How to Make My Mouse Work Properly
Common Mouse Issues
- Mouse Ball Stuck or Hard to Use
- The most common reason for mouse problems is that your mouse ball has lint, debris or hair stuck in the roller and preventing it from moving. This is a common problem that happens particularly to those who don’t use a mouse pad or regularly clean their mouse.
- Mouse Stops Frequently or Skips
- Batteries – A common mistake is replacing worn-out batteries. This uncomplicated task requires you to undo the battery cover and replace the current batteries with a new set.
- Metal surfaces – If there is a large metal surface near your keyboard, mouse or receiver, your wireless receiver will not work properly.
- Obstruction of objects – It is always important to ensure that the mouse and keyboard are in a direct line from the wireless receiver. If there is an object between them such as speakers, this can cause connection problems.
- Plastic lens – The tiny plastic lens on the base of your mouse requires a quick wipe with a damp cloth frequently to keep the mouse running and connected.
- Receiver distance – Has the receiver been moved recently, even by accident? In order for the receiver to work correctly, the keyboard and mouse need to be situated within thirty centimetres from the receiver.
- Surface – Depending on the surface that your mouse is resting on, it is possible that the mouse s not working properly. For the best performance, we suggest using a mousepad rather than glass, reflective or translucent surfaces.
Solutions to Common Mouse Problems
Reboot Your Device
Firstly, try rebooting your desktop, laptop or Mac. While this may not determine why your mouse is having issues, it might begin working again after a reboot. A reboot is often an excellent way out of resolving a problem. However, if this does not work, please see below for some other possible mouse solutions.
Connections
It may be possible that if you have recently moved your laptop or desktop. AS a result, you may have inadvertently loosened the connection to the USB port.
Correct Port
Double-check that your mouse is plugged into the correct port. You may have simply plugged into the wrong port, but at least it is an easy fix.
Mouse Ball Stuck
To clean and remove the debris from the roller, you must move the mouse ball to the lock position on the underside of the mouse. Turn it on an angle to release the ball. Remove the lint with your fingers or a soft cloth. To rid the built-up dirt on the mouse rollers, turn the mouse the right way around. Tap on it so that the loose debris falls out the mouse door hole. There may still be lint stuck in the rollers, remove this carefully with your fingers or a pair of tweezers. Replace the ball back into the mouse by gently relocking the ball once all debris is cleaned.
Mouse TouchPad
Some laptops have a disable button just above the mouse touchpad. It may not be working if this button has been depressed. This may be a case of merely pressing the disable button once for your mouse to start working again. It is important to remember to only push this button once as if you do it twice by mistake, you could deactivate the mouse.
RAM
Insufficient RAM space could be the reason you are experiencing mouse problems. Try turning off some programs running in the background as well as ones you are not using. If this helps, then it may be time to upgrade your machine by installing additional RAM.
Installing RAM is fairly easy, however, you do need to pen the machine to install the additional ram. It may be also that your machine cannot be upgraded further as you already have the maximum amount of RAM installed. If this is the case, you need to do a thorough examination of your computer use. Delete enough applications and data to make your computer run properly or determine if it’s time to purchase a new machine.
Recent Update
A recent software update could be the cause of your mouse connectivity issues. We suggest tin this situation that you restart your machine and hopefully, this rectifies the situation.
Reset Your Mouse
Whether you have recently changed the batteries in your wireless mouse or not, try pressing the reset button on the wireless receiver and on the mouse. Some devices require the use of a pen to depress the button, please be careful when doing so.
Virus, Trojan or Other Form of Malware
A mouse’s poor or lack of function can be due to a malicious program on your machine. Whilst you may have up-to-date malware protection on your machine, no computer can ever be fully safe from malware infection.
Conclusion
If you bring your computer to our Coorparoo workshop, we can remove all traces of malware on your machine and add protection. We will then return it to you in the same condition as before it became infected as well as with your working mouse. We charge $190 for this service which includes cleaning your machine by running two full anti-software programs and installing some virus protection. This job takes about two hours to complete properly.
It may be that even after checking all these issues there is no performance improvement from your mouse. It may be that the device is defective after a long period of use and you will need to purchase a new mouse. Mice are now cheap to purchase and easily available, so this is not a major issue.
This blog was written by the technicians at Affordable Computer Repairs and Service. We are a family run business whose focus is to provide the best possible computer repair service to customers. We are not just expert repairers with affordable prices, we are also a traditional old fashion service with a smile. Contact us today on 3397 1215 or 0409 974 707 for honest and friendly service for all your computer and IT issues.
