Mouse won't work on mousepad after rinsing

crazychicken

Platinum Member
Jan 20, 2001
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I have kind of a fabric/nylon mouse pad (one of the ones with the attached wrist rest). It has been fine for years. A few days ago I rinsed it off in cold water and kind of rubbed it with my hand to get some grime off of it. It dried very quickly. Ever since, when I put the mouse on it it does not work AT ALL (this was several days ago, so it is certainly dry). It is like I have unplugged the mouse. Then I move the mouse to a different surface and it works fine.

Has anyone ever heard of anything like this?

David
 

C1

Platinum Member
Feb 21, 2008
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LED mice dont work well on certain surfaces. To work best, they seem to require some kind of reflectivity as well as a patterned surface (printed or embossed). Most likely, cleaning the pad modified one of those attributes. Time for a new pad.

PS: You might also also want to remove the ball from the mouse and clean the internal optical pickups/windows. Might result in a pleasant surprise.
 
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birthdaymonkey

Golden Member
Oct 4, 2010
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PS: You might also also want to remove the ball from the mouse and clean the internal optical pickups/windows. Might result in a pleasant surprise.

Hold the phone... optical mice have balls? Or am I not getting a nostalgic joke?
 

crazychicken

Platinum Member
Jan 20, 2001
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I'm not sure where I got the idea, but I rubbed baby powder on the mouse pad and it is working perfectly again. Very, very strange.
 

bruceb

Diamond Member
Aug 20, 2004
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I have a Logitech LX-7 wireless laser mouse and I just run it on a piece on white poster board paper. Works fine that way.