My Mighty Mouse not so Mighty right now

bryans83 · Nov 9, 2007

So less than 3 months old, the Scroll Ball is acting up. Intermittenly the Downward scroll refuses to work, its very frustrating... Anyone know of any ways that I could clean it to see if its dirty? If not, im just gonna request a replacement from Apple. afterall its less than 3 months old.

Brendan · Nov 9, 2007

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302417
Try that link, it should give you an idea of how you should clean the mouseball.

A plethura of people have this problem, do a search and find more info.

bryans83 · Nov 13, 2007

Thanks Brendan,

I'l try the steps out, Im hoping its just some dirt that snuck into the inside of the mouse, The Mouse itself doesnt look dirty, but little particles could easily have gotten in.

presslee · Nov 13, 2007

I too have this problem, i went in and asked for a new one and they started to babble about emailing them to book an appointment in there "genius" lab or somthing. They also mentioned i would have to give them my serial number so they could check my guarantee.
I have not been back since as my nearest shop is a bit of a distance away.

theonegod · Nov 13, 2007

Take a rag, put some rubbing alcohol on it, turn your mouse upside down and push down hard while you roll the ball on the rag. This will clean it right up.

Nabooly · Nov 13, 2007

Same thing happened with me. I just put some acetone on a towel and rubbed the ball. It started working, but it periodically stops scrolling down. Next tim it happens ill probably just call apple care (ive barely had this for 2 months.)

baggss · Nov 13, 2007

This is the reason I ditched the MM long ago....

Leukeh · Nov 13, 2007

Easy fix. Grab a piece of paper and put it on your desk, or any other hard, smooth surface. Now take your Mighty Mouse and turn it upside down, place the scroll ball on the paper and press firmly. Now rub like crazy in all directions. Expect your nice white clean piece of paper to be covered in gunk and your Mighty Mouse to be working perfectly =)

Neo · Nov 13, 2007

"Rub like crazy" doesn't sound like something that would be in any owner's manual.

I've had my mighty mice for 8 months and 3 months respectively, with no gunking problems.

Leukeh · Nov 13, 2007

Neo said:
"Rub like crazy" doesn't sound like something that would be in any owner's manual.

I've had my mighty mice for 8 months and 3 months respectively, with no gunking problems.

Probably not, but it works

You're pretty lucky... I have to do mine maybe once every 2 months. It's not as big a hassle as everyone makes it out to be. Very small price to pay for the 360º scroll wheel! I love that thing...

NanoBite · Nov 13, 2007

I've narrowed the culprit down to my food/dirt/etc covered fingertips .... I remember someone used to say "wash your hands before touching my record collection" .... I used to scoff but now I'm paying the price ..... the only thing I really like about the MM is it's shape.

Hey I just learnt something new just then ... if I place the I-beam over the full stop in the last sentence and place even pressure on the mouse and click twice rapidly, it selects the dot while 3 rapid clicks selects the whole paragraph ... or I can select a whole word then the whole paragraph ... and here's me been doing the left click'n'drag method for the past 2 years ...

Leukeh · Nov 14, 2007

Spawn__Dooley;527664 said:
Hey I just learnt something new just then ... if I place the I-beam over the full stop in the last sentence and place even pressure on the mouse and click twice rapidly, it selects the dot while 3 rapid clicks selects the whole paragraph ... or I can select a whole word then the whole paragraph ... and here's me been doing the left click'n'drag method for the past 2 years ...

Also, if you double click on a space, it selects the words either side ;D

presslee · Nov 14, 2007

Leukeh said:
Easy fix. Grab a piece of paper and put it on your desk, or any other hard, smooth surface. Now take your Mighty Mouse and turn it upside down, place the scroll ball on the paper and press firmly. Now rub like crazy in all directions. Expect your nice white clean piece of paper to be covered in gunk and your Mighty Mouse to be working perfectly =)

You genius, thanks. Can't believe what came out.

cowasaki · Nov 14, 2007

I have this same problem every couple of weeks or so and just follow the instructions on Apple's site as reproduced above.

The problem I have though is that the rh click stops working every few weeks and to fix it you have to turn the mouse off and back on !! Just really annoying!!

Cam · Nov 16, 2007

I also find that if you simply push really hard on the ball and move it around quickly in all directions it sorts its self out.

pirrip · Nov 16, 2007

Spawn__Dooley;527664 said:
I've narrowed the culprit down to my food/dirt/etc covered fingertips .... I remember someone used to say "wash your hands before touching my record collection" .... I used to scoff but now I'm paying the price ..... the only thing I really like about the MM is it's shape.

Hey I just learnt something new just then ... if I place the I-beam over the full stop in the last sentence and place even pressure on the mouse and click twice rapidly, it selects the dot while 3 rapid clicks selects the whole paragraph ... or I can select a whole word then the whole paragraph ... and here's me been doing the left click'n'drag method for the past 2 years ...

Can do that one, cool!

pirrip · Nov 16, 2007

Leukeh said:
Also, if you double click on a space, it selects the words either side ;D

Can't do that one it must be me.
I have the sticking problem with my MM from time to time. My solution is licking the tip of my finger and rolling the scroll button around for a few seconds HARD.

Neo · Nov 16, 2007

cowasaki said:
The problem I have though is that the rh click stops working every few weeks and to fix it you have to turn the mouse off and back on !! Just really annoying!!

I have been really happy with my Bluetooth MM, but now that you mention it, yeah, last week the right-click gradually went away. I turned it off and back on, and it was good again. That's the first time in three months. I can deal with that.

Then there's the weird "wandering cursor" described on other threads...it turned out it had to do with my mouse pad surface (fabric on foam type). The MM works like a charm now I have a hard surface pad (or just the top of the desk).

Dominion · Nov 18, 2007

Buying the Bluetooth Mighty Mouse has been one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made. I hate the thing, but maybe that's just because I can't figure out how to use it right (I get to actually right click once out of every 5 attempts)

As soon as I return to the united states I'm ordering a replacement blue tooth mouse from newegg.

Orpheus1120 · Nov 19, 2007

Leukeh said:
Easy fix. Grab a piece of paper and put it on your desk, or any other hard, smooth surface. Now take your Mighty Mouse and turn it upside down, place the scroll ball on the paper and press firmly. Now rub like crazy in all directions. Expect your nice white clean piece of paper to be covered in gunk and your Mighty Mouse to be working perfectly =)

Geez, that actually WORKED. I've gone haywired trying to figure out a way to fix the scroll ball problem. Tried all the methods online, and this by far is the best. I couldn't believe all the goo that came out.

Good man!