h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

>>Or the mouse has mysteriously mutated from an optical to a ball-operated one.<<

That's exactly what happened to mine. I had a good working optical mouse - until my son had problems with his mouse, not being fast enough for the games he was palying, so we exchanged them. Well, not very surprisingly, the mouse didn't work for anything at all, so i gave him money and told him to buy me a new optical mouse ( my husband has a logitech one -had it for years now). Ok, my son came back, with the mouse and a mousepad, and it cost less than I had expected. I plugged the new mouse in and never realosed that it's not an optical mouse. I guess it measn I'll have to buy a new mouse in the foreseeable future Like az, I'm surprised that you can still buy the ball variant.

I don't have a . I have an ageing laptop with a touchpad - must have had it around 5 years now - which still works fine. Is this unusual?

RF

Can't believe folks buy new mice. I got a new one with this pooter when it came 5 or 6 years ago, and the previous mouse is languishing on a shelf, as sprightly as ever but unemployed.

Cheaper to get a carpet mousepad than an optic rodent, I'd expect; they really keep the grunge away (just had a scratch at my rollers, nothing there to clean).

Well I finally got an optical mouse (perhaps I ought to put it back in its box every time after use, and plug the crummy old mouse back in, to prevent future theft)

Anyway, it's like a new lease on life. I had a test game of patience while waiting for my browser to open and I could have sworn the mouse was moving the cards before I'd even noticed the openings for them.

My ball-mouse still works perfectly well. There's nothing wrong with a ball mouse as long as you clean it regularly.

But an optical mouse doesn't cost much more than a ball mouse

Last time I looked, the cheapest ball mouse was €10 while the cheapest optical one was about €70. But I admit that there's very little reason not to buy an optical one.

Ok, looks as if there's a huge difference in price in Ireland - that would convince me, too. It's maybe a difference of 5.00 to 10.00 € here, dpeneding where you go to buy them, so it's not really such a big deal.

This one cost €5.99. The ball one was perfectly clean. It doesn't get used much at home, and I'd cleaned it loads of times lately, but it didn't get any the better for it. I also cleaned the mouse pad and rubbed the surfaces of ball and pad with a dry cloth. In the end I gave up and I'm very pleased with my new mouse.

Media Markt ? That's where we usually buy ours.

70€ for a mouse!

Mine cost about 12€ a couple of years ago - have noticed they've gone down in price since then.

az

"I also cleaned the mouse pad and rubbed the surfaces of ball and pad"

The ball never needs cleaning. If you scratch the thin bars (rollers) inside the mouse with your fingernail (once you've taken the ball out) and you feel a ridge in the middle of each, that is what you have to remove. That's a build-up of gunge, which may resist at first, but will come away nicely if you persist.

OR, you could just splash out for a cool and groovy looking optic mouse that doesn't need you to do any of that shit and will last almost forever and also work on any and all surfaces.

Scratch the thin bars with my fingernails and all that??? For a 4€ mouse that is just going to give me trouble again a short time afterwards? I rather don't think so.

Do you guys also keep playing your vinyl records?

az

You amaze me. Nothing personal, but that amazes me.