Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Mighty Mouse Lives to See Another Day!

I've had my mighty mouse, using it with my iMac for the past year or so and the scroll down button decided to die on me. I've looked on the Mac website and the advice there is to position it upside down and rub hard with a piece of cloth. Tried that and it didn't work, so I gave them a ring and because it's outside the 1 year accessories warranty, I was told that I had to buy a new one. Well, I'm not really ready to fork out £59.99 for a new mouse, considering that it's still (sort-of) working, and it's such a hefty price tag anyway.

So, had a log on some forums, Max OSX Hints was particularly handy, there was a particularly long thread about the very imaginative ways that people used to overcome this problem. In terms of creativity, top marks go to the blokes who:

1. Used a vacuum cleaner
2. Used a toothbrush
3. Used alcohol wipes

I decided to go for alcohol wipes, 70% isopropyl alcohol, (good thing I have these things handy..?), turned the mouse off, tilted it upside down and rubbed it hard for all my life was worth. Some dirt and gunk did come out, and I kept at it for a good 5 minutes. I then let it dry out a bit, and hey presto! It's working perfectly again! Yay! What a relief!

You can't believe how happy I am, considering that there were several occasions when I have forgotten that my scroll button doesn't work anymore and proceeded to scroll into the screen, only to find out that it wouldn't scroll out again. ARGH!! But now, it works again! yay!! It's lived to see another day!