Mucky Balls

Tips and Tricks

for those of you that don't have an optical mouse.....

If your cursor no longer moves smoothly across the screen (e.g., as you move the mouse, the cursor hangs briefly and then shoots across the screen), then you probably need to clean your mouse's innards. Fortunately, the procedure isn't as disgusting as it sounds.

Many books tell you to clean the mouse ball, but the problem usually results from dirty mouse ball rollers. Here's how to clean them:

1) Turn the mouse over and remove the little cover that keeps the ball from falling out
2) Remove the mouse ball. If it does happen to be dirty, clean it.
3) Look inside the hole where the mouse ball lives. You should see three little rollers, and they'll probably be caked with crud. Use a dull, non-abrasive object (e.g., the end of a small screwdriver or you finger nail if you can bear it.) to clean all of the crud off.
4) blow out the crud.
5) Replace the mouse ball and cover.
6) Whack the eraser dust, potato chip crumbs, and anything else off of your mouse pad (so that you don't have to perform this same procedure two days later).

If the cursor still doesn't move smoothly, then you might have an obsolete or corrupted mouse driver, a defective mouse, or an IRQ conflict. In this case call IT support or chuck it away and buy an optical mouse.