Cleaning the Scroll Ball of Your Apple Mouse
Cleaning the Scroll Ball of Your Apple Mouse – I finally figured out the best and quickest method – rubbing alcohol.
I scored a 24″ previous generation iMac on CraigsList about a month ago that came with an Apple Mouse and Keyboard. From day 1 the mouse would once in a while scroll up but never scroll in any other direction. This was my first Apple mouse and figured that I was not doing something right so I didn’t mess with it.
I finally got fed up with it and tried blowing it out with my air compressor. I tried the old “Press down on it hard and try to scroll” with no luck. Then I remembered the old school method of cleaning the wheels on the old ball mice and it was with a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol.
I did a quick search and saw in the comments of a thread that someone else used alcohol as well. I Tired it myself and it worked!
This is what I did:
- Unplugged the mouse from the computer
- Got some tissue paper and folded it over a few times to make it thick
- I then dowsed the tissue paper with rubbing alcohol until it was saturated
- I turned the mouse upside down and rubbed the scroll ball in a circular motion and back and forth for about a minute
After doing these steps I looked at the tissue paper and sure enough some gunk came out. I plugged it back into my computer and it was nice and peppy!
Note: Some people mentioned using water as opposed to the rubbing alcohol but I think the rubbing alcohol is better because it will evaporate quicker.
Technorati: Apple, iMac, Apple Mouse, Scroll Bar, Tips and Tricks
