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Comment by snailmailman | Hacker News Reader

I stopped buying logitech mice because the switches wore out in all of them. Multiple mice all stopped working after maybe a year and a half? Issues like "double clicking when should be single clicking" or "not clicking at all" or "clicking and dragging getting registered as just a click". If they either fix this, or make it easy to repair, they might be able to get me back.

These were what i considered "higher end" mice, not a cheap $15 mouse, and i got tired of buying them so often. I looked around online and switch issues seem common on a lot of mice. Every mouse company uses the same switches, and they all just wear out. I switched to razer, who apparently uses a different type of switch entirely. It hasn't worn out yet but i've only had it about a year. Fingers crossed.

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There's three ways to resolve this if you're someone with a heavy hand (which you might be).

1. Find a mouse that uses heavy-duty mechanical switches (technically inside the shell, it is possible to use a switch like those used in keyboards, which are designed for more actuations at a heavier actuation weight). This is somewhat difficult, as not many such mice exist.

2. Find a mouse that uses optical switches which are less likely to wear out from use because of no mechanical forces being exerted on the part of the switch that relays the signal. This is easier because most high-end gaming mice are switching or have switched to optical switches.

3. Find a mouse that moves your hand into a plane where you exert less pressure on the switches. I use a vertical mouse, and I have not had any issues since switching, even though it uses the same Omron switches as the mice I kept destroying.

I can second using a vertical mouse. It has helped my wrist pain immensely as well.

Due to market pressures, 'we will buy $xxM per year guaranteed if you make this cheaper', Omron moved bulk of microswitch manufacturing to China. Japanese Omron switches were 10M clicks in name only, they were build like Toyota builds cars. Chinese made ones all die around 10Million clicks which is around a year. Mouse is "just" $30-50, too little for someone in the west to bother repairing or even considering hassle of RMA. Logitech turned their physical products into recurring revenue business.

There are mice with optical microswitches - you move a plastic knob that blocks the light path between two diodes soldered directly into mouse pcb. Personally I just replace switches regularly using a bag of Chinese $.5 Omrons.

From my experience in tech support most of the issues with mouses and keyboards are because of accumulated gunk, specially if you have pets or smoke near the computer. Since they are normally simple devices on the inside you can just remove the screws and clean all the dirt and you won't break anything. I actually just did this 5 minutes ago to my mouse because middle click wasn't working. Found out it was just a bunch of cat hair stuck in the mouse wheel. Other common source of issues is the USB cable, and those can be replaced if you know how to disconnect the contacts from the main board and resolder them.

This is wild to me. I don't think I've ever worn out any mouse button nor had the same happen to my kids (who play a LOT of fast twitch/heavy clicking games). I use an M720 on my desk setup as does my wife. I think mine is over 5 years old and I know hers is over 3 years old. I had a 5+ year old M705 that the M720 replaced (for convenience of multiple computer control, not because of a failure).

Same here. I had never worn out any mouse button, and I've had some mice as old as 2 decades. But then I bought a high-end Logitech mouse and both switches failed within 2 years.

The switches themselves are very reliable, but suffer from the normal bathtub curve problems. Also, Logitech is responsible for designing the plastic parts of the mouse that interface with the commodity switches, and they don't always do that well.

I've worn out quite a few as well. One thing I've noticed is I seem to use middle click a lot more than most as, while I have had the left click button fail, the middle button is usually the first to go for me.

I have bought multiple Logitech G102s, because they're super cheap and it's my go-to mouse. Good DPI, good hand-feel, good price. SUPER precise and reliable.

I spent a LOT of money on a high-end Corsair mouse, bought the same model twice, and every time I had issues with "double clicking when should be single clicking" or "not clicking at all".

I HATE Razer for forcing you to register with your email address if you want to even customize your RGB colors. Never again. I spent time trying to write a driver for OpenRGB, but that was just too much for me at the time. And why should I be expected to do that? I wasn't even using Linux at the time, this was on Windows/MacOS!

How much would you estimate your total $ spend on mice was to date? Why did you at no point consider finding someone (closest hackerspace, cellphone repair kiosk at the mall) to fix it by substituting defective part with high quality replacement https://ausmodshop.com/collections/micro-switches?

This is an old anecdote, but my Razer Lachesis used exactly the same Omron manufactured microswitches as my Logitech G303 and my Kensington Orbit trackball.

I have really strange physical requirements for my mice due to disability, and it's generally a pain to find stuff that works for me -- so i've gotten pretty adept and swapping those switches out from sheer necessity.

It's a shame that no one (seems) to make any mice with a nice magnetically coupled wear-free switching system. I have such switches on stupid things like my racing sim wheel, but not on stuff that I use daily.

Switches are a beginner level solder job to replace. And because there's not much going on inside mice, it tends to be easy to get to the PCB that holds the switches.

I'm about to do that today on a Logitech and there are about 20 screws and multiple layers of plastic, not including having to remove and possibly replace the mouse skates.

That's surprising! It was easy to do on my G Pro wireless. I don't remember clearly at this point but there were only 3 or 4 screws under the feet (which I used a hair dryer to heat up to ensure they came off cleanly). Then under the paddles for the main buttons was I think one more screw holding the PCB down. The only tricky thing there was making sure I didn't lose the tiny spring used for the middle click.

I completed the switch upgrade and it was more like 30 screws. Soldering was the easy part. This is a G903.

I think you're right about most manufacturers souring the same switch components. In my experience even a high end mouse commonly needs to be replaced after 2 years. Now I rotate through a few different types of mice every few months to try to reduce repetitive strain. Since I started doing this my mice have been lasting a lot longer. In time, not in click count of course. Some interesting tips in this topic that I'll have to check out.

> I stopped buying logitech mice because the switches wore out in all of them.

I still have a wired USB mouse I bought from Logitech in the late 90's that was in daily use for well over a decade without issues, but more recent wireless mice that I have purchased from Logitech haven't lasted much more than a year. Either one of the buttons fails or the scroll wheel fails.

Interesting. I have used the mx anywhere (this did wear out) , mc anywhere 2 (still going 3+ years now), and the super light and g350.

They all work pretty well.

I havr HAVE gone through a lot of are the usb dongles they connect to. Those go bad fairly regularly.

I just hope they break within a year and I get a free new one from amazon. I wonder if it's illegal to knowingly buy products that will break down within a year with the intention of getting a new replacement.

> I wonder if it's illegal to knowingly buy products that will break down within a year

Nah, just luck of the draw.

If the manufacturer is willing to buy customer goodwill by offering a generous warranty on their crap product, you are welcome to use it. That's how Kia managed to improve their image.

I have the Logitech G403. I've had it for about 7 years and it's still working great. I don't know how long ago you had your Logitech, but it's possible they've improved since then.

I have also had this double click issue after around 2 years.

I had this but its a fairly easy fix, you take the mouse apart and bend the metal on the switch slightly, and it fixes it for a couple more years.

Same, I went through 2 MX Masters in like 2 or 3 years. Now I just get a cheap steelseries and cringe at the rainbow LED

I assume you'd turn the LEDs off if you were using Windows using Steelseries' own software. If you use Linux you can turn it off with rivalcfg if your model is supported (https://flozz.github.io/rivalcfg/).

Afaik all Steelseries let you save permanent profile on the mouse. At least lights and dpi are stored, button remapping sadly is done with host software.

FWIW logitech now also offers mice with optical switches, which are claimed to never double click

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