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10 Ways to Keep Your Gadgets Clean

Trials of the Dead Mighty Mouse Scroll Wheel

If you've gotten used to the joys of the Mighty Mouse scroll wheel, then you know how utterly annoying it is to go to scroll down a page and not have it work. I've done some legwork and attempted a number of cleaning methods to see which one worked the best. Test methods included pressing down on the wheel and scrolling, wiping down the wheel with cleaner, trying to smack whatever might be lodged in there loose by tapping the mouse on my desk, and spraying it with canned air.

• Unfortunately, pressing down on the scroll wheel and scrolling only works for so long. I even thought I might be at risk for pushing the little wheel down into the mouse, never to be heard from again if I pressed any harder!
• No dice for wiping down the wheel with alcohol swabs. Unfortunately cleaning the wheel does not clear whatever is inside.
• Smacking the mouse on my desk to dislodge whatever might have been stuck in the mouse proved more annoying to my officemates than effective.
• The last and winner of the test was the canned air. I use this stuff to clean my keyboard, and it works wonders with the mouse as well.

It's been a number of days since I cleaned my Mighty with the canned air – having sprayed in all visible cracks to ensure my mouse was fresh and clean – and it's still scrolling along like the first day we met.