Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical 1.1 LED Removal

[Me@Work]

I have a Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical 1.1
Like many of the Intellmice is has two red LEDs, one which one which faces forward for the sensor and a second that points backwards to illuminate the Intellimouse logo. The light is very bright and stays on all the time, gets distracting while watching films, etc. I'm curious if anyone has actually disassembled their mouse and attempted to remove or disable it? The disassembly seems somewhat involved so I was just curious if anyone has tried it before I potentially damage my lovely mouse. :doh:

[Pylon]

There's a screw, and under the front two feet are two clip tabs (I'm not sure if the back two also have tabs, I forgot). You can undo them with a small flathead screwdriver or similar. Be careful, as they're not that hard to break and breaking them drastically alters the feel of the switches.

[AlleyViper]

You can just cover it with black electric tape first, makes it easier if you'd like to revert. Painting it with a black marker should also result to make it fainter, if you still wish to know if it's getting usb power. Btw, if you're gaming these mouses are greatly enhanced on acceleration response by overclocking usb ports to 500MHz.

[xwhatsit]

You can just cover it with black electric tape first, makes it easier if you'd like to revert. Painting it with a black marker should also result to make it fainter, if you still wish to know if it's getting usb power. Btw, if you're gaming these mouses are greatly enhanced on acceleration response by overclocking usb ports to 500MHz.

...

Lul wut.

`Overclock' your USB ports?

USB is USB. It's a standard. If you change the signalling speed, no USB device will be able to talk to your computer any more.

If you're talking about increasing the USB polling rate, then yes, if you're using a mouse-based game it might make things smoother. However we're talking about increasing the polling rate from default 125Hz to 500Hz or 1000Hz -- note hertz, not megahertz (!!). This means it will be polling every 1ms at 1000Hz instead of polling every 8ms at 125ms.

But that's just part of the operating system's USB HID driver's software implementation (under Linux, modprobe usbhid mousepoll=1 for 1ms/1000Hz polling rate). No `overclocking' involved.

Personally I've never really had the need to check if my mouse is receiving `USB power'. Either the port supplied +5V or it doesn't. If the device is failing, check dmesg.

[AlleyViper]

I know it's not proper overclocking, if you check my edit reason you'll see I even referred it as USB polling -- no need for the lul wut  ironic tone, please . Sometimes it's just easier to point it that way, albeit incorrectly, as more work is done around USB ports than it should by default. In Windows this is done by patching usbport.sys.
Using MHz instead of Hz was of course a distraction, so thanks for pointing it. Btw, 1000Hz won't even work with a WMO.
You're missing my point with USB power checking, sometimes it be can useful to check the state of your +5VSB on USB ports configuration to know if you are still powering peripherals on that root hub when the MB is on soft off (G2/S5 state). With this mouse and it's LED, leaving it on a PS2 port or +5VSB enabled USB port ca be a major nuisance at night.

[AlleyViper]

...

Lul wut.

`Overclock' your USB ports?

USB is USB. It's a standard. If you change the signalling speed, no USB device will be able to talk to your computer any more.

If you're talking about increasing the USB polling rate, then yes, if you're using a mouse-based game it might make things smoother. However we're talking about increasing the polling rate from default 125Hz to 500Hz or 1000Hz -- note hertz, not megahertz (!!). This means it will be polling every 1ms at 1000Hz instead of polling every 8ms at 125ms.

But that's just part of the operating system's USB HID driver's software implementation (under Linux, modprobe usbhid mousepoll=1 for 1ms/1000Hz polling rate). No `overclocking' involved.

Personally I've never really had the need to check if my mouse is receiving `USB power'. Either the port supplied +5V or it doesn't. If the device is failing, check dmesg.

I know it's not proper overclocking, if you check my edit reason you'll see I even referred it as USB polling -- no need for the lul wut ironic tone, please . Sometimes it's just easier to point it that way, albeit incorrectly, as more work is done around USB ports than it should by default. In Windows this is done by patching usbport.sys.
Using MHz instead of Hz was of course a distraction, so thanks for pointing it. Btw, 1000Hz won't even work with a WMO.
You're missing my point with USB power checking, sometimes it be can useful to check the state of your +5VSB on USB ports configuration to know if you are still powering peripherals on that root hub when the MB is on soft off (G2/S5 state). With this mouse and it's LED, leaving it on a PS2 port or +5VSB enabled USB port ca be a major nuisance at night.

[Spinsle McGee]

I just uncovered one of these in my office and I've been hesitant to give a try. Should I?

[Pylon]

1. Take off the 4 feet. Be careful not to bend them or anything since you need to reattach them.
2. On the front, under the feet will be clip tabs. You can undo them with a flat headed jeweler's screwdriver, but be very careful in not breaking them. If you break them the mouse buttons will feel horrible and might not even actuate, so you'll probably have to superglue the front side down.'
3. On the back side are a pair of screws. Remove them.

I don't exactly recall the rest, but should be fairly straightforward.

[munch]

May I suggest getting a pair of replacement feet such as Hyperglides or so instead of the original mousefeet? It was very hard to not damage them... also Hyperglides are IMO much nicer to use.
I am not entirely sure if you would need to put a normal diode in place of the LED though, I actually didn't and it still works.

Another method would be to just paint that part with black paint, it works just as well.
And yes, I have tried both. :biggrin1:

[NewbieOneKenobi]

Sorry to be unable to help you (other than that I wouldn't think twice about unscrewing the mouse and poking around inside), but how much screen resolution are you using and does the mouse feel slow due to its 400 dpi, or imprecise due to higher sensitivity settings on the software level?

[garrettgrimsley]

I'm not sure about OP, but I have the same mouse and run my main monitor at 1920*1080.  
I have used the 1:1 registry fix for acceleration and do find the mouse acceptable for normal use.  
On the other hand I play SC2 at 51% sensitivity and find it sluggish, but I have to play it on that setting otherwise I find it hard to micro.  
Hope this helped.

[garrettgrimsley]

Sorry to be unable to help you (other than that I wouldn't think twice about unscrewing the mouse and poking around inside), but how much screen resolution are you using and does the mouse feel slow due to its 400 dpi, or imprecise due to higher sensitivity settings on the software level?

I'm not sure about OP, but I have the same mouse and run my main monitor at 1920*1080.
I have used the 1:1 registry fix for acceleration and do find the mouse acceptable for normal use.
On the other hand I play SC2 at 61% sensitivity and find it sluggish, but I have to play it on that setting otherwise I find it hard to micro.
Hope this helped.