Mighty Mouse Must Die!
Brace yourselves, folks, as this is one writer who is in no mood to praise Apple today. The Mighty Mouse I proudly purchased back in September 2005 is giving me more grief than an ingrown toenail (never had one but I assume it’s unpleasant), and even after having it replaced by Apple it still gives me grief.
Last summer I moaned about how my first Mighty Mouse had given me a huge headache with the abysmal scroll wheel design and its poor quality optical laser, although the latter issue wasn’t one that was bothering me as much as the former.
What am I talking about? The scroll wheel just loves to get clogged up with dirt at some point or other and even after doing the old trick of holding the mouse upside down and frantically scrolling the wheel back and forth with my clean index finger, it still gets clogged up and makes itself virtually unusable—we’re not in the 90s any more, I don’t want to manually use the scroll bar in Firefox.
After my first Mighty Mouse got so clogged up I could no longer clean it, I took a trip down to my local Apple Store (Regent Street, London) where they swiftly replaced it and apologised for the inconvenience. This was all well and good but less than a year later I’m now in the same horrible sinking boat I was in before: the wheel is once again clogged up.
I came to the conclusion that it must just be a bad design. I wash my hands many times throughout the day, sometimes too many, and yet the wheel still eventually gets clogged up with dirt. Now sure, I could keep returning to the Apple store once a year to get my mouse replaced free of charge, but I shouldn’t have had to go back the first time. So what did I do? I took the mouse apart and fixed it myself.
After following a ridiculous guide on Apple’s support page on how to clean the mouse, which followed the same routine I mentioned above, I decided to follow a slightly better guide on CreativeBits which shows how to disassemble the Mighty Mouse and give the ball and its surroundings a good clean. It took a lot of patience, especially trying to cut the base ring without snapping it completely, but I managed to do it and the mouse worked wonderfully afterward.
Well, for all of two months, that is. Yes, just last week I was casually browsing Apple Matters when, you guessed it, the scroll wheel stopped working once more. I tried Apple’s technique of cleaning but this time the ball wasn’t moving at all—I’m guessing there’s either a piece of cheese stuck down there where my little niece mistook it for a real mouse, or one of the pins has popped out.
I now refuse to take this absurd piece of white and grey garbage back to the Apple store to get it replaced again and there’s no chance of me actually using it again—I managed to get so fed up by it that I’ve launched it directly into our recycle bin!
I started to have a think about how Apple could solve this problem, although no doubt the cost of the already over-priced Mighty Mouse will surely increase further. Considering the Mighty Mouse doesn’t actually have any movable parts, other than the scroll wheel, why doesn’t Apple introduce a touch pad in the middle of the mouse, similar to that found on the iPod or a MacBook, and have that act as a scroll wheel? I’d be happy to pay slightly more for this, knowing that something as simple as dirt won’t be clogging it up and removing one of the device’s main functions.
My point in this article is to see how many others out there are having the same trouble I’ve had. After browsing a few webpages I’ve come across comments whereby users have also had trouble with the pathetic little scroll wheel and have, as such, thrown the device in the bin. Considering Apple now ships the entire iMac range with a Mighty Mouse, I know that a large majority of folks out there must own one.
Feel free to vote in the poll below and leave a comment telling us of your experiences, good or bad. If you’re unhappy with your Mighty Mouse, perhaps you’ve got a valid suggestion on how to rectify the problem once and for all? Let us know.
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Comments
Make sure the computer is not in a dusty room, make sure the computer is not directly under an HVAC vent; dust the computer table at least once a week, don’t eat snacks or meals while using the Mac, and wash your hands before using the Mac if you have been gardening, tinkering with the car, cleaning house, wrestling with the dog, or brushing the cat.
Why on earth should we have to do these things?! It’s Apple’s job to make good products, not our job to compensate for them. These products are going to be put in non-perfect situations. They should be equipped to deal with them.
Make sure the computer is not in a dusty room, make sure the computer is not directly under an HVAC vent; dust the computer table at least once a week, don’t eat snacks or meals while using the Mac, and wash your hands before using the Mac if you have been gardening, tinkering with the car, cleaning house, wrestling with the dog, or brushing the cat.
I appreciate you’re sticking up for Apple here, I do, but as Ben Hall has said, why should I have to do all of these things just to allow my mouse to function properly? I never had to do this with a Logitech DiNovo set I’ve had for three years, I’ve never had to do it with a MS mouse I’ve had for 2 years (which I’m forced to use now), so why should I do it with Apple’s Mighty Mouse? What you’re basically asking of me is to have my Mac and Mighty Mouse in an air tight room whilst wearing a protective PVC uniform.
I loved that MM at first. The scroll nipple was awesome. I was especially fond of the fine grit that allowed super fast scrolling through long web pages.
But it got dirty. Too quickly and too easily. And to make matters worse, I bought the wireless version. Same problem. And the batteries die pretty quickly.
