I haven't figured out a way to clean it. But when the scrollball stops working, I've found that I can press down very hard on the ball, itself, and roll it back and forth a few times.

This seems to dislodge whatever is in there and it works fine again.

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This one did work for me. Many thanks !!

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My mighty mouse scroll bar was only working scrolling down but not up. After pressing down hard and rolling it a few times, it now works perfectly again! Great tip!

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My mouse would only work in one direction. Luckily, I have a wireless mouse as well, so was not completely stuck. After reading thru a few of the emails, I tried compressed air in a can.

I just used a can of compresses air (couple of buck at most computer stores) and blew the compressed air in around the roller ball. It fixed it almost immediately.

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This simple procedure worked! No need to blow on it or use liquid cleaners. I suggest trying this BEFORE anything else. Thanks for the tip!

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Agreed. Easy to fix the scroll button. Just press down hard and roll it around a bit.

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I FINALLY DISCOVERY A WAY TO GET BALL WORKING FINE AGAIN:

Things I used:
- isopropanol spray, those ones specifically intended to clean LCD computer screens.
- a clean piece of white paper
- a piece of soft cloth

Steps:
1) Give one short shot of spray over the ball. (Just one short shot! Don't get your mouse drowned! :-))
2) Turn mouse upside down and roll the ball for 5-10 seconds in circular movements. The pressure you need to put on this opertation is the same you use when you "click" the ball.
3) Dry the ball (and surrounding ball area) with the soft cloth

That's it. My scroll came back to work again like a charm.

I have been using this mouse for years with this problem. If I knew the solutions was so easy I would not gone so angry a lot of times!

Report if it worked for you too!

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The official Apple way is to hold the mouse upside down and roll the ball around. I find that blowing in it also helps. Compress air - all the better.

I am however on my third mouse. When you can't rescue them, it's very annoying. I think it's a real design flaw. Thankfully they have a 12 month warranty.

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I'm on my second, and it is getting wonky too, I agree that it's just a poor design. After 45 minutes and two phone calls to Apple support to have the first one replaced, I lost money. This will definitely be the last one, wonder if throwing into the street from my upstairs balcony would have any effect?

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Thanks. Turning the mouse overand rolling it worked for me. However, this is the second mouse that this has happened to me, and it is annoying.

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http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302417

---
duo

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I'm surprised at the number of people that seem to have a problem with the new Mighty Mouse. I've been using one for about 4 months now at work with nary a problem. Interesting...

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I bought mine on Black Friday last November and it's worked flawlessly for (too) many hours every day. I'll give it at least six months before having more of an opinion about its reliability. I always avoid having any gunk on my hands while using it (and other input devices), which certainly isn't true for people I've witnessed who seem to consider computers and peripherals as eating accessories.

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I saw instructions on the web that somebody posted detailing how to take the mouse apart and really clean the scrollball. Here are a couple:

pictures
movies

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Yup, I did this one. I managed to break the collar on the mouse in the process, and as it was actually glued and snapped in place from the factory—no surprise. Nonetheless, I was able to access the scroll-ball and voila! it worked! So a little damage. Frankly it's a three-year-old mouse, so no harm no foul. I've got it set up with an old keyboard in clamshell mode on my new Macbook Pro, so whatever life I can squeeze out of it at this point is a good thing.

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If the ball stops scrolling, just dab a cloth in alcohol--don't over-saturate the cloth. Run the mouse upside down over the cloth. Works fine.

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Good idea, especially if you eat crisps or fat food when using it !

I've asked my children to wash their hands everytimes before they use the computer.

It's a good habit to take, for humans and hardware !

---
Christian

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Similar to what I do. I soak a Q-tip in rubbing alcohol and spin it over the roller. Seems to work, so far.

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Lint free cloth + alcohol is what worked for me. I was in a hurry so used a clean linen handkerchief and vodka. Just turning mouse upside down and rolling the ball around didn't work for me. I felt that suggestions such as depressing the ball and fishing around with a paperclip, or dismantling the mouse carried too high a risk of damage.

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Handkerchief and vodka is the practical solution it worked a treat for me. Made me smile again...

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i have been having loads of problems with my mouse and found this site whilst drinking a vodka and tonic! wiped it with neat vodka and it worked a treat - thanks for that - it must have been a sign :-)

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It's alive! It's alive!

My scrollball stopped scrolling down. I thought it was broken, but it turns out that pressing it really hard and rolling with wet cloth really helps!

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Here's another tip: pre-moistened eyeglass cloths. Flip the mouse over and dig the ball into the cloth (make sure the cloth is only damp not wet like a wet-nap) and roll it around while pressing down with medium pressure...I did this with a web page open and within seconds I could see that I was back in scrolling heaven!

---
Eric Schatz

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Hurray! Worked like a charm!

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Just wanted to post and confirm that - when my Mighty Mouse would only scroll 'down' - I got a slightly wet cloth, turned the mouse upside down, and < strongly> moved the scroll ball around in all directions. And it now works fine! (I was pretty sure it was dead, but - this worked). ==twitta

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this happened to me today - it suddenly stopped working, well it would scroll up but not down which was a pain in the ar$e as i just bought football manager 06 and got fed up using the scroll bar to got throuh thousands of players!

I found that using a screen wipe (albeit a fairly dry one) worked a treat on the rollerball and the rest of the mouse - clearly i have terrible hand hygeine!

