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Hardware

Silent Mice for Silent PCs? 156

Posted by Cliff from the it's-oh-so-quiet-shhh!-shhh! dept.
UnrefinedLayman asks: "In the quest for a silent PC, one item that seems to be consistently overlooked is the mouse: it's one of the more noisy computer components if only by virtue of the fact that it is a staccato noise. I don't notice my fans or hard drives very often, given that they are constant background sounds whose levels don't noticeably change. My mouse, on the other hand, makes a very audible *click* each time I use it, and while providing a pleasant tactile feedback, it keeps my girlfriend awake during my late-night work sessions. So I turn to the Ask Slashdot community: have you found a silent mouse for your silent PC? Numerous Google searches have yielded little. It's not as though it's impossible, as touch pads for laptops have been around for quite some time, and the iPod makes great use of the technology. ThinkGeek also sells a force-free keyboard with a "mouse replacement" built into it, but while the keyboard technology looks very promising, I prefer to stick with a mouse (not to mention something a bit cheaper). Mouse manufacturers have long touted optical mice as being superior to their trackball cousins for having no moving, mechanical parts, but it seems like they're overlooking the most obvious and still mechanical function: the buttons themselves! So what say you Slashdot? Are there force-free, truly non-mechanical and silent mice out there to be had?"
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Silent Mice for Silent PCs? More

Silent Mice for Silent PCs?

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  • Make one yourself (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 13, 2003 @10:59AM (#7710342)
    It's been my experience thast the mice doen't need to click.
    They usually have a clicker switch.

    What if you took a cheep mouse, opened it and replaced the clicker-switcheswith normal ones?
    • What if you took a cat strapped a piece of toast butter side up to it's back and threw it outside. would it land on it's feet, or on butter side down?
      • That would depend on the relative sizes of the cat and the toast. If you had a very small cat and a very large piece of toast... :-)

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by b!arg ( 622192 )
        What if you got another girlfriend that wasn't so annoying.
      • Probably neither, it would hover in the air spinning round and round. Actually I think if you got enough of them you could power a small city.
        • Don't let the Wachowski brothers hear of that!

          Before you know it, we'd all have to go see the Catrix, featuring Meo and Kittnity...
  • BTW - My dell laptop (latitude c400) is pretty quiet and the touch pad or buttons don't make noise!

    -Sean

  • Blast it! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ske ( 211063 ) on Saturday December 13, 2003 @11:03AM (#7710365)
    You just made me notice how loudly my mouse clicks. *sigh* Thanks for ruining my weekend! (-;

  • Modify an existing mouse? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Silh ( 70926 ) on Saturday December 13, 2003 @11:11AM (#7710397)
    This may not be a practical suggestion, but it came to my mind as I was reading this, since I have dabbled in some minor electronics and case modification in the last while... if one knew what they were doing, perhaps one could modify an existing mouse to replace the existing microswitch with something else, perhaps a IR emitter/sensor which is blocked by a tab when the mouse button is pressed. That would eliminate the clicking sound of the microswitch.

    Or perhaps a touchplate ... though could be interesting trying to rest your finger on there.

    One would have to consult someone more experienced in building this sort of stuff regarding feasibility though. :)

  • Come on over to my house... (Score:5, Funny)

    by R2.0 ( 532027 ) on Saturday December 13, 2003 @11:11AM (#7710401)
    And you can have your choice of keyboards:

    IBM Model M
    Omnikey 102
    Ortek MCK-142

    All nice & clicky...Oh.

    Nevermind.
  • will you at least be happy with a scroll wheel and not worry about three buttons [slashdot.org]?

  • +1 Funny (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Basje ( 26968 ) <bas@bloemsaat.org> on Saturday December 13, 2003 @11:15AM (#7710418) Homepage
    When I started reading, that was the first thing I thought. Then, as I was reading on, it occurred to me the guy was serious.

    I mean, come on. How hard is it to replace a high tech item like a switch under a mouse button, with a switch that does not do *click*?

