How do you get it? Mine's gone. I have to make exaggerated arm movements to get the cursor to move where I want it to go. I've opened it up and cleaned inside, including the little ball but that doesn't seem to do the trick. Anyone know what I should do?

Beebee,

We had problems with our mouse years ago. My son, our "computer guru," finally broke down and bought us one without the tracking ball. It's great and I would never have anything else, except maybe a cordless mouse.

Denise

There are three places the ball touches which clog up with fluff. You have to clean them all carefully.

I got sick of it and now use a cordless laser mouse.

If you've cleaned out your mouse properly and it's still doing that, there's also a chance that somehow something got screwy in your computer's mouse sensitivity settings. If you want to take a look for yourself, here's what you can do:

Assuming you're on Windows, go to your Control Panel. When the Control Panel window pops up, double click on the "Mouse" icon. Another window should pop up, and in that window, there should be a slider for mouse sensitivity. Play around with that, and maybe that'll help you out.

I have an optical corded mouse and when it goes nuts, it is always cat hair on the bottom of it.

Thanks for your suggestions everyone. I'll check the sensitivity settings although I suspect it's just dust that I am not cleaning well enough.

How do laser/optical corded mice work? Do I need something on the computer for it to interact with or does everything come in a pack together? (Probably a very stupid question)

The optical mouse just has an optical sensor instead of a rollerball. I plug it into the computer, some drivers get loaded automatically and it works.

Let's say you move your mouse from left to right.

1) Does the mouse cursor stay stationary for a second until something on the mouse "catches" and the cursor begins to move? Or...

2) Does the cursor move with the mouse, only at a much slower pace than usual?

If it's #1, then it's a dirty mouse and you need to give the rollers on the inside a better cleaning. If it's #2, it could very well be a sensitivity setting issue, and you can try and fix it how I described.

Optical mouses are great, and if your problem turns out to be a dirty mouse roller, I would highly recommend purchasing an optical mouse. Very reliable, and no dust cleaning involved!