How long do your computer mice last?

The optical mice last much longer than the old roller-ball mice

What is this "mouse" thing of which you speak?

I've been using the TrackPoint as my primary pointing device on Dell Laptops or ThinkPads for over ten years, so my mice don't get a lot of use. I use synergy [synergy-foss.org], so I can control my desktop and laptop using just the laptop keyboard.

But, I still have a couple of working keyboards that are over twenty years old, and mice that are nearly twenty years old.

I just replaced a 5+ year old Apple Mighty Mouse - the first Apple mouse I've ever worn out (bluetooth was getting flakey). On the other hand, the mice that I get with my work PC laptops have generally lasted months, not years. Dell mice are utter crap.

It would almost be easier for me to list the ones that have broken then put a lifespan to them.

Ever since I have moved to optical USB mice, of the dozens that I have used at home or work, only 3 no longer work. Ironically 2 of those were "high end" mice. The budget Microsoft and Logitech mice seem to last forever. I only just replaced the original Microsoft optical wheel mouse my grandmother had after ~10 years of use after a button broke. My other ones of that era are still going fine.

My mice would last much longer if I could resist the urge to smack them against the monitor whenever my computer slows down. I know perfectly well that the mouse is blameless, but my lizard brain needs to SMASH something.

Where is that option?

It's the perfect mouse. Will never be exceeded and they seem to never break either.

My very first Rising Star mouse from the mid 80s was still working when I tossed it a couple years ago. I used the bus mouse I got with my 286 until I built a machine with no ISA slots (and therefore no way to plug in the mouse's interface card). On the flip side, when Apple switched from the angular ADB mice to the rounded one in the early 90s, the rounded pieces of crap would start double-clicking after a month or two. I had to scrounge a box of the old mice to replace the new ones in our department. Oh, and Apple's clit-mice were bad, too. The little ball would quickly stop responding in one direction at a time until it did nothing. Again, I experienced their failure in a production environment with many mice in use by many people.

In general (excluding Apple meece), the more I spend, the longer it lasts. I'm currently 3 years into a $90 Mionix mouse and it works as well as the day I bought it.

I have had this mouse for ages, closer to 10 years than 5. I went looking for a replacement on the off chance that this one died and found that they now go for 300$ new in the box!

My mouses (sic) tend to last a couple of years. Main reasons are that I buy them on the cheap rather than the proper choice of Logitech/MS product. I'd go for more expensive stuff but then I see the wife clicking with increasing violence and with her indicator finger reaching considerable height before slamming on the buttons when things don't quite work as she expects. Can't wait to get a laptop with a touchscreen to see her punch that Start screen.

My first mouse cost me EUR35, had a huge rubber ball and worked better to move the cursor to the right and down than in other directions.

I had a A4Tech mouse that was wireless but had a very weak sensor at the end of a long USB cable. That setup was clunky as hell under the desk. It worked fine with line of sight, not so great otherwise.

I once had a mouse branded Trust which outlasted the keyboard that was part of the set. I bought another set hoping I could mix and match. mix and fail was more like it.

I used a Microsoft optical mouse with a Mac and I think this was the one that lasted the longer, despite being used by everyone back at home, including 4 year old kids.

I currently have a Logitech mouse and keyboard combo and the mouse scroll wheel is becoming too old to register middle-clicks.

With my work laptop (HP Elitebook) I sometimes use a HP bluetooth mouse which loses signal every now and then. The same mouse worked fine with a Dell laptop but seems to dislike being paired with a HP machine.

I've had an Evoluent Vertical Mouse for 6 years now and my wrist has already forgotten why to thank me for it, and see no reason to replace it anytime in the foreseeable future.

Until a fancier mouse hits the market.

All my Logitech mouses are still operational when I replace them with a better model and I don't change very often (every 4 years?).

As I suffer from multiple sclerosis, my right hand isn't what it used to be - operating a mouse became incredibly hard, so I switched to a thumb-operated trackball (M570). After a not too long learning period and honing my precision, I am now 100% trackballed.

