cnc@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Chris Christensen) (11/01/88)
My mouse for my Mac Plus last night decided that it was no longer interested in the vertical direction. After further examination, it seems that mechanically it is still working, but the electrical motion sensor is now defunct. Has anyoine had this happen. Any idea what it will cost to fix or replace a mouse? Chris Christensen
ephraim@think.COM (Ephraim Vishniac) (11/03/88)
In article <870259@hpcilzb.HP.COM> cnc@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Chris Christensen) writes: >My mouse for my Mac Plus last night decided that it was no longer >interested in the vertical direction. After further examination, it >seems that mechanically it is still working, but the electrical >motion sensor is now defunct. Has anyoine had this happen. Any idea >what it will cost to fix or replace a mouse? I haven't had this happen myself, but I read about these symptoms here in comp.sys.mac (or was it net.micro.mac?) some time ago. The poster of that long-ago article figured out that the mouse per se was fine, but one of the wires had broken in the cable due to inadequate strain relief. Guessing that the wire had broken where it was most strained (i.e., at its junction with the mouse body), he unsoldered the wires from inside the mouse, clipped an inch or so off each, and resoldered them. His mouse was revived. Ephraim Vishniac ephraim@think.com Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142-1214 On two occasions I have been asked, "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?"
singer@endor.harvard.edu (Rich Siegel) (11/04/88)
In article <870259@hpcilzb.HP.COM> cnc@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Chris Christensen) writes: >My mouse for my Mac Plus last night decided that it was no longer interested in >the vertical direction. After further examination, it seems that mechanically >it is still working, but the electrical motion sensor is now defunct. Has >anyoine had this happen. Any idea what it will cost to fix or replace a mouse? > I once toasted my mouse with a static charge, and upon closr inspection, I found that the single chip in the mouse (a 74LS-something) had been zapped, so I replaced it; the mouse is still going to this day. This chip should be available from most electronic supply stores; I got two for $0.75. --Rich Rich Siegel Staff Software Developer THINK Technologies Division, Symantec Corp. Internet: singer@endor.harvard.edu UUCP: ..harvard!endor!singer Phone: (617) 275-4800 x305 Any opinions stated in this article do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Symantec Corporation or its employees.
straka@ihlpf.ATT.COM (Straka) (11/04/88)
In article <870259@hpcilzb.HP.COM> cnc@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Chris Christensen) writes: > My mouse for my Mac Plus last night decided that it was no longer interested in the vertical direction. After further examination, it seems that mechanically it is still working, but the electrical motion sensor is now defunct. Has anyone had this happen. Any idea what it will cost to fix or replace a mouse? 3 possible problems: 1) Bad connection in the mouse "tail". Pull more wire through the strain relief, cut out bad wire and resolder connections. 2) Bad photoelectric components (unlikely). 3) Tolerance problem with the slotted wheel and sensor. I had this problem, leaned on the components (to realign them slightly), resoldered the connections, and it has been working fine now for 3+ years. (you can lean on the components while things are opened up and live to check out this possibility) -- Rich Straka att!ihlpf!straka Avoid BrainDamage: MSDOS - just say no!
kent@lloyd.camex.uucp (Kent Borg) (11/05/88)
In article <870259@hpcilzb.HP.COM> cnc@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Chris Christensen) writes: > >My mouse for my Mac Plus last night decided that it was no longer >interested in the vertical direction. After further examination, it >seems that mechanically it is still working, but the electrical >motion sensor is now defunct. Has anyoine had this happen. Any idea >what it will cost to fix or replace a mouse? My mouse once lost its horizontal axis, I had my Mac Plus at work. There was another Mac there, so I did a swap. It was not the mouse but the Mac. I wiggled things, rebooted it, power cycled it, etc. No go. At this point I was sad. My mac was disabled (this was before Easy Access). I had work to do that needed my Mac. Not having anything better to do, and being a True Engineer, I decided to take apart my computer. Dug around for enough tools to kludge a long torx screw driver and went at it. I was fun. Once inside I had fun identifying bunches of different components, but didn't see any `User Servicable Parts' in there. (I stayed clear of all the high voltage CRT stuff.) Sadly, I put it back together wondering where take it for a several hundred dollar swap of the logic board. Once it was together, still not having anything better to do, I turned it on again to restart the cycle... IT WORKED!!! That was coming up on 2 years ago and the mouse has never failed me since, my screen jitters sometimes, sometimes I hear a ticking sound coming from inside the computer, but it works. I still don't know what happened. Sorry to have no solution, but I hope you do have a happy ending... Kent Borg kent@lloyd.uucp or hscfvax!lloyd!kent
cnc@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Chris Christensen) (11/08/88)
>Sorry to have no solution, but I hope you do have a happy ending...
So far so good...
I took apart my mouse, fiddled with the connectors, etc but no go.
So, I bought a new mouse at a used computer store. When I tried to boot
with the new mouse everything went wrong. My system would not recognize my
hard disk. My floppy drive started spitting out disks. The only thing I had
changed was this new mouse. Sure enough, when I took off the mouse things
went back to normal. It turns out that the new mouse was worse than my old
one. It thought its button was always down.
So, in deparation I tried my old mouse again and it worked! I returned the
bad mouse for a full refund and I am up and running again (for how long who
knows).
Chrisjns+@andrew.cmu.edu (Judith N. Sherwood) (11/09/88)
> Not having anything better to do, and being a True Engineer, > I decided to take apart my computer. Dug around for enough > tools to kludge a long torx screwdriver and went at it. . . . . > Once it was together, still not having anything better to do, I > turned it on again to restart the cycle... IT WORKED!!! In my family, we call this the Parry Effect: Take it apart, look at it, perhaps dust it or oil it, put it back together again. Often the thing then works. There is also the Milosevich Theorem which states that SMOKE is necessary for the correct function of household appliances, computers, etc. How can you tell that smoke is necessary? Well, if the smoke escapes, you can bet that the item will quit working!
kent@lloyd.camex.uucp (Kent Borg) (11/09/88)
In article <870262@hpcilzb.HP.COM> cnc@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Chris Christensen) writes: >>Sorry to have no solution, but I hope you do have a happy ending... > ... >... for a full refund and I am up and running again (for how long who >knows). > >Chris It makes perfect sense. My mouse started working when I futzed around enough, and yours too. The ticking thread of news has the explaination: Our Macs were craving attention. In my case opening it up and admiring its construction (and showing it off) appeased it. In your case the threat of breaking up your computer-mouse team shook them up enough that they decided to behave. The problem boils down to our Macintoshs some what resenting the idea of being only `appliances'. They occasionally crave the doting that other computers demand. Let's hope they never discover their own `Abort, Retry, Ignore?'. Everybody please dote on your Macs a little bit more, don't forget the little guy. Kent Borg kent@lloyd.uucp or hscfvax!lloyd!kent