Ran into a situation with a Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 that also seems to plague the Wireless Laser Mouse 8000. When placing the Laser Mouse on its charging cradle, the LED on the top of the mouse slowly flashes green for a few seconds, as if it was successfully charging the NiMH battery inside, but then switches to rapidly flashing the LED red.
Taking the rechargeable battery out also results in the flashing red LED. So, the battery is clearly not being recharged. This is further corroborated by the short battery life.
I saw online that some people have found some sort of button underneath the battery and that it’s not being depressed. However, the mouse I was having problems with did not have such a button. There is a small hole under the battery, but no switch or button in the hole.
Upon further investigation, I noticed that the positive metal plate in the battery compartment of the mouse has two plastic rails holding it in place.
When putting the battery inside, the rails tend to press back against the top of the battery such that the battery’s tip doesn’t make good contact with the metal. Since the metal plate is tapered inward, it only makes reliable contact with the battery when the battery is pushed all the way down into the compartment.
As a result of this plastic getting in the way and preventing the battery from making contact with the positive conducting plate, of course it can’t recharge. It also explains why it only charges for a few seconds–just until the battery slips out of position and loses contact. However, the fix for this recharging problem is rather simple.
- Cut a small piece of paper a little shorter than the length of the battery and about twice as wide
- Fold the paper in half to achieve a thickness of two sheets of paper
- Place the battery into the battery compartment
- Put the paper on top of the battery
- Close the battery cover
The cover should go on snugly so that it firmly presses the battery into the compartment. That will enable the positive tip of the Laser Mouse’s battery to stay in contact with the positive conductor plate. If it doesn’t press firmly enough, add one more sheet that’s half the width of the first one (for a thickness of three sheets).
After applying this little fix, the problem mouse’s LED properly throbs green and charges up completely.
(Update: Added photos)
sorr, but none of all works for my 7000. Stipid I I can’t get it to work. Even tried to buy a new battery, but that now, after a few days, refuses to charge as well.
Is it still a new mouse? Maybe you just got a faulty mouse or charger. If this fix doesn’t work and a new battery doesn’t work, you might try exchanging the mouse. If you have a friend with the same mouse, you might try his charging station.
Hi Peter,
Thanks for providing the solution to this problem.
In my case: a 7000 series mouse, place it on the charging cradle, one (sometimes more) ‘slow’ green flashes, followed by ‘quick’ red flashing. Some other post suggested a malfunctioning ‘is there a battery inserted’ detection switch as cause. In my case the switch is a round piece of metal in the mouse battery compartment which is pushed slightly away when a battery is inserted. Suggested solution here was to make the battery slightly thicker. In my case this did not help. Note that the piece of folded paper on top of the battery would also result in this switch to function more reliable.
In my case, the root cause Peter found – positive tip of battery is not long enough to make a reliable contact – allowed me to solve the problem.
I noted that some AA cells have a lightly longer tip than others. I just inserted one with a longer tip: done! (didn’t find how to insert a picture, otherwise I could show you, but it is pretty obvious. The battery I had with the longer tip was in total also slightly longer than the one with a shorter tip)
I wondered: why is the contact ‘good’ for using the mouse and ‘bad’ for charging? Perhaps this is due to today’s charging systems: They ‘pulse’ charging current into the battery and measure the battery’s response to determine if it is fully charged, defective, etc. This ‘pulsing’ makes the charger very susceptible to less-than-perfect battery contacts. Perhaps that could explain.
In any case: still looking at a ‘slow’ flashing green led on the mouse: it is charging! Peter: thanks!
Wytze
Hi Wytze. Yes, a shorter than normal tip does exacerbate the problem. The second and third photos in the post illustrate this–the plastic gets in the way. Steve, in comment #2, just inserted a piece of metal to fill the gap. You can probably stick a section of a paper clip, aluminum foil, or wire to improve the connection.
I read on another site that the battery supplied was too thin to make proper contact. I tried the paper and aluminum foil suggestions without success.
It finally ocurred to me that if the battery was the problem, get a new battery. I put in a new rechargeable battery and it works wonderfully now.
Good luck!
It works! Thank you very much
Thanks for the pictorial, so I could see and understand where to change and replace the battery. Truly appreciate your assistance!
awesome! thanks for the tip!!
nevermind, started doing the red thing again unfortunately.
FINALLY!
Thanks for resolving this really annoying problem.
Thank you!
I bought 50 of these suckers and so far all of them had this problem-until now.
Wow! 50 of them. That’s a lot of mice.
I had the same problem with my mouse. Im trying that little piece of paper trick, I just put back the mouse on the charger again. Its flashing green now (FINALLLY), Ill try in a few hours to see how it goes. But so far, this is the best option I had all day after consulting I dont know how many forums/troubleshooting boards.
Thanks =DD
/rawr
Thanks you so much, it totally worked. I was about to take my mouse back because I would charge it over night and it would only last like 2 minutes before dying.
Ok so mine went back to red as well, what I did was shave a bit of the plastic on the inside of the rails and then took a small flathead screwdriver an bent the + connecting blade in a bit to make better contact with the battery, its been a few minutes and it seems like its working.
Yeah, if the adding paper trick doesn’t work, then improving the contact with the positive terminal is the next step. You’re the first to shave the rails. Others have done it by sticking a piece of paper clip, wire or aluminum foil to fill the gap between the battery and the metal conductor in the mouse.
Peter:
Yeah, I had a bit of a budget windfall and thought I’d treat some of my 300 users. Plus the 7000 was on sale.
Who knew it was going to turn into a make-work project?
Still have 40 to go…
Amazing!
A lot thanks!
My hero! This mouse has been a royal pain since it was 3 months old. Thanks so much for the easy inexpensive fix!!
Holy crap. I doubted this. I thought it was so stupid. But hell it worked. I have been having problems for a couple of years now. first was the 7000 mouse. but I took it back to the shop and they couldnt fix it, so I asked for a replacement and I did not want the 7000 back so I asked for the new one at the time that cwas just released into the country. the 8000. it was all good but after about 6 months I started having the same problems. I thought to myself oh shit not again. Well thanks buddy youve solved it. But I’m hopeing it wasnt just a coincidence, coz I know it sometimes did charge. but time will tell. In the meantime Thank You.
Hi Blizzard. Glad it worked out. If it still doesn’t charge, then you’ll need to fill the gap between the positive tip of the battery and the positive conductor in the battery compartment. Just use a piece of foil, bare wire or paperclip.
Fantastic! Thank you for taking the time out for this… Luckily I don’t like to fiddle too much and immediately rush to the blog sites to find fixes, and 9 of 10 times someone has figured them out. Thanks again Peter!
Awesome fix. Been on some MS forums and most of the users were kinda in the “out of luck-send to MS” boat. This did it for me. Now the mouse charges great.
Thanks Cha. Feel free to link from those forums to this post so everyone can quickly get their mouse working.
Worked perfectly. Solved my problem thanks bro