    The sound has a function in most cases. It's a signal. Even using a mouse button is referred to as clicking. It also prevents arthritis. You do not need to apply more pressure than to make the click, thus preventing excessive wear the finger joints.

    I once had a mouse where one of the mouse buttons had been repaired, and it was replaced with a silent switch (amiga mouses were expensive). I repaired it again, this time with a clicking switch. YMMV.
    • Actually, I've wired mouse buttons to an old NES pad, which uses conductive rubber contact pads. They don't fit the traditional mouse form factor, but all it requires is a little cutting and soldering.

  • Bind some keys on your keyboard to your mouse? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by HansF ( 700676 ) on Saturday December 13, 2003 @11:15AM (#7710420) Journal
    I don't know wich operating system you use but I presume there will be some accessibility-software for it to accociate some keys of your keyboard with your mouse-keys.

  • Silent Mice for Silent PCs (Score:4, Funny)

    by Caktus ( 28195 ) on Saturday December 13, 2003 @11:16AM (#7710422)

    My mouse, on the other hand, makes a very audible *click* each time I use it, and while providing a pleasant tactile feedback, it keeps my girlfriend awake during my late-night work sessions.


    You dont't snore, do you?

  • A modest proposal... (Score:4, Informative)

    by stienman ( 51024 ) <adavis.ubasics@com> on Saturday December 13, 2003 @11:25AM (#7710469) Homepage Journal
    Try this, it works great for me: Go to bed when your SO goes to bed. No, really, it works great. And there are other benefits as well.

    If you cannot pull yourself away from the computer, then you can either get a touchpad (like a laptop), or you can hack your mouse.

    The clicking device in the mouse is a microswitch, which has a very distinct switchover feeling and sound. If you wrap the switch and some of the circuitboard in yarn, you can deaden the sound somewhat. You can also replace it with something else of your own invention - two wires on the circuitboard, and a piece of tin foil on the button for instance.

    You'll have reliability issues unless it's well designed (spring steel instead of tin foil, for instance), but it'll be quiet.

    Another option is to hack some optical gates inside there. It would require much more engineering, but a simple optical gate, resister, and an epoxied piece of plastic on the button to break the beam when pressed should do very nicely. It'll take up little more room than the microswitch.

    Send me a mouse and $90 and I'll do it for you.

    -Adam

    • Women (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 13, 2003 @05:49PM (#7712427)

      Try this, it works great for me: Go to bed when your SO goes to bed.

      Actually, that's probably what she's really asking for anyway. I'm sure when you fix the mouse clicks she'll complain about the keyboard. Then when you fix that she'll complain about the excess heat coming from the processor. Then when you freak out on her for being absolutely crazy she'll say "but I only wanted you to come cuddle with me instead of working on your computer."

      Of course, if you wanted that advice, you wouldn't be Asking Slashdot. So drop the female and make a robot, or something.

      • Re:Women (Score:1, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Dear Slashdot: my robot keeps me awake all night with her constant mouse-clicking. I ask her to come to bed, but she just keeps working away. What say you, Slashdot? Do your robots come to bed when you ask them?
    • Try this, it works great for me: Go to bed when your SO goes to bed.
      Yes, but you'll get kicked out of bed the first time you double-click her nipple.

  • 1. Go get yourself a mac (as little fans as possible)

    2. Go get yourself an Apple Wireless Mouse [apple.com] (no balls, no buttons, no wires)

    3. Be a happy man

    • Are those actually quiet, or do they use the same type of housing as the corded "buttonless" Apple mice? The whole shell serves as the button on those, but they're still pretty noisy.
    • The 'buttonless' mice make a click too.

      They arn't buttonless, the button is the entire top of the mouse.

      They are still (crappy) 1 button mice.

    • Do you kill flies with tactical nuclear devices?

      I mean, the guy has a problem with one micro-switch and you tell him to switch computer.

      Heh.

