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Mighty Mouse doesn't scroll down

The mighty mouse I use has been in use on various computers for a few years now.

I was using it to browse the web when the scrollball stopped scrolling down. It can still go up, left and right but when I scroll down it goes down and spins but there isn't the usual clicking noise and it doesn't do anything on-screen.

Can I fix it at all?

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mighty mouse has NO SCROLL BALL - it's an Optical mouse. at least mine is... you are thinking of much older ADB mice maybe

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mighty mouse HAS a scroll ball, what YOU are talking about, is the MAGIC mouse, which has no scroll ball.

btw. same problem over here...

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Edit a decade later: The solution below this one is easier!

Down is the most common way to scroll the mouse, so it gets much dirtier than the other directions. I've seen this problem with many Mighty Mice, and the solution is simple:

Use rubbing alcohol to clean the scroll ball. Dab some on with your finger, or perhaps use a paper towel. Roll the ball around for a while to get the alcohol spread around, and then dab it off. Repeat a few times, until the mouse is scrolling correctly. Don't drown the thing, but be somewhat generous.

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Reed is right. This has happened to me, and lightly washing the ball off fixed the issue.

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Fixed, thanks!

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The paper trick works for a lot of mice, but sometimes it's too dirty in there and more drastic measures are necessary. Unfortunately, you have to break a glue seal to open up the mouse. The scroll pea rolls against three little plastic rollers. The rollers accumulate stuff which sticks to them, and prevents them rolling. If you do open up an intractibly dirty mouse and take a look, you will see why simply rolling the mouse around on a piece of paper doesn't work in really bad cases. I've done this with two or three mice, and they work okay for a while, but the best solution of all is a Magic Mouse, which has no moving parts.

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Thanks - My Mouse is back on track!

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I have been very successful substuting Goo Gone for alcohol, then rubbing it on a clean piece of strong paper towel. The gunk befouling the roller button is hand oil thatn has ahrdened, and alcohol is simply not strong enough to penetrate it fully. Goo gone works better.

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I'll offer an alternate fix that I find works very well (I have 3 Mighty Mice :)

Get a CLEAN sheet of paper. Put it on top of a stack of paper, i.e so you have a slightly soft cushioned surface, rather than directly on a hard desktop

Unplug your mouse (if USB) or switch it off (if Bluetooth).

Turn the mouse upside down and roll the scroll ball on the stack of paper, somewhat vigorously in circles, also back and forth and various directions. You will likely see some gunk come out of the scroll ball hole and stick to the paper. Don't roll over any of that loosened gunk. You may also see some stuff stuck to the ball itself, you can easily brush or blow that off.

The ball will heat up doing this, so don't do it for an extended period, or pause after several seconds to let it cool before trying again.

originally I used to always clean my first Mighty Mouse using the alcohol method, with limited success or requiring multiple cleaning attempts. Using this method, I find it works quickly and every time.

try it next time!

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Thanks!

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JUst rolled my 2 MIghty Mice around on paper... and now they work a treat after not working for months!! Thanks Bac... if only I read this a couple of hours a go I wouldn't have ordered the 2 Magic mice!!

CHeers anyway.

Leon

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hey you're welcome! trying to spread this word around because the trick seems to work really well, and yet still lots of reports of inability to clean the MM using compressed air or swabs and alcohol.

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I searched all over online one night for hours till I came upon the paper trick, and haven't had an issue since... ( until the magic mouse I have now, that won't let me drag any item it just drops it immediately, but that's a totally different issue!)...

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My wireless mighty mouse has not been scrolling down for months, the paper trick worked great!

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The clean sheet of paper worked for me too! Thanks!

I hope it lasts! =)

Update

Alcohol and clean sheet turned out to be just temporary solutions. At least for my 3 years old Mighty Mouse.

I've tried this guide and i completely fixed the problem.

Totally recommend it!

Best of lucks!

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worked in a jiffy!! the paper trick! Thanks so much!

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I would like to add my answer as I don’t see it yet.

If you follow the link to the disassembly instructions or if you have taken the mouse apart already, you will see that there is a metal tab that is near each of the black magnets on the rollers . This is there to measure the resistance difference of the magnets so it knows that the roller is moving.

In my case, the tab was physically touching the ‘down’ roller. Well, if there is no gap, then the mouse cannot tell if that roller is moving.

TLDR: make sure the metal tabs next to the black wheels on the roller bars are not touching the black wheels. If they are, simply bend them back slightly.

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If the alcohol treatment on a paper towel strategy results in it just messing up again, use Goo-Gone instead.

The Goo-Gone melts the flakes of hard hand grease and will free up an otherwise jammed up mouse-ball. It is ten times as effective a rubbing alcohol.

The MacGuru

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I squib a tiny bit of WD40 on top, give it a quick scroll around, leave it 10 mins and then do the paper thing. Works a dream every time..

Had the mouse since 1st Intel iMac and still works fine!

Stu

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I've used the rubbing alcohol trick numerous times. But when I'm at work sometimes I don't have rubbing alcohol so I use a dab of Purell. It works great and someone usually has it in the office.

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It worked but now everytime I click the mouse the dashboard shows up. I think I broke the ball tapper part.

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Have you looked at your Mouse system preference to see if you can change that?

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I have tried using the alcohol remedy on my Mighty Mouse scroll pea but have found that Goo-Gone works even better. Squeeze some onto a lint-free paper towel, turn mouse upside down and roll the pea around for awhile in all directions. Seems to have longer lasting results than alcohol.

Sally

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my english is not that good, so reading this i just figured out that i need to use some alcohol, so i took toilet-paper (which is probably the same as paper-towel but its thin so its not kitchen's paper towel :) ) and dropped some cogniac on it (didnt work) , so than i been rolling my scroll-ball for a minute using paper-towel with some colone (simple one just has alot of alcohol on it) and it worked amazing! thank you so much!

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@theimedic, do you use cogniac often for cleaning water damaged iPhones?

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No...@pccheese I use cognac for cooking, usually sauces. Isopropyl alcohol, 99%, is what I use. And I've been thinking about using ace tone, as @rany said, to clean up my flux. As no one said where to get the good stuff, I may start using nail polish remover, until I find something that works best

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@theimedic I was making a joke of this answer.

crwdns2934271:0crwdnd2934271:0crwdne2934271:0

Haha @pccheese sorry, lil bro. Sometimes things get lost in text

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@theimedic probably beauty salon supplies shops.

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compressed air shot worked for me

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Outstanding tutorial! Thank you.

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The solution is definitely to rub the mouse’s track ball (holding the unit upside down) against a stack of 8.5x11 pieces of paper; when the paper gets dusty/dirty, replace the top piece with another and keep going…Rub in all directions until all the dust has come out and your mouse works again…Works like a charm for me.

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I have a wired Mighty Mouse where the ball stopped working, and all attempts to fix it were unsuccessful. I liked the suggestion of using Goo Gone, but I mistakenly used Goof Off Pro Strength Remover instead. I poured a little into the hole and started rolling the ball around, and the Goof Off immediately started dissolving the plastic, and white sludge started coming out around the ball. I quickly dunked the entire mouse in a bowl of rubbing alcohol to rinse out the Goof Off, and then drained the alcohol out and let the mouse dry. I thought for sure that I’d ruined the mouse, but once it dried out, it now works perfectly again. So, I’m not sure I’d call that a recommendation, but if you have a mouse you’ve given up on and are going to throw out anyway, Goof Off might be a last-chance thing worth trying.

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Ha! That was funny. Goo Gone worked for me. No scares. It even made the mouse shell shining.

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