But then I tried what I feel is the best mouse I’ve ever touched: Logitech’s VX Revolution. Without installing the medium-rated software, it works out of the box with 7 active buttons + the innovative, high-quality scroll wheel. You can use it with ‘grit’ or you can spin it freely, where it’s basically like a flywheel and spins for quite some time.
I don’t know what they did to engineer this wireless mouse, but it’s light. One battery has lasted several months now. The USB Receiver is tiny and it recognizes the mouse instantly. No more bluetooth snags.
I really can’t say enough about this mouse. It’s a joy to use. The scroll wheel is METAL with a rubber strip that just reeks of quality and substance. It feels wonderful in your hand. You’ll just spin that wheel over and over, just for kicks.
I LOVE Apple stuff and had high hopes for that MM. But until Apple redesigns it, the Logitech has it beat by a mile.
my little brother was complaining that the mouse wasn’t any good for games (in boot camp) because it was a one-button mouse.
The MM is TERRIBLE for games, even if you know how to enable multi-button functionality. The reaction time on it sucks ASS. There is no tactile sensation to the right-button, and you have to lift your fingers to switch from left or right. It’s one thing to do this when you’re using context menus, quite another when you’re in a frag fest against twenty grunts.
In my view, the problem with the Mighty Mouse is it tries to cater to people with mutually exlusive needs.
Here’s the thing. There is nothing requiring those who only want to use a single-button on the mouse from using that single button. You can either ignore the right button or disable it. Hiding it in a solid case and making the second button a pain to use for those who wish to use it is the worst of all possible solutions.
I agree that if they want to stick with the single-button paradigm (and I don’t honestly think they do), then they should just make two different mice. It’s not exactly unheard of to manufacture two different versions of a similar product.
Maybe the writer should follow these simple rules: Make sure the computer is not in a dusty room, make sure the computer is not directly under an HVAC vent; dust the computer table at least once a week, don’t eat snacks or meals while using the Mac, and wash your hands before using the Mac if you have been gardening, tinkering with the car, cleaning house, wrestling with the dog, or brushing the cat.
In other words, the only people who should use Macs are surgeons and astronauts.
Quite. As far as I know, no-one has yet claimed blood or space dust are causing nipple jams. They are the last two things to try, however.
I agree with you about the games, my point though was that he hadn’t even realised it was a 2 button mouse. That is, apple’ve got half of what they were trying to achieve - a mouse you can ship with all macs that novices won’t have to spare a second thought for, and which less novicey people can use. Unfortunately, astronauts notwithstanding, less novicey people can’t use the MM because it’s crap. And novicey people with a scrolling bent can’t use it because unless they encase it in frozen carbonite the scrolling ceases to work.
Truly not Apple’s finest product.
Oh and they cost far too much.
And oh lord has anyone mentioned the abomination known as those hair-trigger side buttons? The right mouse button requires you to lift your fingers to hit it, but the side buttons click when you breath on them wrong. That thing’s more sensitive than a molar after a root canal.
See. That’s what happens when you look for a smart-alec solution to a problem.
Could Apple just make a standard two button mouse with scroll wheel? No, no, no! They had to go and make something they could still fool the mono-mousing mac-minions into believing was still a one button mouse. If there’s a hard solution to a problem, Apple will be there. It’s the price of wearing the “innovative” badge.
Reminds me of the old story about how NASA spent zillions inventing a pen to work in zero gravity, whereas the Russians simply used pencils.
I am amazed at how many people objected to my suggestions for rudimentary personal hygiene and basic housekeeping. No wonder your mice don’t work.
What am I supposed to take away from this? If a person owns a Mac, don’t go to their house for dinner if you value your life?
Real life includes dirt.
OK, OK, it gets clogged up.
But so do all other mice, admitedly less often.
But is this slight problem not worth the effort, since MM gives us HORIZONTAL SCROLLING ?
How oftend do I swear after a large Excel spreadsheet on a colleague’s PC an no Mighty Mouse ! I actually have to drag the horizontal scroolbar !
Eviva Mighty Mouse !
Rup
Yes quite we can either have horizontal scrolling or a mouse that actually works. Quite.
Rup,
Microsoft and Logitech have produced mice that scroll horizontally since at least 2003. I’ve been using Microsoft’s Intellimouse Explorer 2.0 for a little over 4 years now. (I think it was the first MS mouse to implement the feature.) Pretty much any mouse sold by Logitech or MS nowadays utilizes a 4-direction scroll wheel.
Here’s one for less than 10 bucks.
If anyone is looking for a replacement mouse, I recommend checking out Logitech’s Revolution. Easily among the best I’ve used. If Logitech ever decides to make one that fits comfortably in my ape-like “banana hands” I’ll jump on it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately it’s too narrow for me.
I second the “Apple didn’t invent horizontal scrolling” comment. While I don’t think the horizontal scrolling works quite as well on other mice, at least not in the ones I’ve used, the other crap-ola hassle of dealing with the MM isn’t worth it at all.