      • Well... (Score:1, Flamebait)

        by DAldredge ( 2353 )
        Well, at least he isn't a gentoo user who would have said to just recompile the mouse with gcc -donesnt_have_to_work_right_just_go_FAST flag.

        And you don't kill flys with tactical nukes, you use tactical nukes on fire ants. And when that doesn't work you use stratigic nukes with colbalt sleaves.

      • Anyway, the minimalistic solution would have been to kick the damn bitch out of the room, so even replacing the mouse is overkill.

  • Any of you... (Score:4, Funny)

    by sockit2me9000 ( 589601 ) on Saturday December 13, 2003 @11:30AM (#7710504)
    ...singing "Silent Mice" to the tune of "Silent Night"? Cause I am.
  • The 1985-ish MS Mouse 5.0 might do the trick if you can find one that still works. These were the beige ones with two brown buttons. There wasn't really any tactile feedback either, so there was a tendency to press too hard which would kill the switches after a while.

  • your keyboard! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by BeatdownGeek ( 687929 )
    I know this isn't the preferred answer, but... I'm in college and I have a few classes in the computer lab. The professor doesn't like us all clicking the mouse while he's trying to speak/ teach (understandably). So what do we do when we want to browse the web rather than listen to him? learn to use the keyboard!

    I know it's kinda a foreign concept in windows, but I've learned most of the keyboard shortcuts/ commands to do navigation things, and I think sometimes it's actually quicker than using the mo

    • I know it's kinda a foreign concept in windows, but I've learned most of the keyboard shortcuts/ commands to do navigation things, and I think sometimes it's actually quicker than using the mouse.

      It's not a foreign concept in windows, or the shortcuts wouldn't be there.

      Windows is mouse recommended, but almost all applications work fine without one. (exceptions, ms paint is pretty well useless, apparently older versions let you move the cursor with the keyboard, but now you need mousekeys enabled for tha
      • Not a foreign concept, but a forgotten one. A local law firm recently switched from WordPerfect 5.1 and the ladies there are up in arms because they have to use a mouse now. Well, they don't really -- WordPerfect 8 (which they are using) still lets you use keyboard shortcuts for everything, and the latest version has a "5.1" mode with the blue text screen and all the same old keyboard shortcuts.
  • Ask Slashdot has just hit a new low.

    Or perhaps trolled

  • Several suggestions... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by blankmange ( 571591 ) on Saturday December 13, 2003 @12:01PM (#7710685)
    First of all, I too, thought that this was not a serious posting... then I discovered that it was not humorous at all.

    Try these:

    ++ Learn to use the keyboard - there are easy keystroke shortcuts to perform the mouse clicks for you.

    ++ Move the computer out of the bedroom into another room.

    ++ Tell your girlfriend to get over it.

    ++ Get another girlfriend.

    ++ Go to bed with your girlfriend (what the hell are you doing at night anyway?).

    ++ Get on with your life.

    Could someone please explain why this was submitted???

  • Other hand? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Kj0n ( 245572 ) on Saturday December 13, 2003 @12:23PM (#7710790)
    My mouse, on the other hand, makes a very audible *click* each time I use it...

    Why do you use your other hand?

    *ducks*

  • Touchpad? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by barzok ( 26681 ) on Saturday December 13, 2003 @12:27PM (#7710806)
    Touchpads usually can be set up so a tap on the pad signals a click.

  • The mouse isn't the problem (Score:5, Funny)

    by peeping_Thomist ( 66678 ) * on Saturday December 13, 2003 @12:49PM (#7710924)
    If your gf is busting your chops over this, you have much more serious problems than a loud mouse. Lose the gf, keep the mouse.
    • No kidding. Hell, if it's really that big of a problem, move the computer to a seperate room. Then you can play your MP3s, click your mouse, and bang away on a nice clicky keyboard all you want without disturbing anyone else. The original poster is definitely overcomplicating a simple issue.
    • Seriously. If my past experience is any guide, once you fix that horrible noisy mouse, she'll find something else to complain about. Probably that the monitor is too bright. Then once you've moved to a braille system, she'll claim she can hear the hum from the power supply, and so on, and so on...

