Cleaning the top ball on a Mighty Mouse

Anybody got a suggestion how to clean the crud off the little top ball on my Mighty Mouse (wired)? It's getting temperamental in use and appears the heave some gunk stuck to it.

What BillC said is a good way to do it.
Also i like to use the disinfecting wipes place it on a hard surface and roll it on there and scrub it to make sure the wheel is slick enough to pick up any smal particles and dry out the disinfecting wipe and use that to dry it off, the fabric is pretty nice to use as a drying cloth for it aswell.
but generally a microfiber cloth would work too.

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I JUST INSTALLED MOUNTAIN LION, NOW THE SCROLL BALL ON MY MAGID MOUSE SCROLLS IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION THAN IT DID BEFORE. I NOW HAVE TO ROLL THE BALL UP TO SCROLL DOWN

I JUST INSTALLED MOUNTAIN LION, NOW THE SCROLL BALL ON MY MAGIC MOUSE SCROLLS IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION THAN IT DID BEFORE. I NOW HAVE TO ROLL THE BALL UP TO SCROLL DOWN.

If you go into System Preferences> Mouse. There is a box at the top of the screen that states Scroll direction: natural.
Be sure to uncheck the box after installing MOUNTAIN LION, then the mouse ball will scroll in uthe normal fashion.
Thanks for all the help...
TRAIN MAN

Mighty Mouse lost it's mind

Like I have done several times in the past, I cleaned the scroll ball of my mighty mouse after experiencing the problem of being unable to scroll up. After unplugging it I simply turned it over and rolled the ball on a clean sheet of paper to get rid of any built up dirt. Quite a bit of dirt came out and when I plugged the mouse back in the scroll ball worked as good as new. Except now I had a new problem. I was unable to left or right click, just the third click worked; ie: using the scroll ball click. Since I had the third click set to open the Dashboard, that's all I could do when I tried to click anything with the mouse. Luckily I have another mouse that I was able to use to go into System Preferences and shut off the third click for the mighty mouse. I then changed the settings for the left & right click and then put them back to original to see if it would help, but it didn't.
Now the bizarre part. After playing around with it a little more I noticed the following behaviors. The left click works only on certain objects. For example, I am able to click on almost anything in the Finder; into a window, on a folder or file, on the dock to open an app, the desktop to un-select a previously selected item. I am able to click on the resize control and resize a window, but I can't click on the title bar of a window to move it. I can select things from the left side of the menu bar, like "File" or "Edit", but not from the right side, like spotlight or the volume control. In Safari I can click on links to open up in a new tab but I can't click on the tab to see the page. Also in Safari, or any other application, I can't click on any of the menus. If I am in another application like Safari or TextEdit I can click on a Finder window to make it active but can't click back to the Safari or TextEdit window I just left to make it active again. As for the right click the only thing that seems to work, and only in the Finder, is if I select a file or folder and then right click on it I can edit it's name. I can't get the contextual menus to work even if I use the control key on the keyboard and use a left click. I can't click on buttons in dialog boxes.
I have never seen anything like this before. I would expect it to stop working but not to work on some things and not on others. This thing was working fine just before I cleaned it. It is just baffling and hope that someone can help me out. The one thing I did try was to zap the PRAM, but it did not work.

Since my mouse is out of warranty I decided to open it up and try and figure out the problem. As it turns out my original attempt to clean the mouse basically ruined it. When I rolled the scroll ball over a piece of paper I did it too vigorously. When I opened the mouse and disassembled the scroll ball I found that there was a small gasket under the ball which had a hole in it. Directly under the ball is a small metal tab which I believe is the switch for the scroll ball button. My cleaning attempt pushed the metal tab through the gasket and shorted out the switch, which led to the strange behavior I mentioned in my first post.
Here are some pictures of the damage.
I tried to repair the gasket with some silicone caulk, but even after drying for a couple of days the silicone was too gummy to work well. It made the scroll ball almost impossible to move. The scroll ball button would not work either. At least the left and right click started working again.
I do really miss the scroll ball functionality. It is amazing how used to something you get. I know many people had a lot of complaints with the mighty mouse, but I am not one of them considering that the mouse was original with my almost four year old computer I can't complain too much. It worked well for all that time. I am now wondering whether to buy a new mighty mouse or go for the magic mouse, or maybe even something else if anyone has any suggestions.
So the lesson learned here is, not to be too aggressive with cleaning this mouse. Hopefully this will save someone else the same trouble.
Again, thanks for all the help!!

