One mouse is different from another one, and you need different strategies to repair them. The first one which was acting up on me was a stout and rebellious type. I had put it in line by slamming it on the desk a few times. It has been working smoothly for many months now. The second mouse was different. It was a tiny one, made in China. It was lying on a laptop. When someone lifted the laptop without checking what lay on its top, the mouse fell down from a height of about 1.5 feet. Out flew two T-shaped pieces of mouse body, plastic or acrylic or whatever.
"This mouse is probably gone" said the mouse dropper, and tried it. It threw out the red light from its bottom all right, and mouse cursor moved on the screen on moving the mouse, but the right and left clicks would produce no effect. "Yes, it is really gone" he said.
"Leave it" I said. "I will see what can be done."
I checked it out. If I clicked the terminal parts of the mouse buttons, they did not work. But if I clicked the proximal parts with good force, they worked, albeit with some difficulty. This mouse could not be slammed on the desk, I decided. It was far too delicate. It would just break into pieces. So I opened it up by removing a screw in its bottom.. Its insides showed a circuit board, a wheel, and two shelves below the mouse buttons. I checked them and found out that when a mouse button was pressed, a rectangular block on its under surface pressed down an identical block on the floor of the mouse. That produced the click effect. I made a 3D model of the insides of the mouse without the circuit board. Its top and bottom views are as follows, the top being elevated from the floorboard, and the sides swung up only for demonstration.
After some thought I figured out that those tiny pieces which had flown out of the mouse had probably supported the floorboard and it had sunk a bit having lost that support. Hence there was no contact between the blocks and the clicks were not working. I tried putting tiny pieces of an old ultrasonography plate under the mouse buttons to improve contact. That stopped clicking of the buttons totally. Then I had a brainwave. I folded the tiny pieces of the ultrasonography plate into the shape of a 'V', and placed them under the floorboard at the level of the mouse buttons, one limb of the V in contact with the bottom of the mouse. That elevated it in a dynamic manner. On clicking the buttons, the rectangular blocks got pressed with alacrity. On releasing the button, the elastic recoil of the V elevated the floorboard again. The elastic V gave me a leeway, which packing with folded paper would not have given.
I am waiting the see if the manufacturers of that mouse send me consultant fee for suggesting a method of repairing their mouse, or if they hack into my blog and remove this post so that people will not repair their mice using my method. :-)
"This mouse is probably gone" said the mouse dropper, and tried it. It threw out the red light from its bottom all right, and mouse cursor moved on the screen on moving the mouse, but the right and left clicks would produce no effect. "Yes, it is really gone" he said.
"Leave it" I said. "I will see what can be done."
I checked it out. If I clicked the terminal parts of the mouse buttons, they did not work. But if I clicked the proximal parts with good force, they worked, albeit with some difficulty. This mouse could not be slammed on the desk, I decided. It was far too delicate. It would just break into pieces. So I opened it up by removing a screw in its bottom.. Its insides showed a circuit board, a wheel, and two shelves below the mouse buttons. I checked them and found out that when a mouse button was pressed, a rectangular block on its under surface pressed down an identical block on the floor of the mouse. That produced the click effect. I made a 3D model of the insides of the mouse without the circuit board. Its top and bottom views are as follows, the top being elevated from the floorboard, and the sides swung up only for demonstration.
After some thought I figured out that those tiny pieces which had flown out of the mouse had probably supported the floorboard and it had sunk a bit having lost that support. Hence there was no contact between the blocks and the clicks were not working. I tried putting tiny pieces of an old ultrasonography plate under the mouse buttons to improve contact. That stopped clicking of the buttons totally. Then I had a brainwave. I folded the tiny pieces of the ultrasonography plate into the shape of a 'V', and placed them under the floorboard at the level of the mouse buttons, one limb of the V in contact with the bottom of the mouse. That elevated it in a dynamic manner. On clicking the buttons, the rectangular blocks got pressed with alacrity. On releasing the button, the elastic recoil of the V elevated the floorboard again. The elastic V gave me a leeway, which packing with folded paper would not have given.
I am waiting the see if the manufacturers of that mouse send me consultant fee for suggesting a method of repairing their mouse, or if they hack into my blog and remove this post so that people will not repair their mice using my method. :-)