That said, however, this is actually my third trackball in three years. The first one was a victim of my stupidity: it stopped working on me, I opened it up, found that the battery connectors are so shoddily put together that if you put in a battery enough times, they'll just slide off. After sliding them back in, I didn't fully control my sick hand and ripped off one of the capacitors. Unfortunately, my days of soldering were over and I had no one to help me, so I had to buy a replacement. The second one had a strange fault, also engineering-related, or maybe transport damage, no idea. It also stopped working on me, I opened it up and, not seeing any problem, I was literally stumped. It so happened that I accidentally touched a capacitor with a probe, and boom - it's working. I angled the capacitor a little, thinking maybe the connectors weren't properly soldered in, and, a couple months later, it's still working. In the meantime I found a deskjob that required using a pointer, so I bought a third one, which keeps working without fail... for now.

I wish more companies would make thumb-operated trackballs - a frontal trackball isn't a good solution for my right hand, and I fear the whole concept of a trackball will soon be a thing of the past.

Out of all the mice I've owned, only a few have actually died. One was a small travel mouse that came with my previous laptop - it lasted about two years, and was actually pretty nice because it had a cord perfectly sized for a laptop (about 40cm long). Eventually the left-click stopped working. I've also had a few ball mice die, but since I ended up with an entire shoebox full of ones that still worked, I never really cared (I eventually just threw them away, because a working ball mouse is still worse than a broken optical mouse).

My current three mice are:
A Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX. It really does work on everything, except, ironically, one of my mousepads. It's easier to use on the solid-glass desk surface than on the mousepad I have on said desk. It's small and wireless, so I keep this one with my laptop. Probably my favorite mouse - five buttons, scroll wheel has both tilt and unlockable speed (I can scroll about 4000 lines with one flick). Only feature it's missing is variable DPI, which I rarely use, and the middle mouse button isn't very well-positioned. It's lasted about a year so far with just a bit of wear and about four changes of battery.

An Asus GX800 gaming mouse. It came with my current laptop, but it's horribly suited for it (too big and flat-surfaced), so I use it with my primary desktop. It's currently about a year and a half old and has had zero problems (unlike the laptop). I'm not sure I would have spent money on it, but it was essentially free and it works just fine.

A Microsoft IntelliMouse, which dates back to (I think) 1999 or so (it's an optical, but it came with a Windows 98 computer). I use it with my secondary desktop, another old piece of junk that's still somehow more reliable than the brand-new top-of-the-line stuff. Seriously, the only "damage" it's suffered is some yellowing of the plastic and me misplacing the PS/2->USB adapter at some point. So that one's been running for 14 years with no problem.

I tend to use mine for just a few years before the style either bores me or my usage pattern changes enough to warrant an upgrade.

Way back when (early 90s) I bought inexpensive mice and they'd die after a few months. Since then I bought better quality (e.g. more expensive ones) and they last for a very long time. I have a MSFT USB Intellimouse (optical) from 1998 or so that I used at work until a few months ago when I cut over to a laptop for my daily use. The plastic has gone a bit yellow and I've cleaned it a number of times with rubbing alcohol to get the gunk off.

The original mouse included within the 1968 "(Mother of all demos) Demonstration [stanford.edu]" presented by the inventor, Doug Engelbart.

Computer... Computer? {is handed the mouse and speaks into it} Hello, Computer? (Scotty)

Just use the keyboard. (Dr. Nicolas)

Keyboard? How quaint. (Scotty)

I used a Kensington Expert Pro Mouse trackball at home, a Logitech MX620 wireless mouse for my laptop, and a Logitech S510 wireless mouse at work. I prefer the trackball as it's more precise and takes up less room on my desk.

Way back when I used the keyboard for playing Quake CTF. A bunch of my clan buddies switch to mice and started wiping the floor with my ass. I switch to a mouse but found that it would reach the edge of my desk or roll off the mouse pad (this was before laser mice) at inopportune times. I switched to a Kensington trackball (big trackball, not the tiny thumb ones) and never looked back.

I been through five tackballs over the last 20 years. Fortunately, Kensington has a 5 year warranty and many of the replacements have been free.

I don't think that I have ever actually killed a mouse. I've been through roller ball and laser mice but most swaps been due to upgrades and not device failure.

My favorite mouse is an old Logitech MX LASER. It has built-in rechargeable batteries with a charging stand that also serves as the receiver. This also allows me to put the receiver closer to the mouse Most importantly, it has a PS/2 connector which is pretty hard to come by these days.

Now I just need to get a shark for it.