How To Fix Scroll Wheel On Mouse

How is your mouse wheel holding up? If it's sticking or just not working as well as when you first got it, here's how to go in and fix it.

How is your mouse wheel holding up? If it's sticking or just not working as responsively as when you first got it, that's actually quite common. I think most of us will agree that Logitech makes quality wireless mice, but it isn't immune to mouse wheel problems. Luckily, most of them can be solved by simply cleaning out the mouse wheel chamber, and this will show you how to do that for most Logitech mouse models.

Fix Sticky Scroll Wheel Logitech Mouse

How to Clean up and Fix an Unresponsive Mouse Wheel

What you'll need

A very small-headed Phillips screwdriver.
A small flathead screwdriver or a butter knife.
A small piece of stock paper or a Q-tip.
Optional: Compressed air can

So, you have the mouse, and it's ready for maintenance. To do any work on it, we will first have to separate the top shell from the bottom—the bottom cases, the tech components, and the batteries and optical or laser sensor. Flip the mouse and get ready to work.

logitech mouse

The first thing you'll need to do is turn off the Mouse and pull out the batteries.

Next, we need to expose all of the screw holes. Most Logitech models have 3 or 4 screw holes. These are located underneath the larger surface pads, so you'll have to remove them. The easiest way to do this is by prying them with a butter knife or a flat screwdriver. Just do it slowly, and they won't be damaged. Additionally, you may need to remove a battery sticker to expose a screw hiding in the battery bay.

Important Tip

If you remove the surface pads and battery sticker carefully, you can reuse them. The underside has an adhesive, so try not to let it touch anything except for the part of the mouse it is supposed to attach to.

Unscrew all of the screws, and the top shell should separate from the bottom of the mouse. Don't force it apart! It should be effortless to separate if you feel any resistance at all. It is likely because you missed a screw.

Important: be very careful opening the mouse as there is a cable connecting the top to the bottom, and if you break this, your mouse won't work anymore.

battery sticker screw holes outlined

Once you have the mouse open, one long cable will connect the top to the bottom. This cable can be unplugged to make things easier. On the bottom half of the mouse, the connection port is easy to access. Make a mental note of which side is which because it will need to be reinserted facing the same way. In the case of my mouse, the red line is facing outwards away from the center of the device.

Gently pull on the cord to remove it. Close to its end, there should be hard plastic reinforcement to make pulling it out safer.

mouse cable removal

Now you'll have unhindered access to the bottom components of the mouse. This is where you grab a Q-tip or piece of stock paper and do some cleaning. Just insert it around the sides and scrape out as much as you possibly can. Compressed air can also come in handy. If you've had your mouse for a year or longer, then chances are a lot of dust, lint, and fuzz will come out of the mouse wheel chamber as you clean it.

Note – It's possible to completely remove the mouse wheel from the chamber and give it a thorough cleaning. However, this can be very complicated in precision and performance models as springs, and other mechanisms are easy to mess up.

cleaning mouse wheel chamber

Once it is cleaned, all you have to do is reassemble the mouse in the reverse order.

Attach the long cable from the top to the bottom.
Put the mouse together and reinsert all of the screws.
Test the mouse wheel to make sure it works.
If it works, place the surface pads back over the screw holes, re-insert batteries. Done!
If it doesn't work, try cleaning out the mouse wheel chamber some more.

I hope this helps anyone who has issues with an unresponsive mouse wheel. I've had my Logitech MX1100 Pro for about three years now, and it recently started acting up. After this process, I found that it had an entire ball of lint gathered up beneath the wheel in the mouse chamber. With the lint removed, the mouse is working just as it did the day I opened it out of the retail box.

If this were a wired mouse, I wouldn't go through all the trouble, but wireless isn't as cheap and disposable. I'd love to hear feedback from anyone who tries this or has already done something similar to fix mouse wheel issues on any brand of mouse.