How to clean a Mighty Mouse.
For any other Mac owners out there who suffer with a blocked scrolling ball on their Mighty Mouse I feel your pain. Maybe I can help. After googling the problem I found initially there was the Apple recommended dab it with a damp cloth nonsense which was getting me nowhere fast, have they never surfed the web while eating a box of Krispy Kreams! In polar opposition I found a bunch of frightening alcohol bath concoctions that required taking the mouse apart and gluing it back together, placing it in a plastic bag full of alcohol and spinning it around. I considered this for about five minutes but I decided there must be a better way. I am both lazy and hate super-glue, I think it’s a myth to be perfectly honest, I don’t think I’ve ever successfully stuck anything together with the stuff except my fingers.
I digress, after much more searching through google with quote marks in different places and in many various different iterations I eventually found an article entitled How to clean your Mighty Mouse without taking it apart. Perfect? The technique requires a craft knife and a piece of sello-tape. Both of which I had sitting on my desk, perfect! As you will see the procedure pretty much comes down to threading a thin piece of tape through the scroll-ball and flossing your mouse. Well it took me forever to thread the thing and after a good flossing everything seemed to start working again. So off I went to bed happy in the knowledge I was now able to scroll my mouse 360°, the way Steve Jobs had intended. This morning however as I came to write this post recommending this article my scroll wheel suddenly and inexplicably jammed again, worse than ever. Boo. I don’t think it’s a reflection on Brendan’s technique but more of a reflection on the cack handed twit trying to execute these feats of manual dexterity. Anyway, I began googling once again and found some messageboard threads that recommended a baby wipe flat down on a table then push down so the mouse ball goes inside and roll the thing around like crazy. Well this seems to be holding up very well. Hoorah! Baby wipes, is there nothing they can’t do. They are like gaffer tape for new parents.
I just recently got done designing the layout for