Mighty Mouse Tracking Ball

The tracking ball on my Mighty Mouse works side-to-side and up, but not down. It feels as though there's some debris in the way preventing it from letting me scroll down.
Is there a way to clean it with breaking it?
Can I take it apart safely?
Any reponses would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Stephen
17" iMac IDC iSight Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Stephen,
This has a tendency to happen a lot---for some reason it attracts dirt like anything.
Just simply get a damp, lint-free fabric and rub it vigorously on the scroll button, making sure you let it roll freely as you do so (to get the entire ball on all sides)---right side up first, so you can see the smudge building up on the sides where the button meets the rest of the casing. You will see some particles get trapped in this a lot. Scrape off all the gook from there...
Let it rest for a minute or two, to completely dry it from the dampness caused by the fabric, and then turn it upside down while rolling the button to free any other remaining residue...
Here's the link fron Apple's Support pages:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302417
Hope that helps

MIghty Mouse Scroll Ball

Not really a MacBook Pro question, but it's the laptop I have so I wasn't sure where else to put it.
The scroll ball on my mighty mouse has been acting up lately. Yesterday it wouldn't scroll down, but it would go up. I noticed when I pressed down really hard I could almost feel dirt or something. So I pressed down, moved it around in all directions, seemed to take care of it.
Today it scrolls down but not up. Same trick didn't fix it. I suspect it just needs a good cleaning, but not really sure how to go about doing that. Any suggestions?

Click here for instructions to clean the Mighty Mouse.

Mighty Mouse stopped scrolling

I have an Intel iMac with Tiger. Recently the scroll ball on my Mighty Mouse stopped scrolling. Nothing happens at all when I move it. I went to the preferences to see if a setting was wrong. Most of the mouse options have the word "Expose" (I can't figure out how to do the accent mark) so I looked that up. It seems Expose is the reason the windows sometimes fly apart for no known reason. I wish I could turn that off, I hate it. Anyway, I tried different mouse options and the scrolling hasn't come back.
Thanks for any help offered.

I will try cleaning the scroll ball like that.
I want to be able to scroll, but I don't want the windows to suddenly jump apart. I don't even know what button makes that happen. I didn't know Exposé (got the accent, thanks) existed until today. Can you tell me exactly what setting gets rid of Exposé but not scrolling?

How do u clean the Mighty Mouse Scroller Ball?!

my scroller ball on my mighty mouse doesnt scroll down because its dirty (ive chheckd system preferences), but i can seem to clean it! Anyone know how?
Cheers,
Si

Hello nymph - I think you went through this on another thread... my only thought would be to check out the Last Post on the other thread, in case the cleaning doesn't help... Rick
BTW - In case above link stops working go here http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=2575796
iMac G5 iSight 20" - 30G iPOD - HP Pav 15" WS and Toshiba Sat 17" WS Mac OS X (10.4.6) Canon 20D & A620

Mighty mouse scroll ball behavior

Less than a week ago, I bought a Wireless Mighty Mouse. I thought that it was having trouble scrolling right, so I took it back for a replacement. This one seems to have the same problem.
The problem seems to be that the mouse has a hard time scrolling right. To scroll up, down, or left, I only need to put the slightest pressure on the scroll ball. To scroll right, I need to press the ball about halfway down. It's not that it's a problem per se, but the user experience is just off enough to be frustrating. As a small note, the mouse makes different noises when scrolling up, down, and left, versus scrolling right. For scrolling UDL, it makes a small clicking noise. Scrolling right makes a sliding noise. When I push the ball in further and scroll right, I get the clicking noise.
As I said, I've gone through 2 mice in less than a week. I thought the first might have been a fluke. Not that I've run into two with the same "problem", (and from two different stores), I wonder what's going on. It seems like it could either be a manufacturing defect that affected a whole batch, or perhaps this is the expected behavior. I can't imagine that my fingers are so oily that they would have gummed up the ball instantly. And yes, I have tried just about every cleaning method.
So the questions are: how does your scroll ball work? How much pressure do you need? And has anybody had problems only with scrolling right?

