Silence a mouse's scrollwheel

Whether it's at the office, or the home, Any (well, most) computer has a mouse to go with it. With every mouse, comes that handy scroll wheel wich allows you to, almost effortlessly, scroll through documents, websites, and games.

Although handy, after a short period of time, that constant clicking can become the bane of one's existence when working on a project or playing a game for more than 5 minutes. Luckily, it isn't difficult to get rid of that incessant clicking in most cases, and doesn't affect the performance of the mouse in a negative way. In fact, it can actually enhance the ease of the scroll wheel

Step 1 What you'll need

A mouse to silence
A phillips head screwdriver
Needle nose pliers (not always needed, not shown)

Comments

[Reffner]

I always left the metal "spring" in place and put a small piece of heat shrink tubing over the part that fits inside the wheel. Not totally silent, but still offers some resistance and keeps the wheel centered in place where it belongs.

[Stormed Wolf]

I suppose that would work, but I just wanted a quick and simple way to get rid of all the noise. Since the wheel isn't on any bearings of any kind, there's still some resistance due to friction between the center of the wheel and the axle it turns on.

I only ran into the problem of the wheel not staying centered when the center button is one the side of the wheel, not underneath it. I tested out another optical mouse with the button underneath the wheel and there weren't any problems.