• I have cleaned a mouse ball. (95%, 119 votes)
• I have not cleaned a mouse ball. (4%, 6 votes)

I have a whole bag full of old mouse balls. A place I used to work threw out a lot of old mice and I collected the balls, thinking they could be useful for something in the future.

Heavy, smooth, rubber coated, with a uniform size. Some day I will figure out what to do 😁

I was in the meeting when the head sysadmin for a large university dumped a box of mouse balls onto a conference room table.

"You turned down my request for optical mice.
You want to know why trouble tickets take so long and I can't get projects finished?
Here's why. Two hundred mouse balls replaced this quarter, thousands cleaned and serviced.
Every time one of my staff touches a mouse with a ball, it costs twice what a modern ball-less mouse would cost.
Every time you cut my capex, you pay twice that in opex."

A truly epic scene.
He got his budget request.

I still do and you can too!

I use a trackball lol

You can't doomscroll if your mouse doesn't have a scroll wheel.

[Temple Tapping Meme]

Did you know?

In Australia to open the lid for ball holder you had to turn it clockwise, opposite as depicted.

The first mouse balls I cleaned were on the original version of these back in the 1980s. These mice were used on the Blit terminals that originated at Bell Labs.

hackaday.com/tag/depraz-mouse/

qtips Oo oh so quaint 🤣

We would go in with toothpicks, needles or anything pointy enough to scrape the wheels clean, like real little punks!

Fineeeee,
You got me.
But it did it only once and only because it bloody stopped working completely.

Youngsters these days don't know how good they have it.

that reminds me!

brb… cleaning my Trackball

There was a wry email about being circulated it back in the day -

Mouse balls are now available as FRU (FieldReplacement Unit) therefore, if a mouse fails to operate or should it perform erratically, it may need a ball replacement. Because of the delicate nature of this procedure, replacement of mouse balls should only be attempted by properly trained personnel. Before proceeding, determine the type of mouse balls by examining the underside of the mouse. Domestic balls will be larger and harder than foreign balls.

Ball removal procedures differ depending upon the manufacturer of the mouse. Foreign balls can be replaced using the pop off method. Domestic balls are replaced by using the twist-off method.

Mouse balls are not usually static sensitive. However, excessive handling can result in sudden discharge.

Upon completion of ball replacement, the mouse may be used immediately. It is recommended that each replacer have a pair of spare balls for maintaining optimum customer satisfaction. Any customer missing his balls should suspect local personnel of removing these necessary items.

This applies to most millennials too, especially if we were online before 2002 say- when the laser mice started really taking off. I was using Windows 95 in the mid 90s when I was far too young, that Minesweeper game was far too mature for me to be playing.

I liked the weight of those mouse balls, very satisfyingly heavy.

Virtua Cop 2 with a mouse was great, that I miss.

If you performed the depicted activity, make sure you schedule all the appropriate preventive medical examinations for your age.

Flock of Cats 🐈 🐈 🐈 ☀️

2026-09-09 03:08:03

Mastodon/Fedi: The social network for people who have actually cleaned mouse balls 🖱️

My fitst computer mouse cost me 160 DM. To use it with Windows 3.0.

Today you get a much advanced device for that price.

nine times out of ten it wasn't the ball that was dirty, but the build up on the little wheels that transfered movement from the ball to the rotary encoders for the X and Y movement

spent many an hour taking mice apart in the workshop to clean all the little rollers and encoders to save the company a small fortune

we had a stack of mouse boxes in the corner to put the cleaned mice in to make users think they were getting a new one, then bring the box back, to reuse again

ok this is accurate

can confirm

mouse cleaning is still a thing, though thankfully no ball-handling required.

These days, in homes with pets, I find that cat hair can get into the craziest places, and a bit of tweezer work is occasionally required around the LED/sensor lens under the mouse, and any assembly seams.