bytecrafter - I did some searching and found out a few tips that solved the problem for me.
First, I blew compressed air into the scroll ball. I pushed down on it with my fingernail so that the air could get into the crack.
Then I used a damp, lint-free cloth to rigorously clean the scroll ball, while the mouse was upside down. Apple has a video (and instructions) of this here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302417
Hope that helps.

Mighty Mouse track ball button

I have been using Snow Leopard for a while and one of the things that I like the most is that I can choose what I want to see in my screen when I move my cursor to the lower right or left corner.
I have it set up as to SHOW ALL WINDOWS if I move my cursor to the lower right corner, well after I moved to LION that is no loger an option, instead of showing all windows open all it shows are the open windows open of the same application only, How can I set it up the way it was before, is there like a script or something.
also can it be set up so when I click the tracking ball on my Might Mouse to show ALL windows and not just the program windows?

I've read all the posting about this..in recent months I've been cleaning the track ball 6,7,8,9....times every day. I had planned to buy a wireless Mighty Mouse but not now, it'd be cheaper to sit in front of my Mac bashing my testicles with a mallet for the same effect. Apple, this is an utter design disaster. Like Joachim says, why not a mouse we can open and clean easily, or a larger, more robust track ball mechanism? I'm off to but a mouse by anyone but Apple...
G5 i-Mac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Mighty Mouse Track Ball

Does any one else have issues with the mighty mouse track ball?? My does not work half the time. When it is working it will only work in one direction half of that time.
Does anyone know of ways to clean it?? Or keep this from happening?
Cameron
MBP 15.4" Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I've read all the posting about this..in recent months I've been cleaning the track ball 6,7,8,9....times every day. I had planned to buy a wireless Mighty Mouse but not now, it'd be cheaper to sit in front of my Mac bashing my testicles with a mallet for the same effect. Apple, this is an utter design disaster. Like Joachim says, why not a mouse we can open and clean easily, or a larger, more robust track ball mechanism? I'm off to but a mouse by anyone but Apple...
G5 i-Mac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Cleaning your mighty mouse

dont where to post this, there is no place to post questions on mouse cleaning. i need to open my mighty mouse to clean the track ball. i tried everything the support page said , upside down wiping wife link free cloth cleaning ball. nothing works, i need to open it, why doesnt apple have it so you can open this stupid thing? install they want you to buy a new mighty mouse for 50.00. this is stupid.

Dust, dirt, and such are apt to getting in there. Unplug the mouse, and with a damp cloth, rub up and down, pressing down firmly on the track ball 10-15 times. Repeat side to side, making sure to apply some pressure. This works every time for me when the mouse is acting up or not operating properly.
I have to do this about every other month. Kind of a design flaw with the Mighty Mouse, though I love it and put up with it.

More settings to Mighty Mouse's ball button?

Hi!
I use to have a wireless mouse by Logitech. Unfortunately, due to a "dropping it down the stairs from 4th floor last time I moved from an appartment" incident, it is no more.
I used to have my scrolling button configured to make the ever so useful "command-W" action. Is there a way to configure my brand spankin' new Mighty Mouse to do that?
Thanks!
MacBook(white) Mac OS X (10.4.8) it shall be put to good use, e.g. rule the world, etc.

My wireless Mighty Mouse works properly with my Mac Mini.
I tried another one with Mac Pro, but the situation is same.
But a wired Migthy Mouse works properly with Mac Pro.
So I'm sure there are some other problems...

