busted optical mouse

hi all,

i've been using my dell optical mouse for about three years with nary a hitch until recently.

now the thing doesn't work. if i shake the and the usb connector while in the port, i can get a second or two of glorious red light and then the whole thing goes dead again. same operation occurs with the other computers i've tried it with.

i popped it open to take a look and nothing seems to be loose. i have a little kung foo skill with a soldering iron so i was hoping that was the problem. i'm going to lop the usb connector off and swap in one from a dollar store usb-to-usb cable to see if i can get it to work. before i turn this into frankenmouse, does anyone have any ideas? (anyway who says 'drivers' gets a free trip courtesy of 'my boot airlines').

or should i admit defeat and bury the little fella in the grass behind my apartment building?

thanks,
jonathan

Depends on your level of determination. Obviously it's the connector, so assuming you manage to match the wires up correctly, I assume your soldering iron approach would work.

Personally I'd bury the sucker and go spend the $20 or so on a new one. My patience level isn't what it used to be.

yeah, i know. i should just admit defeat.

but then again i'm broke and using MouseKeys is really starting to get to me.

Now's the perfect time to upgrade to the MX518.