Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Hawkmoon on September 20, 2020, 02:14:46 AM
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I've been using a Dell cordless mouse on my desktop PC for several years. Recently it has started to get wonky -- sometimes clicks don't register at all, other times a single click registers as two clicks. I assume that means the microswitches inside are getting flaky.
Is there any likelihood that spraying the microswitches with electrical contact cleaner through the plunger aperture might rejuvenate the thing, or do I just pronounce the last rites over it and buy a new mouse?
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I had one acting wonky and a new battery fixed it.
You can try a cleaner and if that doesn’t do it mice are cheap.
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FWIW, and WRT infra-red remotes, I used a tiny dab of that rear window defroster repair paint (it's a conductor, of course) on a stereo remote once.
But I had to take it apart to get at that surface. The conductor on the surface does seem to wear with lots of use. (This was on the volume control, which I hit a lot.)
Not worth doing this for a mouse unless you want the technical experience.
It's not impossible for the debounce circuits to not work properly with a poor switch connection, resulting in two coded pulses to be transmitted.
Son2 rinsed a device (cell phone?) in distilled water in an ultrasonic cleaner after it fell in the toilet. "If it doesn't work, you can't break it, right?" he remarked. But he's got bigger balls than I do. He let it dry quite thoroughly for a couple of days, maybe a week, and restored it to service. In general, water doesn't bother electronics if it's clean water and it's dried thoroughly. They wash the things off at the factory, right?
I can assume you tried fresh batteries, yes?
Another thing I found is that the transmitting LED sometimes gets dirty, as well as the receiving area on the receiving gizmo.
Also, make sure there's nothing blocking the line-of-sight IR signal from the mouse to the PC. On my TV remote, my big fat feet on the coffee table sometimes block the IR signal.
Again, all For What It's Worth.
Terry, 230RN
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FWIW, and WRT infra-red remotes, I used a tiny dab of that rear window defroster repair paint (it's a conductor, of course) on a stereo remote once.
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Another thing I found is that the transmitting LED sometimes gets dirty, as well as the receiving area on the receiving gizmo.
Also, make sure there's nothing blocking the line-of-sight IR signal from the mouse to the PC. On my TV remote, my big fat feet on the coffee table sometimes block the IR signal.
It's not infra-red nor LED -- it's RFI. The mouse houses a micro transmitter and the dongle in the USB port is a micro receiver.
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It's not infra-red nor LED -- it's RFI. The mouse houses a micro transmitter and the dongle in the USB port is a micro receiver.
I think he's talking about the sensor.
+1 on using distilled water to clean electronics (doesn't really apply here but since Terry mentioned it I wanted to confirm that it works well)
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I think he's talking about the sensor.
Not when he's talking about line of sight between the mouse and the PC. I have the receiver plugged into the back of the PC -- definitely no line of sight, and it's been like that ever since I got the computer.
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Not when he's talking about line of sight between the mouse and the PC. I have the receiver plugged into the back of the PC -- definuitely no line of sight, and it's been like that ever since I got the computer.
You're right, I didn't read carefully and missed that part. ;/