      Tell her the clicks are there, you can't do anything about 'em, and if they're really keeping her awake she can go sleep on the couch.

    • where did he say that she was busting his chops? he just said that it keeps her up. he probably feels bad about it. those of us who actually have girlfriends can tell you fellows that part of the point of a good relationship is that you make each other happy and do nice things for each other.

      :-)
  • [blockquote][i]My mouse, on the other hand, makes a very audible *click* each time I use it, and while providing a pleasant tactile feedback, it keeps my girlfriend awake during my late-night work sessions.[/i][/blockquote]So why not move the computer?

  • I'd suggest a touchpad (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Hollinger ( 16202 ) <michaelNO@SPAMhollinger.net> on Saturday December 13, 2003 @01:31PM (#7711144) Homepage Journal
    Your best option is a trackpad or touchpad of some sort. Most modern touchpads have several functions you may assign to various actions such as double-tapping, tap-dragging, dragging along the left or right edges, tapping in certain zones, etc. to keep you from ever having to use the function buttons.
  • Have you considered moving the computer into another room ? If your girlfriend is that much sensitive to noise, you would be better work elsewhere ...
  • Thanks, but I need my mouse and keyboard to both be nice and clicky. Otherwise, how am I going to know whether my son is surfing for pr0n when I'm not in the room?
    • Simple. Just look in the history, favorites and bookmarks. That way you can be add the good sites yourself if he forgets to CC you on them.
      • History: I can selectively delete in every browser, and Opera makes it really easy to nuke it all (along with cache and Wand passwords, among other things)

        Favorites/Bookmarks: Remember the damn URLs! Actually, I just use two portals, thehun and autopr0n.

        Cache: In IE, it gets REALLY fun, as Windows tries to hide [fuckmicrosoft.com] your cache, filling up your hard drive, making it almost impossible to delete quickly, and if you know where it is, fairly easy to find. As for the other browsers, you can kill the cache VERY easil
  • For example, I do a bit of multitrack digital recording. The mouse clicks can be a distraction when you're trying to get an artist to focus on the *song*, not the recording of the song.

    I have yet to find a way to use the keyboard to select a point in a recording where one wishes to punch in...

    Dave O'Heare

    • I have yet to find a way to use the keyboard to select a point in a recording

      Open your desktop environment's accessibility control panel (on Windows, Start > Settings > Control Panel > Accessibility Options; on old Mac OS, Apple > Control Panel > Easy Access) and turn on Mouse Keys. Then you can press 5 on the keypad to simulate a mouse click, and if your keyboard is not a model M like mine, it'll be nearly silent. In addition, some audio apps allow for moving the time cursor with the arr

      • Open your desktop environment's accessibility control panel ... and turn on Mouse Keys.

        Thanks, I'll give it a shot as soon as my caffeine hits.

        Dave O'Heare

  • Missing the point..... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jsimon12 ( 207119 ) on Saturday December 13, 2003 @03:09PM (#7711672) Homepage
    Your girlfriend isn't complaining about the clicking per se. In my opnion she is probably complaining because you are on the computer. So even if you find a quieter mouse she will complain about something else. Pay more attention to her and she won't care about the sound your mouse makes.
  • Alas, another poor victim on online gaming trying to steathily use the computer. Shhh..... be verrry quiet, I don't want anyone to know that the computer is on or that I am typing or clicking. :)

    Does anyone sell silent soundcards and speakers?
  • While I find the seriousness of the question scary, what is really disturbing is that it's a repeat:
    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/04 / 05/172221 2&mode=thread&tid=137
    Seriously I would get that g/f some mental health and some nice calming drugs if mouse clicks really bother her...