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I got so annoyed yesterday with all these methods not working that I ran a knife around the edge of the ball enclosure, and it works again! Stupid, Dangerous, but it works.

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Thanks for the idea of running the knife around the edge, I used a thin piece of paper and ran it around and inside the edge of the ball while holding the mouse upside down. With lots of patients It seemed to dislodge some of the dirt stuck which was preventing the scroll down. Some lint came out from the ball area.
Scrolling worked again. I have tried every possible method posted in this forum but nothing worked except for the paper poking.

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This worked for me! I cut a thin paper rectangle, and folded it making it a thinner rectangle (to strengthen the paper a little), and then wedged it under the lip. After wiping the paper around the inside of the hole, I could see hand-grease on the end of the paper. It still didn't scroll, so I kept repeating this (cutting off the tip of the paper rectangle each time to make sure clean bits were going in. Finally, I did this all while holding the mouse upside down, and now I can scroll again, for the first time in over 6 months!

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This worked for me too! I'm on my second MM and am reluctent to send for another replacement. Have tried all the regular methods too - rubbing upside down etc etc. Trying with the paper folded into a triangle worked - all this fluff came out - after about 15 mins!!! Highly recomended method, if the normal upside down rubbing doesn't work. Apple should put this method on their website too, they might get less returns. Thanks for this method, great ;-)

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----

'''But there is a cheap and quiet safe way to clean it !!!'''

Tough some people say that you got to open it by bruteforce i prefer to clean it chemicaly.

All You need are :

-some cotton tiges
-some 97% isopropanol alcohol.

'''DON"T USE PARFUMES OR OTHER CLEANING FLUIDS !!!'''

step 1:

dip one end of the cotton tige into the alcohol ,it's got to be real wet.
then put the wet cotton end on the ball and rotate a the cotton tige so that the ball is rotating too.
after a while you will see how some dirt is appearing on the ball ,if possible try to remove this dirt from the surface of the ball.
you should rotate the ball in differnt directions.

step 2:

dip the other end of the tige into the alcohol and do the same as in step 1 but this time don't rotate the cotton tige ,just move it above the ball away in all directions once.this will bring out very nasty dirt from inside of the trackball case.
while you are performing this step you might feel is hanging.don't worry about that.

step 3:

after step 2 you should dry the ball by rolling the ball above your pant or a piece of dry tissue and test weather if it works or not.
mind that while the ball is wet it behaves differently from dry state.
so it needs a little try to find out when it's clean..

----

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Thanks this worked perfectly and a bunch of gunk came out!

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I also experienced the old "ball will scroll up but not down" issue.

The monitor/electronics wipe with _firm_ downward pressure on the ball in one direction for a while, then in the other direction for a while, repeatedly, finally cleared it up. It took some doing, but we're back to normal for now. And I'm glad, because I'm used to the damn thing.

r

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yeah, I got some monitor/general usage cleaner from Radtech along with one of their magic cloths, tried it on the Mighty Mouse, and it works fantastic.

I do a good medium-force roll with the cloth in all sorts of directions for a minute or so and it seems to do the trick. I need to do this on a regular basis, but then again my desk is cluttered as hell and crud and lint just accumulates, even though I try to at least keep the mousing area clean.

I think a big key is using a cloth that will not generate more lint.

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I tried all these suggestions, and just couldn't get a downwards scroll to do anything other than smooth blank rolling with nothing happening on screen. The movement wasn't registering with the mechanism. I got so angry with it I pulled out my penknife and set to work. I completely gutted it, dismantled the scroll ball mechanism and found OUTRAGEOUS amounts of fluff and gunk tangled up and embedded in the four metal axles. Cleaned it up, carefully put it back together (using tape for the plastic ring that had to prised away from its glued position) and now I can scroll once more.

But my right click doesn't work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I, too, am a lifelong sufferer from Gunk Finger. Somehow, my body has decided to emit gunk from every available gland. Glands I didn't think existed. From an early age I learned that my guitar fretboards and piano keyboards needed to be regularly wiped down. Anything I touched would build up gunk. There is no shame in this! There must only be vigilance! And understanding from loved-ones (don't get me started on how many girlfriends... Thankfully I have an understanding wife now). Clean yer damn mouse regularly! And live with it.

---
Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes
http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/

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wow. first my MacBook Pro is hot enough to fry an egg, then i find myself rubbing spit on my mighty mouse scroll ball and rolling it with a whole bunch of pressure to fix a faulty scrolling problem. thanks for posting this rather rough but totally effective fix, i dont think i would have tried it if i hadnt read it.
ofcourse nobody told me to use spit, when an electronic cleaner would have been more suitable. but really, it's the amount of pressure i needed to apply that scared me.

thanks for these posts, my life can go on with verticle scrolling.

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I could scroll down but couldn't scroll up.

This use to happen to me a lot, and the way I fixed it was by flipping the mouse upside down and scrolling hard. This time though, it didn't quite work. So I tried some of the tips suggested. I was about to use rubbing alcohol, but couldn't find anything.

So instead, I decided to take one of those fine paintbrushes for artwork. I stabbed that inside the scrollwheel for about 5 minutes, and it seemed to have worked.

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It's as easy as that:

1. take a sheet of clean plain paper

2. turn your mighty mouse upside down

3. roll the trackball on the paper

sometimes moistening the trackball is more efficient.

it takes 10 seconds and did it for me

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Yeah! I did this (didn't have any alcohol in the house - well, not rubbing alcohol anyway) and it worked - I saw lots of stripes of grime on the paper - you will too!

