Author Topic: Kensington Slimblade Trackball rubbing noise when scrolling? (Read 8943 times)

glhughes · « **on:** Sat, 23 January 2010, 23:54:56 »

I just received one of these as a gift and am having to send it back. Whenever I turn the ball to scroll it seems like the ball rubs against the base and makes a loud noise. :suspicious:

Really too bad because it's a beautiful trackball. I played with it a little bit before boxing it back up and was left with the impression that it would be awesome if it wasn't broken.

In any case, a new one's on the way to replace it (go Amazon!) but I'm a little worried it might also be borked. This one didn't have any obvious signs of damage although it did not sit exactly flat on the table.

What are your experiences with the build quality of these things?

spire · « **Reply #1 on:** Sun, 24 January 2010, 00:24:16 »

You don't mean the faint clicking sound that it intends to make as scrolling audio feedback, I assume. Your description referred to a "loud noise", which is a bummer because this is a really great trackball when it's working as intended. The upper two buttons requiring some Japanese utility to reprogram is a bit obnoxious, but even without those buttons I was using and enjoying the Slimblade.

Unfortunately, while at a smaller angle than the Kensington ExpertMouse, the Slimblade is still at an angle and, thus, potentially very bad for your wrist if you're a heavy user, depending on the size of your hand. The thumb can often rest in a tensed position, poised to left-click, which can lead to a repetitive stress injury to your RCL down the line.

spire · « **Reply #2 on:** Sun, 24 January 2010, 00:24:49 »

http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=6812

glhughes · « **Reply #3 on:** Sun, 24 January 2010, 00:45:08 »

No, the faint clicking sound is actually rather cool. This noise is kind of a rubbing sound. It sort of sounds like dragging a metal-legged chair across a tile floor (apparently my memories from grade school still haunt me :heh:).

Thanks for the link; I'd seen that before. It is crappy that Kensington won't offer the software to program the buttons. I'm happy with the 2-button support for the time being and I'm kind of hoping someone comes out with a better solution than hacking the drivers in the near future.

glhughes · « **Reply #4 on:** Sun, 24 January 2010, 04:23:19 »

I should clarify that by not sitting flat on the desk what I mean is that the feet of the trackball do not touch the desk evenly and thus lightly pressing on a corner of the base will cause it to rock back and forth.

The slope of the trackball seemed perfectly fine to me while I was using it.

spire · « **Reply #5 on:** Sun, 24 January 2010, 16:09:07 »

Hmm. It sounds like perhaps the box you got was dropped and something went askance inside? The unbalanced perch is definitely not working as-intended (mine is very stable, anyway), and the sound you're describing shouldn't be there.

I'm not sure where you'll find a store carrying that particular device, but if you live near a Microcenter I can attest that they keep them in-stock. Good luck, mate.

glhughes · « **Reply #6 on:** Tue, 26 January 2010, 19:01:10 »

Just got the replacement trackball from Amazon today and... wow, I am so thoroughly disappointed.

The ball makes a similar noise to the first although it's fainter. However, the buttons on this one are absolutely horrible. Tons of play in everything but the bottom-left button. When pressing them there's a noticable click as the plastic contacts the top of the switch underneath the housing but before the switch is activated. It feels like I'm double-clicking. Absolutely horrible!

About the only positive thing I can say is that it sits flat on the desk.

I cannot believe the build quality of these things is this bad. Seriously Kensington, WTF?! :mad2:

HaaTa · « **Reply #7 on:** Tue, 26 January 2010, 21:59:11 »

I does depend on where you click on the buttons for the Kensington Slimblade.

I personally think the build quality is fairly good (Well not CH good).

As for the sound, I notice it slightly as well. It bothered me at first but then I got used to it.

glhughes · « **Reply #8 on:** Wed, 27 January 2010, 01:49:13 »

I went to Fry's this evening and bought a third Slimblade to test. This one started out very whiny-noisy when twisting like the first one but it quieted down substantially after playing with it for a while. I would say there is little to no noise with this one now. 3 of the buttons click OK; the bottom right one has a bit of a sticky-click feel to it depending on where I press it.

This one seems to be the "best" of the three, although that's not saying much. I've decided to play with this one for a few days to see if I get used to the bottom-right button and/or it improves.

Re the 3/5 star ratings: From reading the reviews most of those low ratings were due to the inflexible drivers included w/ the trackball. I did not come across any reviews that described the problems I've experienced with the hardware.

In Stereo! · « **Reply #9 on:** Wed, 27 January 2010, 02:47:20 »

What resolution does the Slimblade have?

glhughes · « **Reply #10 on:** Thu, 28 January 2010, 22:33:04 »

The bottom-right button on #3 got progressively worse so I went back to swap for #4, which has the exact same problem albeit in a milder form. I played with this one for the whole day and can say that the trackball definitely requires several hours to break it in to the point where it's decently usable and smooth. I was still getting intermittent loud screech-like noises when scrolling on occasion though.

In any case, after using it for a whole day (12 hours) my wrist is completely exhausted. This plus the disapointing build quality of the trackball have made me decide to go back to my trusty old mouse.

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Author Topic: Kensington Slimblade Trackball rubbing noise when scrolling? (Read 8943 times)