How To Make A Mousewheel Scroll Smoothly

Step 4 Reassemble

Put the first spring back on, and put the scroll wheel assembly back onto the mouse's PCB. If you are testing without the case assembled, to not be alarmed if it does not work. The wheel works because of the IR sensor near it, and it depends on the spacing greatly.
Put the case back on and tighten all the screws.

You are now finished.

Major props to Noah for the images.

Comments

[sheneruk]

I had no hope of saving a mouse I attempted to 'clean up' after unscrewing the casing and watching the springs come off after turning it over. This instructable, and the fantastic picture of where those springs go, saved me some cash in not having to replace the mouse. I was seriously going to pitch the whole mess but waited until I had a chance to search the web. I couldn't believe I found this. GREAT INSTRUCTABLE!!

[test34]

...but instead of removing that second spring, I bent it down a little so the wheel now barely clicks when I scroll yet still offer a little resistance so that it doesnt free-spins

[test34]

thanks for this howto, my wheel is now silent (unless I click)

[toolman0567]

the roughness acts as a stop and helps incontrolling the Mouse !! making it too smooth only makes it more slippery to use !!

[Notn4]

my mouse got waaaaaaaaaaaay too hard to control after that!!! the mouse wheel keeps spinning 4ever if i let the wheel go

[osgeld]

aye i had the same issue when i did this YEARS ago to a microsoft optical mouse thought it would be cool, then every time i scrolled to a new weapon in quake 3 it would just keep going and going and going, it was really hard to pinpoint and nullified itself by all the constant backtracking

[dickm]

I was about to chuck my old Dell usb optical mouse in the bin, as after opening it up, springs, wheel and mounting decided to part company with the casing! Your picture was the only one I found on the web, but only after joining this forum. Thanks for having the foresight to add this image, as all the written instructions I found elsewhere, did not really help me at all in reassembling the bits correctly. Your pic did! Well done! :) :)