My wife bought me a Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000 for Christmas, and I really like it. However, I just replaced its batteries for the fourth time since Christmas: they’re dying about once every six weeks.
All I’ve been able to turn up in Google is a bunch of reviews that mention its outstanding battery life, and one Youtube comment in which someone is having about the same problem as me.
I also know that when my receiver was plugged into a USB port on the back of my computer, the signal was really sketchy; I had to plug it into the front to get a smooth signal.
Any ideas what’s going on? Is there a setting (in Windows 7) I can alter to extend battery life?
Old Logitechs used to have an issue that they chewed up batteries quicker on dark surfaces - they adjusted the brightness of the laser to match the surface. It was recommended that you left them parked on a piece of white paper rather than a dark mouse pad, so that they would turn down the laser.
I wonder why they don’t just keep making them with rechargeable lithium batteries, and a charging station to put the mouse in when you’re not using it. That always seemed to be the most sensible design.
I had one of those, the batteries lasted a real long time, in fact I eventually threw the mouse out – when the button’s springs wore out. So there’s a down side.
Older wireless mice would drain their batts pretty rapidly. But the new one I have lasts at 6-9 months between battery switching. It’s one of the Logitech Invisible Optic series.
'Couse, if you use the mouse to play mouse-intensive games, like for me, Diablo II, then forget it – those will suck the battery charge out in a matter of weeks.
'They" do make a wireless rechargeable mouse with charging station. “THEY” are Logitech. Charging station is always connected to line power. Mouse has an On-Off switch to allow full charging current.
I know. I’ve owned them. But they quit doing it on most of their line. A basic mouse like this one takes 2 AA cells, which they claim it can run “up to 3 years” off of:
That’s the mouse I’m using right now. The thing I hate about that one is that when the battery starts to get low on the mouse or the keyboard (which uses AAs) the taskbar icon blinks until you charge or replace them. Not a big deal for the mouse since I can just plug it in the next time I know I’ll be away from my desk for an hour or so (or for the day). But it’s annoying for my keyboard since I’ll have to replace the batteries even though I know I could probably get a lot more life out of them, but there’s no way I could deal with a blinking icon for who knows how long.
I recommend using rechargeable batteries, which is what I do.
It’s a slightly bit more expensive route but it works effectively and is more of a long term whole house solution than just for mouse battery replacement. (All my AAA,A,D batteries are Eneloops)
I use only Sanyo Eneloop rechargeables and a Maha / Powerex MH-C9000 charger
I haven’t bought a regular battery in a couple years and all my Eneloops (even the earliest/oldest ones) are still going strong
I just bought a new HP Touchsmart 310 computer with wireless mouse and keyboard. The mouse has an on/off switch on the bottom. I just switch it to off when I shutdown the computer each night. I don´t know how long the batteries will last though, but I expect a long time.
Oh man. I use whatever smooth surface is handy. Sometimes- like today- I am on a black glossy table at the local Starbucks…er… office. Must examine this more closely. Using a 2 year old Logitech wireless.
I am baffled by the appeal of wireless mice (mouses?). They seem to me offer virtually no advantages whatsoever over the wired equivalent (the little transmitter thing takes up almost as much room as a wired mouse does anyway), yet they eat up batteries at an astounding rate.
Someone once gave me a fancy wireless keyboard and mouse set, where the mouse was rechargeable and came with a little caddy to recharge. However, the battery would still frequently go dead because I (occasionally) and other family members (almost always!) would forget to put it in the caddy to recharge.
By contrast, I loved the wireless keyboard, which makes it easy to clear a space on my desk when needed. When the original set broke, I bought another, but discarded the mouse and use the keyboard only, with a regular wired mouse that never gives me any trouble.
Seriously, can anyone tell me any real, significant advantage of having a wireless mouse?
My Dearly Beloved™ and I frequently watch movies or videos from the laptop, wired through HDMI into the t.v. set. Using a wireless mouse allows us to lay in bed with the laptop over near the t.v. set, and control it by wireless mouse. A wire, even one a few feet long, would wreck that set-up.