    Anyway, besides the various brands/cad mice and other options mentioned in the above, I've seen plenty of touchpads with quiet clicks and also my space saving keyboard with a microjoystick and mouse buttons is quiet

  • Original poster's reply (Score:3, Insightful)

    by UnrefinedLayman ( 185512 ) on Saturday December 13, 2003 @05:01PM (#7712207)
    Thank you all for the well thought-out and insightful replies. Especially the first poster. I'd like to address some of the replies, but rather than hit them one at a time, I'll give it a single go.

    Yes, I am serious. Don't look at me shocked and appalled, regarding me as some retarded freak of nature. If you think the question's stupid, don't reply. I think that if someone should stand over your shoulder and everytime you ask a question whose answer you don't know insult you and degrade you, you'd grow a little tired of it. So to all insightful posters, thanks. To all trolls, fuck off.

    While I understand it's possible to modify my existing mouse, my question mainly centered on whether or not there are silent mice manufactured. Notably, I'm looking to get rid of a mouse that uses mechanical parts, because since optical mice have come about I've gone through several simply by breaking the buttons or having the cables die. So while it's possible, that's not the focus of my inquiry.

    Yes, I'm happy with a scroll mouse and not a three-button mouse.

    If you re-read my post, you'll see I'm not interested in using the keyboard as my mouse. For example, the ThinkGeek [thinkgeek.com] keyboard replaces a mouse, but I'm not interested in doing that. I simply want to have a mouse that does not make noise, not relearn how to use a keyboard as a mouse.

    I don't go to bed when my SO goes to bed because I have to work for a living. Sometimes my work requires me to work at home, and sometimes into the night. But you're right, I should say "Fuck work!" go to bed, and worry about getting fired some other time!

    And for those times when it's not because I'm working into the night, but rather because I worked into the evening at my actual place of business, I should just say to hell with my relaxation time, go to bed, and worry about having no time to unwind some other time!

    Yes, I *was* talking about my girlfriend, not my sister, as one poster pointed out (and another corrected).

    To the poster who recommended the simple steps of:
    1) Buy a Mac
    2) Buy a wireless Mac mouse
    3) Quiet!!!!!!

    Thanks, but as I mentioned in the question, the ThinkGeek keyboard is too expensive, so I don't think getting an Apple is going to help me.

    I did not sing "Silent Night" when writing either this or the question.

    I know a lack of feedback can cause people to press too hard, which is why I'm looking for something like the buttons on the iPod on a mouse. Pushing too hard breaks keys, which is why I don't have a mechanical mouse. The adaptation to a non-mechanical mouse and not pressint too hard should be a non-issue for someone serious about it.

    It's not a foreign concept not to use the keyboard in Windows. I'm rather adept at using the keyboard only in Windows. The point is there are many things that cannot be done without a mouse, and even if I could do everything with the mouse, that wouldn't resolve the question I posed: is there a silent mouse? That's like saying "Use a banana!" when someone asks for an apple to make apple juice. You cannot make apple juice no matter how many bananas you have.

    To the person who recommended I learn how to use the keyboard, please note that I already know how to use a keyboard, as you may have noticed from me typing this reply and the original question up.

    I also cannot move the computer out of the room. Again, that doesn't answer the question of "is there a silent mouse?" If someone were to ask how to make their garage door quieter, you wouldn't tell them to move their garage somewhere else, would you? Unlike some people, I don't live with mommy and daddy and must make do with the space available in my 600 sq. ft. apartment. With two people living here, that means the computer goes in the bedroom.

    And just in case you're planning on telling me to move, I suggest that you note what I said above and note the fact that l

    • I also cannot move the computer out of the room. Again, that doesn't answer the question of "is there a silent mouse?"

      Sorry. Let me answer the question. Yes.

      If someone were to ask how to make their garage door quieter, you wouldn't tell them to move their garage somewhere else, would you?

      Depends. If it was you, yeah, I would.

      Unlike some people, I don't live with mommy and daddy and must make do with the space available in my 600 sq. ft. apartment.

