50 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
50 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Replacing the mousewheel on my Steelseries Prime Wireless"
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date: 2024-01-06
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layout: Post
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---
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The mousewheel on my Prime Wireless mouse recently broke - it would "click" but
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was free-scrolling and had a fair amount of wiggle to left and right, so it
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effectively just turned into a middle mouse button.
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---
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This was a bit annoying, and after taking the mouse apart, I discovered the
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cause: the wing of the mouse wheel's shaft that goes into the rotary encoder
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had snapped, so there was now a small piece of plastic wedged inside the
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encoder, and the mouse wheel was supported just by the outer chassis of the
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mouse and the interior LED.
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First, I tried to repair the existing mousewheel using some plastic glue.
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Honestly, this might have worked, except my approach was to pop out the tiny
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bit of plastic from inside the encoder, and then glue it back outside the
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mouse. This was really a mistake, given what I had available - the plastic part
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was too small to manipulate well, and I didn't have helping hands or a
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magnifying glass to help me put things together.
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I checked the Steelseries [replacement
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parts](https://steelseries.com/gaming-accessories/replacement-parts) website
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and... they don't sell replacement mouse wheels. Bummer. However, I did find
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what looked like it might be a compatible [mouse wheel from
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AliExpress](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005140797172.html). This is for
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a different SteelSeries mouse, but the main difference appears to be the
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pattern of the rubber. The Prime Wireless has straight lines cut into it, but
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this part has a more "tyre-like" pattern.
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To avoid being held up by potentially spotty shipping from China, I also just
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ordered a replacement identical mouse. Hey-ho, at least I'll have a spare if
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the battery in this one starts to go bad.
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After the replacement mouse wheel arrived, I pulled the broken mouse apart:
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there are four Torx screws on the bottom of the mouse, underneath the PTFE
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mouse feet. (Note that you might want to also buy replacements for these: they
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probably won't stick back on very well after being removed.) Once those screws
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are removed, the mouse can be carefully pried apart. Be careful! There's a
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generously-long flex cable that attaches the main mouse PCB to the mouse
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buttons on the upper chassis, and this can be unclipped from the main mouse
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PCB. Once you have the mouse apart, there are two cross-head screws that hold
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the mouse LED PCB onto the bottom chassis, which should also be removed. This
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frees up the mouse wheel, which you can now swap and replace with the
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replacement. Afterwards, you can reassemble the mouse (don't forget to reattach
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the flex!)
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