So glad it works!

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Ok here is my story for what is it worth:
I, like many other people, ended up after only a few month of use of my mighty mouse, with a scroll ball that would go up, left and right but not down...
I followed some of the suggestions here, like moistening the trackball and applying force on it while cleaning it with a tissue and holding it upside down... The result was I couldn't scroll in any direction at all : ( I would have wanted to try the compressed air idea but I don't have this at home.

So I took the mouse apart breaking a part of the collar in the process (see http://www.applematters.com/index.php/gallery/category/C4/) and having to literally saw (with my swiss army knife) the remaining piece at a strategic place. Then damaging one of the cable holders and destroying one of the three screws there are on the tracking device by insisting on screwing it the wrong way ^^ (Reminder: they unscrew CONTERCLOCKWISE). Therefor having to break the connecting plastic piece to final gain access to the scrolling device.

I cleaned it thoroughly and managed to put the whole mouse back together and it all works fine now ! Vive le scrolling!

It's a bit scary to take it apart but in the end it's the best solution when nothing else works.

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I rolled mine upside down over a sticky tape roller, as used to collect cat hair and lint. Did the trick.

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Well having spent most of the morning speaking with Apple Tech Support on a 0870 number and Apple in Ireland 0845 number (more wasted money) they agreed to replace the mouse as the tracking ball was not working in the downward direction - even wanted to know what the serial number of my G5 was ?? Tech support then asked if I had cleaned the tracking ball - I asked how as the mouse is a sealed unit - ' I don't know was the reply ' .
Anyhow I did a Google search and came across the numerous advice in this article - I found a very thin sable brush - pushed down the grey tracking ball and managed to clean the contacts .
Wished I had found the above info before wasting numerous phone calls ,

Thanks MacOSX hints

Ian

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Too late for you now, for this issue anyway, but there is another way to contact Apple and avoid excessive phone charges. You can find free and/or geographical numbers for them (and for masses of other companies at www.saynoto0870.com. Sometimes there are hoops to jumps through, and appropriate advice is also available.

HTH - Nick

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It Might look gross BUT !! Saliva on a clean piece of cotton cloth seems to work as well !! It is better than using water though !!

My Mighty mouse is scrolling down again after so many days !! Good for me though as I am too lazy to go to the apple store and then wait for 2 LONG days for the new one to arrive !! and be without a mouse in the mean time !!

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I saw the Apple video on how to clean the mouse and gave it a try without too much success.

I then tried cleaning it upside down with a lint-free cloth (for cleaning eye glasses) and some non-conductive LCD panel cleaning spray and that worked well (for several weeks).

But then it started to clog up every few days. Finally today it wouldn't scroll up, so I cleaned it and then it would scroll up but not down!

Today I spent a good 15 minutes cleaning with lint-free cloth, the LCD spray, holding it upside down, sticking bits of paper inside (and removing a lot of gunk), pressing hard, running it on a clean sheet of paper, moistening the paper with the spray, using the cloth again etc.

Finally got it working again. I wonder for how long.

It seems abundantly clear that the design of the device from a usage perspective is utterly brilliant, but the design in terms of cleaning is absolutely terrible. At least the old ball mice were easily cleaned. This thing, however, is a nightmare.

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Vacuumcleaner!

I was struggling big time, trying to open the darn thing, when my wife walked in. "Use the Kirby" (our very-very powerful vacuumcleaner). "If that doesn't clean it, nothing will!" And surely enough, sucking up the dust while gently pressing in the scroll ball with the nozzle and trying to create an almost-vacuum made my Mighty Mouse work as new...

I love women's logic...

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The scroll down wasnt working.

I did try the roll it on a paper thing, and that got it working for about 10 secconds. so i grabbed the nearest pointed object near me out of frustration, a tweaser, scraped it far into the bottom of the scroll ball, and it worked perfect!

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I have been without a down-scrolling mouse for MONTHS. I didn't want to shell out $60 for a new mouse...and mine is past the 1 year coverage.I've looked on every website and tried every technique listed; press hard and roll on pants, blow out with compressed air, alcohol swabs, alcohol cloths, damp cloths, dry cloths, summoning of the scroll ball goddess - you name it, I tried it. NOTHING worked.

Until today.

I was brushing my teeth this morning and the thought hit me in the face like fresh after shave! A toothbrush! As fast as I could, I rinsed (my mouth) and started scrounging for the new toothbrushes that I had just bought. I pulled one out, and took it to the office. I then spent about 6 or 8 minutes "brushing" the scroll ball on my mouse.

Using a soft tip brush, I pushed the bristles down on the ball, making sure that they all slid in around the ball and into the mouse. I then brushed in every pattern my dentist ever recommended. Up, down, side to side, in circles - everything. Because there was no liquid involved, I left my mouse plugged in - and Safari open to this site, so that I could see if I was making any progress.

Then it happened....a budge....not much, but more activity than I had seen since Christmas. I started feverishly brushing the bejeezers out of the mouse - then slowly but surely, my Safari window started bouncing up and down with the motions of the ball.

I was elated - I called all my friends, family - started posting blogs and took out an ad on the radio (okay maybe not) but I was sooo excited! It's like an old friend has come back from the dead....I'm choking up as I write this!

Anyway - you all get the idea - TRY A TOOTHBRUSH! Good luck!

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Worked perfectly. I got a bit vicious with it and it seemed to work best at a tight angle (horizontal to the cover) but 2 mins brushing had the thing working after months of non usage.

