It never hurts to inspect your hardware.
I had to clean out an *optical* mouse the other day, because
so much material had collected inside, it was actually
preventing the mouse buttons from depressing properly.
One of the plastic surface pieces was binding on the stuff
inside.
The screw holding the mouse together, may be protected by
a sticker. In some cases, the sticker has a cross shaped
pattern in it, making it easier for screwdriver to perforate
the sticker and reach the screw.
Years ago, they used to hide screws under the rubber feet,
but I don't have any mice like that here now. Check for
a sticker instead.
Once the screw is removed, you may be able to separate the
two halves. There could be a "hinge" near one end of the
housing, and the screw holds the other end together. That
only costs them one screw, in terms of the design.
Possible things you may find inside.
1) Dust buildup underneath or along the edge of the buttons.
2) A broken mouse cord. That could make a mouse jump. That
is difficult to inspect for, because there may be no
visible signs of damage.
3) Scroll wheel coated with whatever. Take particular care
here. If you touch the scroll wheel, it can jump out of
place, and all sorts of small pieces fall off it. When I
cleaned up the scroll wheel, it felt like a new mouse.
Dust, hair, and food debris does degrade operation a bit.
3) The optical sensor itself, may be relatively free of
debris. If you want, you can try cleaning the surface
with alcohol and a tissue, as isopropyl won't
hurt it. I didn't need to clean mine, as part of my
last maintenance procedure. The dirt was elsewhere. The
sensor was clean.
Optical mice require not nearly as much care, as the old
rubber ball mice required. I used to clean the rubber ball
mouse at work, on a weekly basis. But if your optical mouse
is mis-behaving, try opening it up, and cleaning out the obvious
cruft. My guess would be, the optical mouse needs to be opened up,
every three to five years or so. Or whenever the buttons begin
to bind, or the scroll wheel feels funny.
To be clear, the optical sensor is a chip. This is an example,
but not the only format. My current optical mouse sensor chip,
looks nothing like this one.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Xerox_Optical_Mouse_Chip.jpg
The chip may have a transparent lens assembly over top of the
chip. You'd be cleaning the outer surface of the lens assembly.
There is no need to take it apart to the level of the chip
itself. Mainly, because it may not be protected as well as
that one in the example is.
HTH,
Paul
