Are all mouses defective by design?

Published on 2025-04-15

Categories: tech
Tags: gear

My mouses have been getting the double click disease. Persistent for my past 2 Logitech mouse. A post about what I've discovered.

How it all started

It all started 2 years ago when I had to replace a broken 10yo mouse I had been using extensively.

I bought another Logitech mouse, but it started having weird double click issues at random time. It would be less of an issue if I pressed the button harder and at the center.

I thought this was a fluke and ordered another mouse, to get the same issue shortly after. The problem seems to appear between 6 months to 1 year with my current daily use of the mouse.

One could claim I abuse the mouse too much with 9 hours of work and more browsing / gaming after work, but I had another mouse for 10 years without a single issue.

What to do next?

I started searching the internet for people with similar issue and solutions.

I found plenty (>20 posts with similar information) of problem with the exact issue.

What is the actual problem

The root cause is coming from the two facts:

• micro switches in mouse were always operated our of their electrical spec. you must call it within certain volts or it will not have the listed longevity
• with the breakthrough of wireless mouse, circuits were re-designed to optimize operating in much lower voltage than when we only had wired mouse

With older wired mouse, it looks like even though the voltage is lower than expected, it’s still not bad and will operate relatively close to spec. So the longevity is not altered significantly.

With wireless mouse, this is way too under voltage (1.3 ish volt vs 5 ish volts), and creates oxidation on the micro switch contacts.

You can watch a Alex Denis (a geek) analyzing this for hours here:

• Failing switch problem: Omron vs the modern mouse circuit
• Failing mouse switch part 2: teardown and testing

Solutions

Solution 1 - Blowing warm humid air into the mouse

Many “fixed” their issue by regularly blowing into the mouse buttons with their warm breath.

I tried that, and oh yeah, it fixed it.

The problem is it keeps coming back, after couple of minutes up to 1-2 hours.

Solution 2 - Switch to a wired mouse

Does not work, circuits within modern wired mouse operate like wireless mouse for cost optimization.

Solution 3 - Open the mouse, the switches and bend the actuator

Does not work permanently, this only fixes the issue for a bit of time

Solution 4 - Open the mouse and replace all switches

I tried that, but it worked only for a time.

Solution 5 - Find better mouse that use switches less prone to this issue

Plausible solution, but finding the right mouse is a bit challenging.

Solution 6 - Use a mouse with optical switches

I ended up picking this solution. I found myself a mouse that uses optical switches that is not subject to the double click bug.

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