We often find ,some time after buying a new mouse (the computer sort, not the little squeaky rodents) that the motion of the cursor on the screen becomes jerky, unpredictable and appears to have little relationship with where we think we are moving the mouse.

Quite a lot of people put up with this for some time, cursing and swearing in desperation, then eventually they go out and buy a new mouse, only to have the same thing happen within a few months.

The major cause of this problem is colic. That’s right, colic.

"Eh?" I hear you ask, "What’s he talking about? Colic in a mechanical device - I don’t believe it"

Well - not quite colic but certainly a belly full of stuff that shouldn’t be there.

Seriously, the major cause of jerky cursor movement is lint, caught up in the innards of your mouse. It is quite easy to remove and you should give your mouse’s innards a clean at least every couple of months to remove it.

Steps for removing the lint accumulation from inside your mouse:

1. Turn your mouse upside down so his little ball is on top. You will see around the ball a circular plate (if you are really interested, its technical name is an escutcheon). This plate can be removed so that you can take out the ball.
   Most mice (mouses?) have a plate that is removed by rotating it anticlockwise but some have other removal methods, eg. Push and slide. (removal method is usually shown on the plate)


2. Remove the circular plate and then turn the mouse over and let the ball fall into your hand. Put the plate and the ball somewhere where you can find it in a few minutes time.


3. Look inside the mouse. You will see 3 rollers: generally, two longish thin ones and one broader, narrower one. These should be totally free from lint. If you’ve got a jerky mouse, there is a very high likelihood that there will be quite a thick layer of lint firmly wrapped around each roller.


4. Using a pair of tweezers, remove the lint from the rollers, making sure that you get it all out, you will need to put fingers in and rotate the rollers so as to get at the other side of them. Give a few hefty puffs to blow out any stray bits which might be floating around in there.


5. When you’ve got all the lint from the rollers, get the ball and give it a good firm wipe on some coarse fabric (denim or similar) then place the ball back into the mouse and put back the circular plate. (make sure that its turned (or pushed) as far as it will go)

It’s a good idea to also give you mouse pad a good wipe over every once in a while. Use a lint remover or similar. You’d be surprised at just how much fine lint hides in the surface of your mouse pad.

Well, that’s it, - removing the jerks from your mouse. Hope you find this little snippet of info useful

So now, you can