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Some mouse hygiene really works fine!
I also tried the toothbrush-mighty-mouse-ball-cleaning-technique and it solved my non-going-up problem.
Here's the technique:
http://yfrog.com/5gscrollballbrushj
Thank you!!!

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Hi I just wanted to say that I have also had success with cleaning my Mighty Mouse's scrollball.

I bought one off of ebay (the guy sent it from the US to England, thanks very much) I guess he sold it 'cos the mouse didn't work properly, although he didn't say this in the listing! Anyway, needless to say the scrollball wasn't working, and now after about 4 months I decided to fix it.

I tried the blow down the hole and wipe with strong alcohol methods, but these were to no avail. I then tried the dig out the dirt with a knife approach, but the result was the same.

After this, I decided that destruction was the only way ahead. I managed to take off the inner rim with no problem, and the outer rim also came off without snapping (I was able to stick it back on using Airfix glue at the re-assemly stage).

The whole reason that I'm writing this to you all however, was that once I had got down to the bare bones of the scroll wheel, I was truly disgusted at the amount of grime I discovered. This photo shows exactly what I mean. It's no wonder it wasn't working. The little black magnets are pretty cool, but you should take care not to drop them, as if you do I'm pretty sure that they'll find their way into the nearest crack.

Anyway - I just wanted to encourage those people who were considering the destruction method to go ahead - I found it to be wholly successful, and I'm hoping that it will continue to work for longer than it would if I'd just brushed it out (if that had have worked...).

Regards,

Mark.

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YES. It worked! I could scroll up but not down.. of course. Apple's instructions didn't work too well, so out came the Q-Tips, alchohol, toothbrush, and a stack of clean paper. Thanks for all the hints, they worked.

I liked the idea of rolling the mouse upside down on the paper, because it was as lint free as I could get. I wet the ball with the alchohol (using the q-tip), rolled it around with my finger to spread the moisture (while pressing down on it to make good contact with the inside parts) and then rolled it upside down vigoursly on the paper. Then I carefully scrolled the ball and picked up the loosened dirt with a clean wet (alchohol) q-tip.

With this came progress, but it wasn't perfect, so I crammed the tip of my toothbrush down in there and scrubbed at the connectors and then repeated the whole upside down rolling thing and got out more grime. My old friend is back!!

Now I'll take better care to do regular maintenence with alcohol and q-tips...

---
www.blueskysaddleblankets.com

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I just recently (within the past month) bought an intel iMac (I'm absolutely loving it) and it came with a mighty mouse. Now the mighty mouse scroll down stopped working within the month which led me to believe there was a manufacturer defect, as I've been working with Mighty Mice at my job since we upgrading to Intel's last August, and had nary a problem.

I found that the Apple suggested way of cleaning the mighty mouse actually worked (turn upsidedown and rub mighty mouse vigorously with a wet cloth), however it took longer than I'd expected, so if it doesn't work right away, keep going at it for a while.

A good idea to prevent this from happening at all is to make sure your hands are clean before using the mouse, I find this is a habit I need to get into.

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Did Sparkfactor Design do the Design for the Apple Mighty Mouse also?

There web site shows they did design on the Apple Pro Mouse versions.
and the Apple wireless mouse.

www.sparkfactordesign.com/work/work-project04.htm


Not sure how much Sparkfactor Design had to so with the prior mice. Sometimes it takes an army of folks to design products.


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ok i followed all of the advice here and on the apple webpage, but it doesn't help. my mouse still wasn't able to scroll down. but, after doing all of this and failing, i decided to take it into the apple store.

i told the mac genius:

Me: "Hey, there's something wrong with my mouse."
Genius: "Let me guess, it won't scroll down?"
Me: "Yeah!"
Genius: "Did you try what it says on the Apple Website?"
Me: Yeah, but it didn't work."
Genius: "Ok, let me get ya something." <goes to the back and gets some alcohol cotton wipes> "Alright." <rubs the mouse like it says on website, then rubs against jeans, tries it and it still isn't working> "Let's let it dry."
Me: "OK" <we wait a couple of minutes, he helps someone else, tries again, doesn't work. Rubs against his shirt, doesn't work>
Genius: "Hmmm. Hey Mark (another Apple Store employee)"
Mark: "Yeah?"
Genius: "His mouse isn't working. Will you grab him another one?"
Mark: "Sure"
I follow him. He takes another mouse package off the shelf, takes to the check out. He types some stuff in the computer. Opens the new mouse, takes mine and put it inside and gives me the new one. Oh and he asks me to spell my name. Thats it. No warranty check (mine was out of warranty). Nothing. I walk out with a brand new mouse and, btw, i think they revised them a bit because this one's scroll sounds different, the click is softer, and the click is more accurate (the left and right click thing) . It's also cleaner. :)

So thats what to do.

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I highly recommend the upside down on the paper trick. I tried lots of other things first, but it was a few times going hard on the paper that really fixed it. Yay! I can scroll again. I so hate it at work with Windoze and no mighty mouse - I so miss my horizontal scrolling. Pure genius!

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The alcohol lint free cloth upside down approach worked. The trick for me was to press down much harder than seems prudent on what seems to be a fairly delicate piece of technology. Test the cloth first or you might end up with dye leaching out (I now have a nice pink scroll ball!).

