Tutorials - Fixing a sticky non-optical (ball) mouse
You may often find that your mouse pointer 'sticks' when using the mouse and refuses to move either temporarily or permanently. We aim to give some possible solutions here for the non-optical variety of mouse.
First make sure that your mouse is plugged into your computer properly, and in the right port, which in the case of PS/2 mice where you have two round ports next to each other is the 'green' port, where the keyboard is the purple one. Check that it is plugged in and give the plug a gentle push if it is, to ensure that it is in properly.
If you have made sure that the connection is correctly made at the back of your PC, then you just might have to reboot for the computer to correctly recognise the mouse again, depending on the operating system. This is not usually necessary in the majority of cases though.
Because the mouse ball itself gets a lot of grinding about it is quite common for the wheels inside the mouse that recognise when you are moving it to become clogged with a sheet of ground-off mouse ball. This clogging can cause the mouse to 'stick' in certain positions.
The next step is probably best done with the mouse disconnected from the computer, which you can do without having to turn it off.
When you disconnect the mouse it is sometimes worth checking (if your mouse has a round plug, or a D-shaped plug) that the pins in the middle of the plug are all straight. They should point straight at you when you look at the plug end-on.
Generally on the bottom of the mouse there is a circular disc with some arrows on it which you can use to remove the ball. The arrows tend to point in the direction you need to turn the disc. So, gently turn the disc in the direction indicated and it should come loose.
Now you can remove the ball. The easiest way is to just turn the mouse upside-down, and let it drop out. Be careful though, as it will try and get away. Don't lose it.
With the ball removed from the mouse, you should be able to look into the hole it came from and see three rollers at the edge of that hole. These rollers may have a milimetre or more of grey gunk on them if your mouse is misbehaving because its innards are dirty. You'll need to remove this gunk.
At this point, you can remove the gunk by pulling gently at it with a small pair of pliers, tweezers, or even by gently pressing at the side of each bit of gunk to work it loose from the rollers, and then pulling it away with your fingers. You'll need to move all of the rollers around a full rotation and repeat until they are completely, or at least very nearly free of the gunk to sort it out.
Once you have removed the gunk, replace the ball, and close the cover by putting it in place by lining up the sections at the side of the ball-hole with the clips on the disc you removed earlier, and then turn the disc in the opposite direction to the arrows in order to close it up again. Of course you'll need to plug the mouse back in to the appropriate place, but then you're done!
If that has failed, one more common fault is that the end of the wire coming from the mouse itself has broken, and if that is the case, it is unfortunately probably a bit too fiddly or difficult for a non-expert to fix, or continue to use, as you would have to hold the cable in a particular position for the mouse to function. You are welcome to try, however, purely for fun of course.
You can sometimes determine if this is the cause of your mouse problems by wrapping the cable around your fingers or hand so that it is held gently to the left or right where the cable leaves the mouse. This will sometimes fix the problem for a while.
If you still have problems, and you have a round or D-shaped plug on your mouse, and you can see the pins on it, but you also see a metal spot in the plug which is about the size of the head of those pins, it may already be too late to fix, because a pin might already be broken, so refer to a technical person. A good rule of thumb is that a round-plugged mouse should have six metal pins, and one plastic one, and a D-shaped plug should have nine pins on it.
If any are bent out of place, then straightening them and plugging the mouse back in may fix things. Be very careful if you attempt to straighten the pins, because breaking them will mean you definitely need a technical person to get you a new mouse. It's probably best left to them if one of the pins is bent.