept it in place with some electrical tape instead of a rubber band. So far, so good at least.