      Touchy touchy. I don't live with mommy and dad

    • Lessons on "Asking Slashdot"... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jtheory ( 626492 ) on Saturday December 13, 2003 @11:55PM (#7714219) Homepage Journal
      When the editors post an "Ask Slashdot" question, they aren't doing it to help the person asking the question. They post it because they think it might be a problem shared by lots of people. You, the original questioner, are not the primary audience of these posts. You're just one of hundreds of thousands of readers, some of whom are just looking for the funny responses, some of whom have similar problems, some who's curiosity is piqued (because hey, I've never seen a silent mouse... let's see what people say) and some of whom just want to get a frist pr0st out there.

      Slashdot's moderation system is designed to keep the content as helpful as possible to the general readership (which includes you, but also includes lots of other people).

      Lots of the posts that you are slamming in your response were good posts -- they just weren't useful to your specific situation. Well, they're still good posts. Someone buying a new computer might like to know that they can get s silent Mac mouse. Someone with a yen for taking stuff apart might like to read how they can mod their mouse to silence it. Personally, I was sorry to see that there doesn't seem to be a standard-but-silent mouse (and I think you knew that already, since you've been searching for a while), but I might get one of those TouchStream keyboards on ThinkGeek to try it out... it looks cool. I thought the "learn how to avoid using the mouse" is a decent solution to your actual problem, which is noise. There are plenty of silent keyboards, some with touchpads (which would also help). If you know all the key combinations, you can certainly reduce the need for the mouse.

      I guess my main point is that I was kind of shocked by your reaction to a decent discussion on an interesting question. If you didn't find what you wanted, maybe it's not out there at the moment... that's no reason to flame a bunch of people offering helpful advice for free.
      • Let me get this straight. You actually believe that thinking goes one in the selection of stories on /.?

        You must be really new, stories on /. are picked by a drunk monkey who is droping acid, doing speed, and randomly jaming crayons up his nose.

        And that is on a good day.

        Ahhh! Not the Big Blue Room, anything but that!
      • I understand that the purpose of Slashdot is to encourage discourse. Unfortunately, when many posts are obvious and flame-bait replies, it's not encouraging discourse, it's wasting time (although you and others may not see it that way).

        For example, several posters told me to get rid of my girlfriend. Despite what those posters may have believed, and despite whatever good intentions they may have had, dumping my girlfriend of several years is not a great solution to my problem, nor can I imagine it's a go
        • "Maybe I'm being a little too heavy-handed in how I think polite and relevant replies should be made."

          To all trolls, fuck off.

          Unlike some people, I don't live with mommy and daddy

          I'm simply a considerate human fucking being

          I only wear one undershirt per day, but that's a more innovative item than what I click all goddamned day long.

          I guess asking questions isn't very en vogue anymore.

          For everyone who was a total dick, I hope you enjoy sucking it when the day comes you have a non-mechanical mouse.

          T

    • I've got a Microsoft Trackball Optical 1.0. The buttons are pretty quiet on it, partly because it's been used heavily for a year, but I remember it was fairly quiet when I got it new. Their mice probably have similar buttons.
    • please note that I didn't say she was complaining. In fact, she's never complained once. I'm simply a considerate human fucking being, and wanted to try to keep the noise level down when I'm working at night. She sleeps straight through it, and I can too.

      Have you ever tried experimenting with having your GF click the mouse while you are in bed and see if you can actually hear it? It might be you are being over sensitive to the sound around you since you are worried that you may wake her up. Kinda like w
    • I actually find it annoying when watching a news programme - you often hear mouse/ keyboard clicks while the anchor is off screen during an interview with a slide or something. I would have thought broadcasters would have come up with something, with the 'artistic temperaments' of some of their talking heads :-)

    • Perhaps a "membrane switch" mouse would work. The membrane is a lot quieter than a mouse, while still having tactile feedback. Expensive drafting "mice" had them years ago. Now, they are popular in TV remotes, cell phones, etc.

      I've seen them for gaming:
      http://www.rotokiller.com/rtr720.html#m1m1

      Haven't seen them anywhere else, but maybe you could do surgery on a cheap mouse and replace the microswitches with a membrane switch.