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I have been confronting with the same problem: scrolling down didn't work. I ignored it for sometime hopping that it will recover alone. But in fact I think it got worst. When I saw the other posts here I was a little bit relived...."hey, it just needs to be cleaned". So I followed the instructions here with a wet cloth, with a brush (this one I think it helped too) etc, but it still didn't work. So finally i used a cleaning product which I had used before just for the keyboard. I recommend a spray-like foam for cleaning electrical appliances. I used ECO CLEANER, an italian product from ALPA. If you can find something similar, it can be very useful. Seems to me to be very powerful....just spray and press, rotate the ball and it will work and shine too.

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For cleaning my LCD screen or Mighty Mouse I find alcohol does the trick. I never have alcohol cleaner around the house though, so I just use vodka. A little on some cloth or tissue does the job. I'd say most strong liqours will do the job, but vodka looks the least likely to contain sugar (or anything sticky). Just don't go using a can of Bud or anything.

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I too have had the problem with the scroll ball not working when I want to go up and it was frustrating. After reading suggestions here, I tried the upside down on a clean sheet of paper.
Immediately, a big chunk of dust came out, and within seconds it was working properly.

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Since I got a "3M Precise Mousing Surface"" and adopted the habit of rolling the ball around on it from time to time, I have had no trouble at all…

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I tried the upside-down-on-paper trick and that helped a bit - using alcohol or the vacuum didn't do it for me. But the thing that finally got me scrolling again was to stretch out some Scotch Tape/Sellotape on the table, sticky side up, trap it there with a couple of fingers, and then roll the mouse ball up and down on it, occasionally tapping it down hard to dislodge stuff.

It's hard to roll it without getting stuck, but you'll get there with practice. It's probably also much easier to do this with an assistant to hold the tape in place!

[ Reply to This | # ]

The tape method "cleaning" is what ultimately worked for me, too. Before trying that up-scrolling would only work when rolling the mouse upside-down on a chamois on my desk, stubbornly refusing to up-scroll at all with during usage. It's still not as smooth scrolling in the up direction, sometimes taking extra finger-nudges, though maybe it'll improve with a bit more of cleaning.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Well, after about a year I started experiencing the "scroll ball problem".
After reading the posts, here's what I found useful - 99.7% isopropyl alcohol (in my case a "Klean-Kloth" thermal printhead cleaning cloth" and a can of compressed air (like the ones you get at the office store). I wiped the scroll ball with the cloth (with lots of pressure), after a few seconds, peices of crud started to come up to the surface. Squirted some compressed air to blow them away, and kept going with the cloth. Lots of crud came up, hair and fluff etc. I just kept repeating for about five minutes till nothing else came up. Then gave it one good blast of air to dry up any remaining alcohol. The mouse is back to 100% :-)

[ Reply to This | # ]

Would not scroll down. I tried it all: upside down & rubbing, compressed air, toothbrush, alcohol. Something worked, I'm not sure what, but I think as much as anything was putting the mouse upside down on the table and rubbing hard. I hadn't thought to abuse the thing like this but this thread enabled me.
Thanks to all for your help. I love my Mac and, well, the people who use Macs are cool, too!

[ Reply to This | # ]

Alcohol works for a while, but enough about my drinking habits!

On a serious note, this was driving me mad but a clean sheet of paper works for me.

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I have found the solution of the paper in this blog: Mac OS Help Worked fine with my mouse :)

[ Reply to This | # ]

Once you have used all soft methods,
and your mouse ball will not kick back there is only one method which will work..

See here:

http://julianschrader.de/20071012-how-to-fix-the-mighty-mouse-scroll-ball-video/


[ Reply to This | # ]

I've successfully repaired my mighty mouse and made a lot of pictures:
[link:http://69634.webhosting25.1blu.de/mighty.html]



[ Reply to This | # ]

the scrolling ball seems to work fine for me to scroll up, right and left.
but i t just doesn't work to scroll down :(
try to clean it by pressing hard and wipe when it's rolled with a tissue.
it's the wireless mighty mouse btw.
what should i do :(
any best cleanig solution i should try?

[ Reply to This | # ]

1. unplug your mouse
2. roll ball around while pressing down hard with a moist wash cloth.
3. plug mouse back in and hopefully it works!
4. use apple care and tell them you want a new mouse. (i'm on my second, they are pretty good about it, waiting for the mail is only a slight inconvenience.

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I tried the "upside-down rolling on damp cloth method" without results. This worked, however:

Put a few drops of the "Goo-Gone" commercial solvent on a paper towel. Wait for it to spread out a bit. Roll the trackball with the mouse upside down on the damp spot on the towel, pushing hard. This cleared it up perfectly in a few seconds.

[ Reply to This | # ]

This worked for me. I'd tried using 99% isopropyl alcohol which only made the problem worse. A few drops of Goo Gone on a paper towel followed by rolling the mouse around upside-down on said paper towel, and Bang! I was back in (scrolling) business.

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I can't believe people go to so much trouble to maintain this mouse instead of just buying one of the excellent Logitech mice out there. I have a wireless G7 which works amazingly and never needed to be cleaned. Scroll wheel that tilts side to side, extra button on the side, etc. Or get the Revolution which allows you to toggle the wheel between click and free-rolling, which is really nice.

Give up the little nub! ;)

---
In /dev/null, no one can hear you scream

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SCRAPE IT CLEAN
After 4 months, my scroll ball stopped working.
I used a sharp blade on my scissors to scrape the ball clean. Then it worked like new. Every month or so I clean it again. I've had mine for 8 months and it continues to work perfectly with this regular maintenance.

