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From: russ@oakhill.UUCP (Russell Schwausch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Broken mouse...can it be fixed?
Message-ID: <979@oakhill.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 11-Sep-87 11:49:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: oakhill.979
Posted: Fri Sep 11 11:49:29 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Sep-87 18:20:23 EDT
Reply-To: russ@oakhill.UUCP (Russell Schwausch)
Organization: Motorola Inc. Austin, Tx
Lines: 56
Keywords: Mouse, Connections, Pin-outs, Broken

In article <3796@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> graifer@net1.UUCP (Dan Graifer) writes:
>>...The simple way is to disassemble the mouse...
>
>So how do you do this?  I've tried removing the screw at the center bottom
>of the underside.  But it wouldn't open.  Do I have to peel off the serial
>number sticker to expose more screws?  I didn't pry very hard, as I wasn't
>sure and I didn't want to break the case.
>
>Thanks in advance...
>                              Dan Graifer
>                              graifer@net1.UCSD.EDU

No, you don't have to peel anything.
Warning! You can break your mouse if you force things.
Yes, the mouse can be taken apart if you are careful.  I have done it.

Here's the trick.

After removing the screw at the bottom of the mouse, pry the top and bottom
of the housing apart just a LITTLE bit, less than 1/4 inch.
(If you try to lift the top more than about 1/4 inch you will BREAK OFF some
plastic tabs in the mouse and it will die a horrible death.)
Now push the top housing toward the strain relief. I said gently!
The top housing will pop free. Once you get one apart you can see how things
work, clean the mouse's feet, oops rollers, and put it back together using 
the same procedure in reverse.

This is the procedure for the newer Mac and Mac + mice with only one screw
located at the opposite end of the mouse from the strain relief.
I don't know anything about the older mice with two screws near the
strain relief or the ADB mice on Mac SE's or Mac II's.

By the way, I had a wire break on my mouse too. I opened the mouse, carefully
slid the strain relief up the cable a couple of inches, slit open the cable,
patched the broken wire with a half inch splice, closed things back up, and
saved myself about $70 to $90. If this becomes a common failure mode, it would
be nice for Apple to make available a replacement cable. The only replacement
part currently available for the mouse is the ball. Geez, what are people doing
to their mice, dragging them down the street behind their cars, using them on
concrete desks, taking the ball out and playing with it, or what??? Is there
an undocumented feature concerning the mouse ball that I don't know about?
Seriously folks, the most obvious point of failure in a mouse seems to me to
be metal fatigue in the cable and $70+ to fix a broken wire seems a lot like
the Air Force paying hundreds of dollars for screws and diodes and such.
So do us Mac fanatics right and give us genuine Apple replacement parts so
we don't have to turn into hardware hackers ... disgusting.

This has been part 14 of "As The Mouse Rolls". Tune in next week and hear
the keyboard say "Keep your fingers off my ... ".

-- 
Russell Schwausch, Motorola Inc., OakHill, Tx. (A suburb of Austin)
UUCP: {harvard,ihnp4,seismo,gatech,nbires}..!ut-sally!oakhill!russ
Ma Bell: (512)440-2426

It's a ticket agent, it's a fare collector, no ... it's SUPERCONDUCTORchan