I once made this very same erroneous assumption myself, however in my defence I was about 12 at the time. And I didn't attempt to use super glue to fix it.

Took apart the mouse on the very expensive new family PC and after a bit of experimental poking, managed to break one of the o-rings.

Quietly shitting myself, I reassembled and whilst it seemed to work, was anticipating the bollocking to come.

Penny only dropped when the o-ring re-grew.

> Took apart the mouse on the very expensive new family PC

I hope no one told a tail on you...

Yup. This. I was actually scared for a sec that I broke it. And it does look like some rubber o-ring.

(and no, I don't miss that either).

I do remember quite clearly the ball-cleaning sessions I used to have with my Microsoft Mouse. It was quite easy to tell when it needed cleaning too : the movement started getting bumpy because something was sticking to the ball.

It was the heyday of mouse mats as well - they improved ball movement.

Thank $deity for wireless laser mice. Just have to blow on it every now and then to dislodge some minuscule piece of dust that makes the pointer not work properly.

When I did student support, we'd frequently find someone had gone into one of the labs and removed several (or all) of the balls from the computer mice in that lab. As the mice were cheap, we just superglued the ball cover in place and replace them when needed. Not very environment friendly, but it was either that or explain to the lecturer who had booked the lab why their students could not use the mice.

The funny thing is that every student we caught doing this appeared to think they were the first. We were dealing with this regularly.

For optical mice: clear tape over the sensor. At least that can be removed easily, so it is a quick fix (in contrast to replacing mouse balls).

Some years back the company I worked for at the time lost the contract to supply PCs to a local further education college.

We were told it was down to the fact that one of our competitors offered a 'College Grade Mouse' i.e. you needed a special tool to open the ball cover. Apparently the size to weight ratio of the balls made them excellent for throwing at people.

At the FE/HE college I worked at we used to put U-bolts in the back of the case and thread all peripheral leads through them. This was specifically aimed at mouse leads so the RM serial mice with steel ball bearings didn't get stolen - they were about £60 each at the time. The mouse traps were glued shut. Pain in the posterior for maintenance but we were secure!

I was less than happy one day when I noted that the little darlings had decided to cut the cables to steal the mice - most of them were electronics students and one had worked out they could just solder the leads back together ... doh!

Laser mice?

Yeah, until you are oh-so-bloody-stilish as a mate from university, who got imself a nice clean clear glass desk. Looked bloody great, but the optical mice don't work.

It still happens occasionally (at least prior to the pandemic) with certain brands of hotel who have such glass desks in their rooms when you're on a business trip and trying to use your laptop and mouse on the desk.

Still at least it does finally give a use for those complimentary magazines of local "attractions" etc that they also tend to dump in the room too...

Or the muppets who (try to) use red mouse mats

Blimey, is it already time to mention [1]this (https://forums.theregister.com/forum/containing/3442559) again?

[1] https://forums.theregister.com/forum/containing/3442559

Regular problem in the computer labs at the Uni I worked at. I had a well practiced technique of scraping off the crud with my Leatherman blade when I found a mouse which wasn't moving properly.

Certainly don't miss having to do that and very glad optical mice took over.

Shit, flashbacks to mouse cleaning days..

Actually it hasn't gone fully away since I'm a trackball user but LED+motion sensors made the cleaning a much easier thing.

Not so much the internal but external crud.

Once had the semi regular pleasure of dealing with a Colleague that had the worlds sweatiest mits.

I "sourced" a few spare mice and gingerly swapped the rodent out when any issues were reported.

Given the current climate, a BNC suit and bio hazard team would be called in for these :)

I was disciplined (nearly lost the job) when I had a young customer of the female persuasion come to my counter with a faulty mouse she had bough a week earlier.

I knew about the crud issue.

I (probably 17 at the time) confidently opened the little cover and popped out the weighted ball - reaching for the alcohol and a plastic scraper for the contacts

I made the mistake of trying to engage her (she was standing in front of me, and I was trying to show her how to do this herself) when I said -

'Ah mice - the get tired of having their balls rubbed on the desk'

There was an awkward silence.

The floor manager heard me.... riot act read. My only defense was that I could have thought of a better chat up line if I had done it on purpose!

that was.... close

(never mind the keyboard, hot tea expelled though the nostrils is no fun. At. All. )

I can remember my first mouse too - a Genius mouse, one of those square boxy mice.

It did the job jolly well. Including picking up crud as well.

I miss it. It had character.

Not sure where it wandered off to...

We bought my aged mother a laptop who struggled with it. We gave her a fish tank screen saver, so we had fish swimming around.

I came in one day to find her with a watering can in hand and she asked "I thought the water might needed topping up - which hole is it?".

A related one from my early years of IT Support. Dismantled a laptop that needed a clean. Found all the fluff that builds up next to a laptop fan. Thought it was an air filter.

Ever had to deal with a situation for which the only solution was a new hardware and a pack of wet wipes?

Not a mouse but a whole laptop! It came back from the user in a state where a hazmat suit would have been desirable before handling it. They have been given a warning that if the replacement is treated the same way they may be charged if it fails.