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I have tried all the solutions recommended here. And nothing. It doesn't work.

So my recomendation is "Do not buy a mighty mouse or if you have already throw it away". I don't want to be a rat of apple any more. Beside my mighty mouses' scroll ball doesn't respond, i spend 300 bucks to get 1080p from my macbook and it is not even on mac os x on windows xp via bootcamp. By bye mighty.

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I used the upside-down-on-paper method & it worked -

I rolled it around for about 5 minutes being sure to regularly move to clean portions of the paper because lot's of gunk did fall out. Once this was done, I saw there was a lot of gunk built up around the rim of the ball so I turned it upside down over my head and used a flathead micro-screwdriver to scrape the edges. Then I used a moist screen wipe and vigorously rubbed the ball for another couple of minutes, again upside-down.

Now it works perfectly... like new.

I think the key here is regular maintenance. Obviously, everyone periodically cleans their computer, screen and keyboard (especially Mac users - I know I want to keep my $2500 investment looking as gorgeous as the day I bought it). So, whenever you wipe down your machine, whether that's once a day, week, month, whatever, take an extra 3 - 5 minutes to clean the trackball. I know I will.

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Normally, I can clean the MM scrollball by the paper/moistened cloth method. A bit of compressed air can also be helpful. But today, it was so dirty that 10 minutes of cleaning didn't fix it. I found that rolling the ball on some adhesive tape was enough to clean it. Better yet, I remembered that I have some two-sided ("double-stick") tape. I put a small piece on my desk and rolled the mouse along for a few minutes. Voila, now the scrollbar works perfectly.

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I have just used a DRY toothbrush and it has worked a treat!!

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I keep a roll of electrician's tape on or near my desk. When my mouse stops scrolling I take about a 4" piece and put it sticky side up on my desk. I hold it down with my thumb and forefinger at each end. Then with the other hand, I turn the mouse upside down and run it over the tape in all directions until it's back in action.

I used to use scotch tape, but electricians tape seemed so much stickier and with the black tape it's easier to see the grime collected. I either avoid those areas of the tape or get a new piece. It usually takes about 30-60 seconds to get the mouse back to normal, and I try to clean it once a month just to be proactive.

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This actually works:

I have been trying many cleaning methods for the scroll ball, but most of them only have temporary effect. What really works is to use a thin flexible plastic toothpick, and carefully "fishing" up dirt. I managed to remove a significant amount of dirt from the scroll ball's housing, and finally the Mighty Mouse scrolls perfectly again. As an owner of three Mighty Mouses, I can confirm that this is the only non-destructive method of cleaing the scroll ball that actually works, at least for me.

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rubbing upside down on a paper with pressure worked for me

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listen, i know everyone thinks they have an answer that works but its all CA CA DO DO..... go to the hardware store buy electro contact cleaner.. i just used CFC FREE electro contact cleaner... anyway i disconnected my mouse and sprayed the shit out of it and rolled the wheel and clicked the mouse a little bit... waited about 30 seconds and what do u know, its like a brand new mouse.. good luck

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What worked for me:
- Place lint-free cloth on desk.
- Turn mighty mouse upside down and press down on cloth
- Roll the scroll ball on the cloth back and forth in the direction where scrolling is difficult
- Keep rolling for about two minutes, making sure to press down with significant force

killstead

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I found this on YouTube...

Just turn the mouse upside down on rub the ball on a sheet of paper.
See vid here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0DH1R_GMQs

It works !

Z

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I found another good way - Take an alcohol prep swab and roll it over the mouse ball many times - let it dry a bit. works great

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Thanks for the tip! Thought my 1-month old mouse was broken. Works fine now.

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This is definitely bad design, sorry. It looks good, but it just doesn't work - the mighty mouse scroll ball isn't up to the job. People have greasy fingers and desks are a bit mucky - make a device that works everyday in those conditions - that's the design brief. Apple, in this case, haven't delivered.
After spending 30 minutes of my valuable time piddling about with the damn thing, I suddenly came to the realisation that I've just spent more than the things worth, and plugged in a cheap as chips standard USB mouse that was lying on my desk. Job done - I'll drink the alcohol.

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I just run the ball over a pre-moistened eye glass lens cloth and blow it out with compressed air and that gets it to working again.

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I tried many of the above techniques: alcohol, paper, lint free cloth. The one that worked the best was using a very small, but firm, paint brush and forcing it around the ball. It works perfectly now.

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I've had my Mighty Mouse for a couple of years now and it still works fine, you just need to clean it periodically. Here's what I do:

I usually get dirt or crumbs in my scroll ball when I use it while eating something. When that happens you can usually feel it in the scroll ball, or one direction will stop working altogether.

When that happens, take a sheet of paper towel and fold it over once. Give it one or two light squirts with Windex; you just want it damp, not wet. Turn the mouse upside-down and run the scroll ball over the damp part of the paper towel, 360 degrees of motion, you should only need to do a few circles. Next, do the same over a dry part of paper towel.

And that's it. Your mouse will be as good as new until the next time you eat food around your computer.

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That tip worked like a charm. 15 seconds or less. The mouse works like new. Thanks so much for sharing that info.

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A little dab of water from the palm of my hand on the scroll ball, then rolling upside down on a sheet of printer paper worked for my just-starting-to-clog-up Mighty Mouse.

