Scroll-wheel thingy on mouse is broken....

[dcasper70]

So I have a standard Microsoft Wheel Mouse, and the scroll wheel suddenly stopped moving. I've taken it apart and it looks fine. I even took the wheel out of it's housing and cleaned out the whole thing.
When out of the housing, the wheel spins freely in the receptor (the thing that converts the spin to electrical signals). When I put it back into the housing it is just frozen.

Any thoughts? I'll just buy a new one unless someone's got a quick and simple answer for me.

Thanks

[Link774]

That might happen if you disabled the software that lets you use the scroll wheel. Reinstall the software for your mouse. Here's the link for a MS mouse: link (http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/Download.mspx)

[CORed]

If I understand correctly, the wheel is physically frozen (won't move at all). If that's the case, obviously reinstalling the driver won't help. If you've taken it apart, cleaned it, and can't see any obvious, fixable mechanical problem causing the wheel to stick, I'd say it's time for a new mouse. I've never taken a mouse apart farther than popping out the ball to clean off the rollers, so I don't have enough idea of how the scroll wheel works to give you any idea of what to look for.

If, OTOH, the wheel moves bet doesn't do anything, it could be a software (driver) problem, but might be a hardware thing, i.e, an elctrical failure, which means you probably need a new mouse.

[dcasper70]

Yeah, it's a physical thing. I can force it to move with good effort, and that does in fact work, but not as a long term solution.

Just fishing for possibilities right now.