this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2024
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PC Master Race
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It looks like it has a sensor and three white "balls" that the trackball sits on.
I do clean those, and they never have gunk built up on them (maybe I clean them too often?), but I only wipe them clean without using isopropyl alcohol or anything like that. Maybe I should try that?
Absolutely use isopropyl alcohol!
Tried with isopropyl alcohol, and it feels worse :( Like rolling a wooden ball on more wood.
Kensington says to use Vaseline to lube the ball. I can only imagine that would gum things up, no?
When reading your post, I started thinking of silicone lubricants. Have you tried anything like that? Ideally, you would only lubricate the parts that come into contact with the ball.
That might be an idea! I'll see if that's safe to do. 👍
I would try PTFE. Some people report using the grease from your nose / face works well, but that's a bit icky for me. You don't want to use a lubricant that will make the ball too slippery or you won't be able to manipulate it with your fingers. And you don't something thick that will gunk up. PTFE is safe for electronics, very thin, and safe to touch at room temperatures. It gets toxic at a very high temp (like 500F or something). I would put it on a cloth and rub all moving parts with it. Add it in small amounts gradually and see if the scratchy "woody" feeling improves.
What make and model is it?
I've got a Protoarc EM01 as my daily driver. An EM04 as a spare, but it's not as good :(
I would search YouTube for a video where someone completely disassembles one that's similar to yours and see if you can learn more about it. I'm not suggesting you take yours apart. But it might show you if there's a potential fix for it.
My boss uses a trackball mouse, but it's a Logitech. I am not a fan of Logitech, personally. Their stuff always breaks on me after about 12-18 months.
So, it looks like this may be a hardware issue with this particular model.
I'm hoping to find an alternative trackball mouse with all of my feature requests, as I don't want to be trying to fix something that wasn't designed to work well.