re why is my mouse so jumpy ms mouse ecktons ucs byu edu sean eckton writes i have a microsoft serial mouse and am using mouse com was using i think but switched to to see if it was any better vertical motion is nice and smooth but horizontal motion is so bad i sometimes can t click on something because my mouse jumps around i can be moving the mouse to the right with relatively uniform motion and the mouse will move smoothly for a bit then jump to the right then move smoothly for a bit then jump again maybe this time to the left about inch this is crazy i have never had so much trouble with a mouse before anyone have any solutions try this flip your mouse over and open up the cover that holds the mouse ball in place remove the ball and inside you should see probably rollers if any of the rollers have a tiny layer of caked on dirt dust or otherwise unidentifiable scum on them carefully scrape it off with a small knife xacto works great be careful you do not want to gauge the rollers just clean off the dirt put the ball back in put the cover on and there you are i clean a couple of dozen of these every month here another symptom is that when you move the mouse it seems to click along if this doesn t solve your problem at least you have a clean mouse i highly recommend using a proper soft mouse pad and if you are a clean freak place it in your drawer every night or when you don t use it to keep the dust off personally i prefer track balls oh which brings me to another point if your mouse or trackball tracks optically and the sunlight is streaming through the window onto your mouse trackball you may notice that it will stop working if this happens to you close the curtains or blinds or simply shade your pointing device and see if that helps peter goudswaard goudswaa sfu ca preferred pgoudswa cln etc bc ca pgoudswa cue bc ca there s no gift like the present goudswaard s observation
