11
votes
Time for a new mouse?
I've been having intermittent problems with selecting text. I'm not sure which software it is in, but it is certainly in Slack and IntelliJ. The text I select will often/sometimes not stay selected once I lift my finger up. It will take several times to make the selection last, sometimes swiping in a different direction.
Is it my mouse or the software?
My mouse in made by Inland, model RTM098( J10 ). Probably very old.
There's a good chance your mouse is 'double clicking' when you release the button, the switches under the mouse buttons may need to be cleaned or lubed or replaced. It happens to my Logitech mice from time to time. I don't recommend this but giving it a good smack against the desk sometimes fixes it for me temporarily.
This is the issue I'm facing with my G305, so I'm currently deciding whether to just bite the bullet on a new unit or to source new switches from AliExpress and try my hand at soldering.
Does anyone have recommendations for repairable mice? I'd rather not get looped into the "waste the entire product because a switch failed" cycle.
Ploopy is the only thing that comes to mind. Aside from trackballs, they have an actual mouse design:
https://ploopy.co/mouse
A friend of mine ordered one and let me use it for a bit. The 3D printed shell was very obviously 3D printed. It didn't have any glaring defects, but you could see and feel the layer lines. Overall, it was a little unpleasant looking and feeling. Not as nice as a typical "premium" plastic mouse.
Functionally though, it worked great for general use and playing games. It was definitely a mouse.
That friend later 3D printed their own shell, and sanded and painted it. That turned out great, and made the mouse look and feel much nicer.
As much as I'd like to support an open source project like that, I can't justify the cost. I originally got my G305 because of its low latency wireless connection and it was listed for a compelling sale price, and it looks like this one doesn't target low latency or affordability :/
Yeah, the worst part about hobbyist hardware is the hobbyist price tag 😄
It's wired, so it's low latency by default. It also uses a high-end gaming sensor (Pixart PMW3360), if that's something you care about.
Ploopy is great! I don't have the mouse, but I have two of their trackballs and their recently released trackpad. I know most people won't care about this but being able to program the firmware has been really nice (especially for the trackpad) and they're good about providing post-purchase support if it's required.
I can't speak for the G305 in particular, but Logitech mice in general are about as good as you could plausibly get on the repairability front. The generalized procedure is "unscrew the case, desolder the malfunctioning component, solder in a replacement"—and that's going to be the procedure for something like a Ploopy, too. (Ploopy makes it easier to source replacement switches by having open parts lists, but to be honest, you probably don't want to replace Logitech switches 1:1—the OEM ones are, obviously, pretty bad, and when you're not trying to supply a whole manufacturing line, much better switches are very cheap.)
If you're not comfortable with soldering, there's basically no electronic repair above the level of swapping modular components you'll be able to do. And if you want to get comfortable with soldering, mouse switch replacements are one of the easiest things you can do: the pins are through-hole and enormous, and you can get very quick feedback on if your fix worked.
The only caveat I would add is that the boards you'd be working on are tiny and not easy to mount with helping hands or a board clamp. The absolute best thing to work on to build proficiency is some kind of through-hole PCB kit like Radio Shack used to sell like a digital clock or something, but those are hard to find since RS but the dust. I don't even think iFixit sells stuff like that, but I could be wrong.
Thanks for your reply, my only soldering experience has been with XLR cables but you've given me some confidence to repair it myself. I assume Pinecil v2 is still the recommended budget solution?
Oh, I'm a terrible person to give advice about that, I'm afraid. I inherited a pro-quality soldering station from my electrical engineer grandfather, and learned the basics from my dad when I was—well, too young to be breathing flux fumes, anyway. =P
Ifixit has a general dissasembly guide for the G305, and switch replacement guides for other models. (To the best of my knowledge, all Logitech mice use electromechanically compatible microswitches, but that would be something to try to confirm before ordering anything.) Ifixit recommends this thing for the latter, which at a quick spec comparison is pretty comparable to the Pincecil V2, so the Pinecil will most probably work fine. If you're shopping around for irons, for a task like this one, more watts will always help—the big pins and pads make an excellent heatsink, and with too little power, you may struggle to get things hot enough to connect well.
My current mouse, the Zaopin Z2, markets itself partially on the fact that the switches are swappable with no solder. The mouse is one of the numerous budget, high spec gaming mice that have been appearing in the last few years. I got it after my g305 started having issues.
You can replace the switches on the G305. You used to be able to get tactile nonclicky replacements that I think should be the standard personally.
I agree with Jambo, this is almost certainly a case of the microswitch under the mouse button double clicking in a way that wasn't obvious. I've had this happen before in a couple of mice and I've even soldered in replacement switches, but I am not going to tell you with a straight face that it is worth the effort unless you are seriously attached to this mouse.
lol..time to get a new mouse then. No screws on my current mouse, I would have to pry/break it open.
They are often under the feet of the mouse. The ones that are made of the slippery material. Those are basically stickers.
For main stream mouse you can sometimes get replacements. In your case a new mouse might be in order.
@BeanBurrito
If you decide to open up the mouse, you could also try cleaning the metal contacts with 99% isopropyl using q tips. I've "fixed" a few of my Logitech mice that developed unreliable clicks this way and got to use my favorite mice long after they've been discontinued.
@BeanBurrito
If you can't find replacement feet for your mouse, you could buy a sheet of PTFE and cut out the shapes you need yourself. You can also buy PTFE pre-cut into little dots for a "universal" fit, but I've personally never used those.
I'm not sure how we'd diagnose that over the web, but the simplest test would be to try a different mouse and see if you can reproduce the issue. I have a super-cheap and super-old wired USB mouse I keep with all my random cables and things just in case. If you don't have an extra lying around, maybe ask around and see if you can borrow one from a friend.
This is likely problem in the switch in the mouse. Over time it develops the thing called "bounce" in electronics - basically false read of the state, thus registering more than one actual click that you made.
You could replace your mouse or if you are ok with it, you can dismantle it and buy new switch(es) and desolder old ones and put new ones in their place. If you are not experienced in (de)soldering, new mouse is better option.
There is also third option - you may be able to disassemble the actual switch while it is still soldered in. This way you can get to inner metal parts of the switch and you can swap them out for new ones from new sacrificial switch.
I've seen both methods successfully done.
If it's a cheap mouse, just get a new one.
If you're feeling driven, then some tests you can do are:
In my experience, the buttons are the first to go. In the case of many-button mice, it's a two-edged sword. On the one hand, you have additional buttons you can remap to when one breaks. On the other hand, having so many buttons means odds are high that one of them will break down soon. My current mouse is hardly a year old, and one of the main buttons sometimes misbehaves.
You might get it working with a cleaning (possibly with a chemical of some kind), but usually the job will require some soldering, and the average person doesn't have a soldering iron.
I love my 3S but the new "bolt" wireless is not as reliable as the older unifying receivers. Not sure what they did but on multiple computers if I switch the connection on my mouse before the computer has fully started I need to re-plug the dongle.
They also made a bunch of settings that used to live on the mouse software based compared to earlier MX models. Which is annoying when dealing with corporate laptops with limited install rights.
I am an MX518 fan myself and when they made the remake of the old classic I bought three of them so I should be good for the next 20 years.
Next to impossible to tell for anyone here. If you are unsure about getting a new mouse either try it on a different computer if possible or borrow a mouse from someone and use that on your computer. Ideally you do both so you can be fairly sure what issue you actually need to tackle.