  • Razor Boomslang (Score:5, Informative)

    by squisher ( 212661 ) on Saturday December 13, 2003 @05:05PM (#7712228)
    There is a mouse out there that does not click when you press the button: http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/gaming/66 89/
    At least the older model they sold like 2 years ago did not click because that would make the sniper move the mouse about 1nm and then he'd miss... ;-) Maybe a little expensive but a very precise and good mouse - except that maybe the zero-force approach makes you click more often then you intend =). I heard though that you get used to it.

    ~Squisher

    • Re:Razor Boomslang (Score:5, Interesting)

      by lewp ( 95638 ) on Saturday December 13, 2003 @09:45PM (#7713667) Journal
      It's worse than that. The buttons are so sensitive that picking up the mouse and setting it back down will cause them to click. Resting your fingers on them normally will hold them down. This is difficult to get used to. Eventually you learn to keep your fingers hovered slightly above the buttons and you compensate for not being able to pick up the mouse by cranking up the sensitivity high enough so that you never need to.

      One unfortunate thing I was never able to figure out is how to get the buttons to click rapidly. Since there is virtually no tactile feedback to clicking it's hard to tell if you're actually clicking or just holding the button down without really exaggerating the finger motion involved.

      There's a much bigger problem: I had three older Razer Boomslangs (before they went bankrupt, or whatever happened). The first one I actually bought, and it broke the day I got it. Razer, thankfully, had a rather good return policy, and had a new one on the way after about 5 minutes on the phone.

      My second Razer lasted through a couple months of off and on usage. The difficulty of rapidly clicking the buttons made pistol shooting in CS a major pain in the ass, so I kept switching it with my IntelliMouse Optical. Finally it just stopped working one day. The mouse would only move vertically and the primary button would not work. Another call to Razer, 5 minutes, and another mouse was on the way.

      The final Razer lasted about a week of me forcing myself to use it exclusively. Just as I was getting used to it, it fell off my desk. The mouse wheel became jammed inside the mouse, and even when I freed it so that it would rotate properly it was no longer functional. I didn't bother to replace this one.

      There's a lot of upside to the mouse, it's incredibly smooth and accurate. There is really no comparing it to standard consumer mice in that respect. You want headshots, to be a railgun god, or just be incredibly precise in your Photoshop work? You can't beat it. It's good enough that, despite my problems with it, I'm thinking of buying one of their new models just to see if they've fixed their problems.

      Unfortunately, if you can't count on them to last more than a week at a time they aren't worth much. I've stepped on, dropped, thrown, and even backed over IntelliMouse Optical mice with my car and had them work perfectly afterwards. I don't expect every mouse to handle that, but one that can't handle falling off a desk on some carpet is just unacceptable. Oh, and once you get used to optical mice, going back to cleaning a ball is just annoying.

      My advice: if you decide to buy one, buy two. You'll need the second one while you wait for the first one to be replaced. Also, prepare to forget a bunch of your mousing habits if your current ones aren't compatible with what the mouse likes.
      • "Oh, and once you get used to optical mice, going back to cleaning a ball is just annoying."

        They don't have much of a mouse budget at work or at uni, so I've started using the mouse I originally got for my laptop everywhere else.

        It's worth the weird looks. I've found that when tensions are running high in group situations, a shitty mouse can be the catalyst for someone losing it. "Would you like to use this instead?" has been the end of several conflicts for me in the last few months. The relief of a
      • It's pricey. $79 for a mouse is a bit much, but I don't think I have ever paid for a mouse. I like the low profile of the back end, the hump-backed design of the common 'intellimouse' is fatally flawed and results in a nagging pain in the lower palm after a few months. This mouse reminds me of a good sniper rifle in some ways, pricey, extremely accurate and sensitive (some people adjust their triggers down to the point where bumping the rifle is likely to set it off, bad idea). If they had an adjustment for

  • My mouse, on the other hand, makes a very audible *click* each time I use it, and while providing a pleasant tactile feedback, it keeps my girlfriend awake during my late-night work sessions.

