Compaq Mouse Repair & Restoration - Back to Home
This rather generic Compaq mouse from the mid-late 90s was given to me for free by a friend. While I usually wouldn't care about such an insignificant item, I have nothing better to do than try and fix it up.
It's heavily yellowed on the top, the pictures don't show the full extent of it. Does not move very well, the ball & rollers definitely need cleaning.
The plastic was not as dirty as I initially thought. Just a paper towel with alcohol was enough to get the 20 year old dirt out, it's the yellowing that's the main problem. I may try to retrobright it eventually, but it'd just be as an experiment, not because I care about a mouse I can get on eBay for under 10 dollars.
The cable has quite a bit of wear on it as well, although I forgot to take a photo of it. I've had similar issues with old cables, the rubber tends to become less flexible over time, and eventually, become brittle.
After putting it back together, movement was smooth again. As I suspected, the rubber ball & rollers had gained a lot of filth over it's lifetime, and it was interfering with the movement of the ball. For a different project, I need to clean up the poor Pentium III HP Pavilion I used to test it.
