A Healthy Mouse is a Happy Mouse by Sheldene Chant YOU are clicking away and suddenly your mouse refuses to do as it is told and the cursor has a mind of its own. This article shows you how to ensure a long, healthy mouse life.

PERHAPS you were not aware a mouse needs extra loving care sometimes? I wasn't, so when my original mouse began moving the cursor, jerkily, or not at all, I rushed out and bought another one. Now I have two which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Thanks to my Scottish ancestry I kept the first mouse - and found out months later that these hard-working creatures have to be cleaned sometimes. Dust and gunge gather around the simple inner workings - particularly when a mouse shares the hearth with furry cats and dogs.

Recently, when I was putting together one of my ezines (which always involves plenty of highlighting, copying and pasting) the mouse suddenly lost the ability to highlight text properly. Fuming, I swapped mice (mouses?) and met the ezine deadline - and remembered next day that the offending mouse hadn't been cleaned for ages.

There's no excuse for neglecting mouse maintenance when it's so simple. Well relatively.

In theory you turn the mouse over and note that the circular disc surrounding the 'ball' is marked with arrows. You then remove this disc by pressing on it with your fingers, as directed by the arrows. Once the disc comes away the 'ball' falls out and you get on with the cleaning.

Well I did say in theory. I find that disc is usually quite reluctant to pop out and I have come very close to removing it by brute force. Please don't. Patience pays off and you will have that 'ball' in your hand, eventually.

Now, hold the mouse under a light so you can clearly see the inside. You'll notice three small 'rollers', usually black. This is where the muck builds up and causes the mouse to skip and hang. Using your fingernail or a sharp knife, gently scrape the gook off of the rollers, making sure to rotate them as you do so, to get the whole roller clean. After a few mouse cleaning experiences, you'll become adept at just glancing inside the mouse and locating the gunky spots immediately.

Afterwards replace the 'ball' and disc, and get back to work. If cleaned regularly your mouse shouldn't cause problems, but of course it will fade away and die one day. (I am sure all mechanical objects are carefully designed to do this.)

When this happens, think about replacing it with an optical mouse. I understand these have neither a rolling ball, nor moving parts, and never require these special attentions.

Copyright 2001 Sheldene Chant

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