--- /dev/null
+---
+title: "Fixing the scroll wheel on a SteelSeries Rival 310"
+date: 2024-09-14T16:00:03+02:00
+---
+If you've been using a computer mouse for a while, you might get an issue where
+the scroll wheel moves randomly, jumps around while scrolling or at times
+doesn't respond at all. My mouse also developed this issue recently, but luckily
+it's very easy to fix. The only thing that happens is various gunk builds up on
+the wheel sensor and this causes misreadings, so obviously cleaning up that gunk
+makes the wheel work like new again. Here I'll show how I did that on my mouse,
+but the general idea applies to any mouse.
+
+## What you need
+
+No matter what, you'll need the following:
+
+* A mouse
+* Corresponding screwdriver(s) - *In 99% (if not 100%) of cases a Phillips #1 will
+ be enough*
+* Some way to remove the gunk: toothbrush and/or blowing
+* A working brain cell
+
+If the screws are hidden under the mouse feet *(like in my case)*, you might
+also want to have a hairdryer or hot air station together with a sharp object to
+remove the feet without damaging them. To do this, heat up the feet *(on low
+heat, obviously; I used 100C as that's the least my hot air station can do)*
+until you can no longer touch them, then pry them away with the sharp object. I
+don't think I did the best job at this, but I was able to reapply them
+acceptably well after the repair.
+
+## Fixing the mouse
+
+First, for reference, I'll throw in a picture of the mouse:
+
+
+
+After removing the feet, the screws become visible:
+
+
+
+*Here you can see why I said I didn't do the best job of removing the feet: some
+glue remains on the mouse. I'm quite sure that after a perfect removal it would
+all be on the feet and this would allow them to be reapplied perfectly, but as I
+said I was able to do so well enough IMO.*
+
+After unscrewing the 4 screws revealed under the feet, the bottom and top halves
+of the mouse come apart easily. From there I was able to take a look at the
+scroll wheel assembly, and there sure was something to see:
+
+
+
+
+To get to the scroll wheel in this case, I had to unscrew that `LED BOARD`, take
+it out of the wheel *(which took a few seconds)* and then unscrew the entire
+mainboard from the chassis. Once that is done, I attacked both the wheel and the
+sensor with a toothbrush and blown air and then gave the rest of the mouse a
+much needed clean while at it. This picture of the area under the board gives a
+good idea of how dirty the mouse was:
+
+
+
+Once I cleaned that up somewhat, putting the 2 boards and then 2 halves of the
+chassis back in place was pretty easy. To test the mouse, I screwed in 2 of the
+chassis screws diagonally, plugged the mouse into my PC and hoped everything
+would work, which it did. After the other 2 screws came reapplying the feet;
+because I had not removed them perfectly, they didn't seem to pop back in well.
+I worked around this by pressing them against with the chassis with the sharp
+object, and as I have already said this gave an acceptable result.
+
+## Conclusion
+
+With that, the mouse was back in full order. One issue I didn't fix yet is the
+side panels ungluing after a liquid accident long ago, but I doubt that's worth
+describing.
+
+I hope that in the future I will be able to write about repairs of more complex
+devices.
projects / dujemihanovic.xyz.git / commitdiff