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Oh my, I almost gave up.I used every suggestion but nothing worked. I used the rubbing alcohol as a last resort. Immediately after using it, it worked.

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One very late entry - I had almost decided to buy a new mouse because this time around, rubbing it upside down vigourously on the Apple cleaning cloth wasn't working like it had before. But with a little spit things started moving again, and finally I hit on using Blu-Tak to remove whatever was on the ball, and that completed the task :-)

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do this at your own risk -but it does work great and the mouse will be as new when done properly.
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/technology/watch/v378809PrA5a3pg

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I had the problem that it the scroll ball would not respond when I wanted to scroll down, but the good news is...I agree with everyone's methods - tried them all. The main thing to emphasize is that for success it wont necessarily come straight away...for me it was over 3 nights, each time rubbing with alcohol (or hydrogen peroxide) with the mouse upside down onto a wet lint free cloth, rubbing in all directions (ie circles, one direction, 90 degrees, 180 degrees - do them alll!) and then drying with lint free cloth. I was getting desperate, thinking its not going to work for me - everyone else had success but not me - I kept at it though, rub really really hard, press that ball right down into the ball housing, pay attention to the dirt that appears on the ball (remove it) and maybe for you, like me, after 3 nights of trying for (10 mins a time)..it begins to work again. just keep at it - it will work again!

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Go here.

After many attempts using other methods, this is simple and easy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0DH1R_GMQs

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Worked perfectly, for fixing scroll, also for me (after many failed attempts with other methods): this should really become an official Apple solution!

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Yep, worked good for me too... except that it wasn't long before I had to do that every single day - sometimes multiple times a day! That's why I finally rushed to get a magic mouse!

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Also...I used a gel alcohol based hand sanitizer...which is about 70% ethyl....I dabbed in on the ball and rolled it around until I saw little bits of dirt...then using a clean lint free cloth I rolled it until it it was dry...which took about 1 minute. Worked perfectly.

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I could scroll up, but not down. I tried the Apple upside-down trick and that did nothing. I dampened a paper towel with a drop of Mr. Clean and rolled it all around. That didn't fix the scrolling, but it did start loosening a bunch of gunk. So I carefully scraped out as much as I could with a couple of sharp toothpicks. That fixed scrolling up, but scrolling down was broken.

So I squirted a little Mr. Clean on clean printer paper, rolled the ball around a little on the wet paper, then rolled it really hard on dry paper. I'm not even going to try to describe the crud that came out of that thing. After doing this a few more times, it's working smooth as a baby's bottom.

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Thanks. Used the compressed air, pressed down a couple of times. Worked great.

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I watched a Xerox maintenance guy one day use WD40 on the rubber rollers of our office copy machine to cure paper slippage.
I asked him about this and he said to use just a little bit on a cotton ball (large rollers) or a QTip (small rollers, mouse balls, etc.).
He uses this as part of a regular machine maintenance procedure.

I tried it out just now on the mac mouse and it works great.
Highly recommend.

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remember the days before mouse's had lazers and all that shit under the hood? and the track ball would collect dirt and you would have to remove it and scrape the crap off the rollers? that is exactly what is happening to the scroll balls on these new mouses, except the fix isnt as easy...

follow the pictures ( http://www.applematters.com/index.php/gallery/category/C4/ ) untill you get the mouse to pop open (a pocket knife works best, i also managed not to break anything) then skip ahead to the removal of the trackball. unscrew it, pick the shit off the mini rollers, and put everything back the way you found it.

my scroller hasnt worked for months, now it operates like i bought it yesterday.

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I am on my third year with the Mighty Mouse. I'll admit I am frustrated by the scroll ball's less than stellar performance in the long run, but I've found two solutions to the issue. Every few months the scroll ball stops working (usually in one direction). I can hear the clicking that occurs in one direction, but the other is silent. Turning the mouse upside-down and rolling the ball on a piece of paper has been effective (until this month). After about 10 minutes of trying to "clean" the scroll ball on a piece of paper, I soaked a Q-Tip in rubbing alcohol and, using my fingernail to hold the ball in place, cleaned a small section of the ball. Once clean, I rotated the ball and cleaned another area. After cleaning the ball entirely, the scroll ball is working fine again.

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I tried out all of the methods on this thread, but in the end, pulling it apart and giving the whole mechanism a good old clean was the only thing that worked. And I managed not to break anything!

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I agree, when all else fails, and it's only a matter of time, because under the scroll ball are 4 tiny magnetic wheels that control the mouse direction (up down left right), And as more and more crud builds up on them with time the scroll ball won't rotate them and scrolling in one or more directions is lost.
Here's a great video showing you how to pull the mouse apart and clean them tiny things.
http://julianschrader.de/20071012-how-to-fix-the-mighty-mouse-scroll-ball-video/
Be very careful that you put them back in the same orientation otherwise you will lose the scroll function.

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Don't waste good vodka! Use some cheap white wine like a plonky chardonnay. With a piece of Kleenex wrapped around the end of your index finger, dip it into a glass of the chardonnay. Arggh, what a waste! Then use that finger with Kleenex remaining in place to press down hard on the mouse roller ball. Rotate the ball up and down, back and forth, and any other direction you can think of. Eureka! With enough diligence, it seems to work. Hi-tech still has lessons to learn from lo-tech.

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WOW.