Mighty Mouse scroll failure

I'll put it in here under MacBook, 'cos I use one, but it's really a Mighty Mouse question – but there doesn't seem to be anywhere to put it...
The scroll 'nubbin'(?) on my corded Mighty Mouse has stopped scrolling down. It will scroll left, right and up, but not down.
I've unplugged and replugged the USB, restarted twice but it refuses to scroll in one of it's four axis.
Is there any troubleshooting I can do before I take my MacBook and mouse to a friends house and try a process of elimination?
MacBook, white Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Well after using these fixes several times after a while the scroll stopped working (only in the down direction again) completely.
Eventually I resorted to opening the mouse (very fiddly - don't try this at home unless you're willing to buy a new mouse!)
Lo and behold, the tiny rollers encasing the scroll ball were gunged up with that gunk you always had to clean off your mouse rollers back in the day.
Putting the mouse back together is very tough as you have to re-thread the printed circuit ribbon. I also found it was impossible to get the side buttons back in properly so I broke them off - I'd rather have a working scroll wheel and no side buttons.
So there we are.
In conclusion:
I regard this mouse as a flawed design - the price you pay for being version 1.0 I suppose. Mouse balls and roller GET CLOGGED UP, this has been recognised for years and have been designed to be user servicable, the fact is this one hasn't been designed very well.
And furthermore, the whole optical mouse idea is inspired by this problem with traditional mice - so to fit Olde Mouse tech to the top side of an optical mouse seems ridiculous.
Ho hum.
MacBook, white Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Can (mighty) mouse buttons work w/Lion?

My wired USB Apple Mouse (aka Mighty Mouse) worked fine with 10.5.8 - Sys Pref / Mouse let me assign functions to the left, right, top/scroll, and side buttons. I just upgraded to 10.6.8 and immediately to 10.7.5 Lion, and although the Sys Pref / Mouse window provides similar settings to 10.5.8, three of the five functions don't work.
The Left button is ok, and the Scroll ball (on top) scrolls ok. But the Right button acts just like the Left button, and the Top ball/button push and the Side buttons push don't do anything at all. Thankfully, there are no bizarre problems like the cursor leaping around, and I can hit Control - Left (Primary) button and get the Right (Secondary) button action.
I like my old Mighty Mouse and hope I don't have to get a newer / aftermarket one. Any help will be appreciated.

Sorry for the duplicate post, I am on two different threads concerning this problem. I had contact with Apple Support through the complimentary support for purchasing Lion. They took note that the wired mighty mouse worked with my Macbook air running Lion 10.7.4, that my Wacom pen and tablet could be programmed to right click on my Macpro running 10.7.5 from the App store but seemed stuck on the requirement for a clean install even though I related clean installs from this discussion forum have not worked.
Out of curiousity I tried the USB Overdrive shareware:
http://www.senlick.com/html/01.01.html
My wired USB mighty mouse now works with Lion as it did with Snow Leopard, again to me this points to the release of Lion on the app store.
I am going to write the Apple support case handler again and let her know, I have not heard back from them since November 1, hopefully they are working on the problem.
Dave

Mighty mouse acting up (now there's a surprise...) Please help.

I've had this USB mouse since March 07 - so I know all about the problems, how to clean the track ball etc - and on the whole it's been okay so long as I serviced it regularly. But now it's acting up in a different way.
Today the primary (left) button wouldn't work and had instead 'become' the secondary button. So I checked the settings in System Prefs and they were all okay. I cleaned the mouse. No difference. I reset the permissions (read somewhere that is can have an effect). Still nothing. Turned off the Mac. Unplugged everything. Fired it all up again. Same problem. Fiddled around with System Prefs again and found that if I turn off the trackball button, set left button to primary and right button to secondary, I get the primary button function back again (but secondary button does not work). I can get secondary button function by Ctrl+click (like the old days).
Any ideas before I shell out 35 quid for a new one? BTW, I plugged in a seven year old Dell USB mouse and it works perfectly.
PS. Mighty Mouse is stylish and neat but has never been trouble free like most other makes. Such a shame.

Not so Mighty huh? Back to the drawing board. Perhaps someone else can help.
Carolyn

Cleaning the top ball on a Mighty Mouse

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