MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > My mouse is 19 years old

My mouse is 19 years old

posted 4 years ago by MaximRecoil (4057)
7 replies | jump to latest

It's a Logitech M-BJ58 optical scroll mouse that I bought at Best Buy in 2001 for about $20 to replace the crappy non-scrolling ball mouse that came with my first crappy PC (eMachines). I've used it pretty much daily ever since.

In 2007 the original microswitches were getting flaky, so I desoldered them and soldered in some new ones.

In 2015 those replacement microswitches started getting flaky so I replaced them again.

A few days ago the scroll wheel started acting up, sometimes working perfectly and sometimes not working at all. I don't know where to get a new photoelectric sensor/switch for it, so in the meantime I resoldered the existing parts and cleaned them with isopropyl alcohol. Also, the left-click microswitch was getting flaky so I replaced that tonight too (the other two microswitches are fine because they don't get used as much, plus I only had one new microswitch onhand anyway).

So far so good. All of its functions are working perfectly right now.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 4 years ago

Good job!

[–] Mrmojo4700 (20440) 4 years ago

I have a couple of pigeons who are like 13 years old and all of their functions are working perfectly right now too. 😀

[–] kukuxu (5409) 4 years ago

My first optical mouse lasted several years. And it was a cheap one bought in a supermarket.

Modern ones last 3-4 months (expensive ones included). If I had known, I had bought half a dozen of mouses back then.

[–] MaximRecoil (4057) 4 years ago

In 2006 I bought a new mouse that I thought was the same thing, except it was black, which is the color I wanted in the first place (the one I bought in 2001 was blue and gray because Best Buy didn't have any black ones). The new black one did have a slightly different model number (M-BT58 instead of M-BJ58), but it looked identical (except for the color), so I figured it would work the same.

As it turned out, it sucked. The base stayed brightly lit constantly, which was annoying, and the pointer on the screen had a tendency to "ghost walk" across the screen when I wasn't moving the mouse. So I swapped the guts from the 2001 blue and gray mouse into the new black shell and continued to use it.

A few years ago I found a like-new M-BJ58 on eBay and bought it as a backup. I've used a lot of different mice over the years (on computers other than my main PC), and I've yet to find one that I like as well as the M-BJ58, so that's what I'll stick with for as long as possible.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 4 years ago

Yeah, BJ is best.

[–] AndyKing1967 (33837) 4 years ago

I haven't used a mouse in a long time.

[–] NotoriousRio (12927) 4 years ago

The longest I ever had a mouse was for two years, poor little thing, I can't have fed it enough cheese! 🐭