Gadget: My MMD (Mouse Maintenance Day)

I have a Logitech rollerball mouse that I use with my older Mac. I went with this wireless mouse a little over two years ago. Before that I had a wired rollerball that I used for several years. I had to switch from using a regular mouse to a rollerball mouse for repetitive motion reasons. Rolling a ball around is less stressful on my joints and muscles in my hand.

For the past week or so, I started to notice some tracking issues with my mouse. Then I had an issue with the rollerball not rolling smoothly. Every now and then the ball would feel like it would hit a piece of debris and then it would continue to roll like normal. The last few days I started to hear a slight grinding sound right before I felt the ball hesitate.

I did some research and found a way to remove the rollerball from my mouse.

On the underside of my mouse is a hole where I can see my blue rollerball. I was able to use my pinky and push the ball out. Cool, huh? I made sure I had a hand towel under the mouse when I pushed the ball out. Round objects like to roll around and I did not want this ball to roll off my desk and drop on my toes.

Apparently, this is two years of dirt, lint and debris.

You can see all the lint that collected around the “contact areas” where the ball sits and rolls around.

The three “contact areas” with debris. There’s a sensor to the right of the bottom hole.

I used a Q-tip to clean out the three “contact areas” and then used a soft brush to gently remove any hard to remove lint.

Once I placed the roller ball back into my mouse, it was tracking and moving around like a brand new mouse. Looks like I will need to add this MMD to my monthly things to do list.

Tips:

My Logitech M570 is a wireless tracking mouse that uses a USB unifying receiver that plugs into my computer. Works great with a PC or Mac that has a USB connector built in.

For the newer and latest Mac laptops that do not have USB connectors, there is a Logitech M575 model that has both the USB unifying receiver and bluetooth capability. I recommend spending a bit more for this mouse as it has two ways to connect. This model feels as though it has better tracking system than the M570 model. It feels smoother.