    You could always do like the prince did [gilead.org.il]: marry her and put the mouse in a museum.

    But seriously, are you living in a studio apartment or something? Add this to the long list of reasons that the computer should not be placed in the bedroom (I say this of course lounging on my bed with my laptop, but hey, I'm a bachel

  • And throw your mouse away!

  • like one of these Kensington Studio Mice http://www.kensington.com/html/1216.html and configure middle mouse button as left click. But that doesn't help with right mouse button; much. There are two programs I know of that you can use software-wise on 2k/XP to emulate the right mouse button, for the truly quiet environment. One of them is called something like Lokai Mouse; the other escapes me at the moment. Lokai Mouse was written so the author could use a Mac mouse with only one mouse button, and stil

  • 99 cent solution... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by cr0sh ( 43134 ) on Saturday December 13, 2003 @07:21PM (#7712943) Homepage
    If your GF can't stand the sound of the mouse clicking, get her some of those foam earplugs. No, I am serious. They are pretty comfortable to wear at night, and will cut all the sound (I wear some at times because my wife likes to watch TV when we go to sleep). I doubt you will find anything, simply because it is such a niche product. Plus, there are the HID (human interface design) issues - the click is both a tactile and audible feedback for the user, without it, you might feel "odd", as if something is out of place, and uncomfortable, when using it (kinda like how those rubbery chicklet keyboards never caught on)...
  • This was discussed on Slashdot previously. Here [slashdot.org]
  • Find a neoprene sleeve and cut it to put on top of your mouse like a glove. It'll insultate the noise and give you better texture to hold the mouse with. Or you can please your GF by sticking a cute stuffed [google.com] animal on it.
  • while the mice provided with the wacom tablets still click, you can avoid that by using the pressure-sensitive stylus. you click by tapping the stylus on the pad.

  • Link (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    this company sells supposedly clickless mice for gaming, whether that might meet your needs, dunno
    http://www.rotokiller.com/rtr720.html
  • They've made mouses with no mouse click noise, and no scroll mouse noise.

    But people liked the tactile feedback so the noiseless mouse never caught on.

    And as for the comment that a mouse is one of the noisest parts of a computer.... dream on. My mouse doesn't make near as much noise as my keyboard, or even just a single case fan or HDD spinning.

    If you are that concerned with having the "quietest" PC, then go modify a "normal" mouse to be silent. There are a million easy ways to do it, and if you are that

  • Try moving to a house where your girlfriend can sleep in a bedroom instead of in your office. If your mouse clicks so loudly it wakes her up in another room, replace either the mouse, or the girlfriend, or both.

  • WTF (Score:1)

    by realkiwi ( 23584 )
    I keep my girlfriend awake at night too but not with my mouse...

    She isn't complaining! And after 14 years together that makes me proud!

    • Re:WTF (Score:3, Funny)

      by Tackhead ( 54550 )
      > I keep my girlfriend awake at night too but not with my mouse...
      >
      > She isn't complaining! And after 14 years together that makes me proud!

      Just because it plugs into a PS/2 port doesn't make it a mouse. Now take that pager motor out of your :CueCat before someone sues you, you pervert.

  • http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~nd/surprise_97/journal/vo l1/ncp/ if you happen to have $14,000 to spare - actually, make that $28,000 - you will want two.
  • Go to this page [dumbentia.com]. Scroll down to StupidaMouse.

    I think it will fit the bill perfectly.
  • Try sleeping with your girlfriend rather than your mouse. I'm sure both of you will be happier, even the mouse.
  • I'm sure your girlfriend has pointed this out already, but you could just stop slamming your meathands down on the mouse so hard.

    Oh, and does her mother know you're living together?
  • My friend once had a mouse that broke, and one of the symptoms was that the clicking was gone. I have no idea how it happened, but it's damn annoying using his mouse.

    It's true that you won't miss the clicking sound until it's gone.. it's just not right!

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