Possible Mighty Mouse solution?

Question

Myself along with what seems alot of people have had problems with the scroll wheel on the mighty mouse. My first one, which I bought for my eMac, was fine for the first few days, then one day, the vertical (down) scrolling gave out. It almost is like there is a "gear" out of place, because when i would scroll left, i would be able to scroll down for a short amount of time, but then it would stop working. So far the MM I got with my intel iMac has been great, but I still wanted to find a way to fix the one on my eMac. I just recently read a topic that said to try alcohol on a cotton ball, but that did no good. I saw a website that suggested either scrolling on the mouse while it was upside down, or use a needle to clean underneath the ball. Well, I was frustrated, so I flipped the mouse over, and using my palm, I violently rubbed on the ball for a few seconds. I put it back on my desk, and to my amazement, it worked just like when I bought it. I'm not sure how long this remedy will last, but for now it seems to work perfectly, so if you are at your wit's end trying to fix that little ball, give this a try and hopefully you will have the same results I did.

Answer 1

The scrollball problem is just built-up dirt and sweat and oil from your fingers. It can very from person to person depending on how sweaty and oily your hands get. If you notice the MM's white outer shell getting dirty spots where your fingers rest while using it, you can well imagine the same thing is happening on the internal working surface of the scrollball.
When I sense the scrollball faltering, I flip it upside down on my jeans and run it around a bit roughly. I also wash my hands before sitting down at the computer for a time of use.
I wouldn't ever recommend poking around blindly inside a MM with a sewing needle or anything else.