I spent 15 minutes trying to figure out how reading forums and whatnot, and my coworker walks over and shows me:

1. flip mouse upside down on a piece of paper
2. press mouse firmly and scroll it around on the paper
3. you'll see gunk trails -- this means it's working!
4. keep goin' at it for a bit then test it

If it seems worse, that means you've got a gunk build up ready to come out. Go at it again for a few moments and voila!
it scrolls like new!

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@itschriswilliams, your original comment was made on my birthday and I have to say it is quite the gift. I tried this practical solution after a few other "tricks" which were suggested. Nothing got my mighty mouse working again except this method. FREE. EASY. NO CLEAN UP! (Except the gunk which remained on my paper when I was done.) Even my son was amazed.

THANK YOU!!

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You are my new favorite person (or your co-worker, whomever)... I tried EVERYTHING else on this list and it just would not work! I have been living with a mouse that barely tracks for months now. I finally decided to look up how to clean it one more time and realized that I hadn't read all the comments in this thread (and since yours was at the bottom, it took a bit to find) but it was well worth reading all the way down!!!!! yay!!!!!! Thank you so very much for sharing this. My mouse tracking ball is working perfectly again! You made my day!

PS. To all of you cleaning the mouse with alcohol, etc. please note that it can make it worse if you get any particles of the cloth, tissue paper, cotton ball, etc. into the track ball area. I think that is what happened to me. It got worse each time I cleaned it!

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I have just tried squirting a standard lens cleaner at the button while holding it down. Guess what - it worked! Cheaper than vodka, well in the UK anyway!

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Tried all of the above with some degree of success. Was about to throw the mouse through the window when I tried holding the scroll wheel down and spraying inside with electrical cleaner. Some went in most went on my hand. Turned the mouse upside down and rolled the scroll wheel across A4 paper in figure of 8 motion. You could see the cleaner leaving a trail and then a little bit of black stuff came out. I kept doing figure of 8 movements on A4 paper until no more trail. Then I repeated the above on clean paper and more stuff came out. Left it to dry for 10 minutes then tried it out. As good as new.

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I just made an account for this forum to say that this works!!! (i used windex):

"Tried all of the above with some degree of success. Was about to throw the mouse through the window when I tried holding the scroll wheel down and spraying inside with electrical cleaner. Some went in most went on my hand. Turned the mouse upside down and rolled the scroll wheel across A4 paper in figure of 8 motion. You could see the cleaner leaving a trail and then a little bit of black stuff came out. I kept doing figure of 8 movements on A4 paper until no more trail. Then I repeated the above on clean paper and more stuff came out. Left it to dry for 10 minutes then tried it out. As good as new."

THANKS!

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I used a similar procedure with a different cleaning solution.

I sprayed a dot of Rid-Ox Contact Protector/Enhancer from TechSpray onto a micro fiber towel - like what car detailers use - very soft and lintless - NOT onto the track ball itself.

Inverted the mouse and vigorously rubbed the trackball around in the wet spot - after making sure it was not soaked, just damp with the cleaner.

Then moved the inverted mouse over to a clean piece of paper and again vigorously rolled it around on the paper. Did not notice any debris.

Repeated the steps again. The mouse was then plugged back in an worked as new. I cleaned 2 mice in about 15 minutes with total success.

I did this after reading about some rather arduous procedures - glad it worked and so quickly, since I'm not ready for such elaborate

disassemblies, etc. Here's hoping it will work for others.

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I took my Might Mouse to my auto repair garage and used their compressed air on the track ball. The air blew out the dust and other crud. It works great now!

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Yup - I was ready to toss mine. Found this forum thread and tried some of the group's suggestions. Bourbon + the upside-down-on-paper trick got it back to normal again. Thanks.

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My new Mighty Mouse only scrolled up, not down. The ball mechanism didn't make the soft clicking sound in the down direction either. I tried Apple's recommendation of turning the mouse upside down and rubbing it on a clean soft surface, but that didn't help. So I hooked up the crevice tool to our house vacuum system and held the scroll ball next to the opening. With my thumb, I also pressed the ball inward so that a gap appeared which would allow any dirt to exit, while occasionally rolling the ball. In addition I pressed the thumb of my other hand against the intake of the crevice tool to narrow the opening as much as possible. This treatment did the trick! I was happy not to have to return the new mouse.

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The alcohol and cotton swab worked for me. My mouse scroll ball intermittently stops working properly. This time a bunch of gunk came out and after I let the alcohol dry it works perfectly. Thanks all!
The divinechef - find me on youtube!

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I didn't have to use a compressed air can. I just blew very hard a couple of times on the scroll ball and it started working again.

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After trying everything else mentioned here, my top tip for cleaning the scroll ball is with some switch cleaning lubricant - a quick squirt, wipe away the excess and it works straight away.

The can I had lying around was 'Servisol Super 10 Switch Cleaning Lubricant' if you need to get some - does exactly what it says on the tin!

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I tried the 'wiping with a damp cloth' method and the vacuum method. Neither worked. The issue was that I could scroll every direction but down.

So I tried *gently* skimming under the rim around the ball with a toothpick and managed to pull out a few tiny crumbs, fuzz, and whatnot. This finally did the trick.

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Unplug your Mighty Mouse. I use Zeiss lens cleaning wipe for eyeglasses. (Can be bought at Walmarts) Leave it folded up and move it back and forth in both directions for 15 seconds then counter clockwise for another 15 seconds pressing down on the ball. Then open the wipe and repeat again with it open. This is a lint free paper cloth. Has worked every time. You clean your screen & keyboard before throwing it away.

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