You can try to clean the mouse ball, if you have that kind of mouse. Just open the bottom and remove the ball, clean it with a soft cloth. Then carefully cleand the sensor inside the mouse with a Q-tip to get the lint off. Put it all back together.

I have a nice mousepad with a small silicon pillow that causes my wrist not to ache, unlike the old one. I open the mouse and scratch the gray stuff off the sensors or whatever they're called about once a week.

What can I say Johnny? [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

Mouse Pad? What's that? Doesn't that mean you would need a small rat aka: mouse in the house?

Don't have one, don't use one, no need to change one.

[img]graemlins/weird_thread.gif[/img]

I don't think I've ever had to since I got my optical mouse. It took me a while to get one which actually worked - my former mouse pad was really shiny and the mouse just didn't work on it. I had to steal/borrow my work one which worked perfectly. :D

<font color=skyblue>For the purpose of preventing further harm to my wrist than has already occurred, I use a mousepad with my optical. The pillow puts my wrist in a comfortable position so it is not strained.

I bought a memory foam pad...it is better than the silicone ones.

As to the question of how often I change one out,,,well...I never thought of that. This one is new, so there will be no need to do so anytime soon,,,but the last one I had lasted five years. </font>

Ok, so your mouse mat got a little dirty and you threw it away?

Ok, here's what you should have done, get a damp cloth and clean your mouse mat off.

Done.


If it's got sometime realy stuck on just scrape the gunk off using a dull knife or simmilar.


Buying new mouse mats, pah.

An optical mouse relies on reflected light to tell it to move. Consequently, a mousing surface that is consistently colored will be much better than a surface with random colors. All a mousepad is giving you is your own consistently colored mousing surface.

I was at a customer in Virginia for the last three days, and my optical mouse worked fine on the desk they gave me to work at, but refused to do *anything* when I used it on a painted black metal surface that my laptop was on. Apparently that surface wasn't reflecting very well...

I also have an oak table that I have to use a mousepad on. It's lightly stained, and the grain lines in the oak are very distinct. Going from the very dark grain to the very light wood produces erratic results... not fun.

So when do you need to replace it? Whenever... [img]smile.gif[/img]

And I also scrape the gunk off the sliding pads every week or so. Usually when I'm on a boring conference call... :D

I replace mine everytime I go someplace and I either see one with a really cool picture or they're giving them away for free.

Right now, I still have the Dell free one that came with the computer.

Don't use a mousepad with my optical mouse. All of mine are funky colors, so it didn't work to well. ;)