Intellimouse Pro alternatives?

[Meddling-Monk]

Hi all, that time again.

The current Intellimouse scrolling capability suddenly died on me, although you can still middle click with it. Tried it on another system and same issue, so assuming something internal has duffed up, but not bothered enough to go get it fixed. Have just tried looking for a replacement or anything from MS and it looks like this mouse got discontinued last year, so I can't source another one that I can trust.

So, what are the alternatives to this mouse these days?

I don't have any absolute requirements, but I would prefer:

Wired (over wireless, as my Logitech MX Keys keyboard can often flake out already and in online games, that's a bad thing)
5 button config as usual (Left, Right, Middle/Scroll, Front, Back buttons)

Thanks for any suggestions all.

 

[Bubo]

If the scroll wheel type is the one with the slots in the wheel with an led shining through the slots to a sensor on the other side, then it will almost certainly be fluff blocking the slots, which you can pick out and blow away if you take the top cover off. Logotech MX518 used to do this a fair bit.

If the scroll wheel is the other type which has a supposedly sealed sensor with a hexagonal spigot on the axis for the wheel, and no slots on the wheel itself, then this is also almost certainly down to dust getting inside the sensor, which can sometimes be cleared my turning the mouse upside down and rapidly running the mouse back and forth on the scroll wheel, so the wheel spins really fast. This is supposed to force out the dust away from the sensor bits. I have to do this quite regularly on a Pulsar V3 Lite. It is a pain in the arse tbh, but personally not enough to just bin the mouse.

 

[Worthy]

Your requirements are basically “I need a new mouse”. Have a look on rtings for any similar shapes to what your old mouse was and go from there. What I would say though is don’t tie yourself to a wired mouse, especially if you’re gaming. I understand the keyboard side of things but then they generally don’t move all over the place and having a wire attached isn’t a big deal, but dragging a mouse around everywhere with a wire is a bit pointless nowadays as you can’t notice any difference between wired and wireless performance. If you’re worried about interference (I’ve personally never had this on any wireless mice), you could always order something, test it out and then return it if it isn’t working for you.

 

[Joe Jones]

When I built my own custom mouse shell I built it around the Coolermaster MM730 which at the time I picked up for around £8 delivered which was a fantastic deal.

Good technology, decent mouse software with some good tweakables to configure the mouse and the shape is quite similar to the Intellimouse Pro. I gamed with it stock for a while but didn't get on with the shape.

 

[Meddling-Monk]

If the scroll wheel type is the one with the slots in the wheel with an led shining through the slots to a sensor on the other side, then it will almost certainly be fluff blocking the slots, which you can pick out and blow away if you take the top cover off. Logotech MX518 used to do this a fair bit.

If the scroll wheel is the other type which has a supposedly sealed sensor with a hexagonal spigot on the axis for the wheel, and no slots on the wheel itself, then this is also almost certainly down to dust getting inside the sensor, which can sometimes be cleared my turning the mouse upside down and rapidly running the mouse back and forth on the scroll wheel, so the wheel spins really fast. This is supposed to force out the dust away from the sensor bits. I have to do this quite regularly on a Pulsar V3 Lite. It is a pain in the arse tbh, but personally not enough to just bin the mouse.

Thanks, will give this a go later to see if it can help revive the wheel on the Intellimouse (and then migrate it to another rig rather than keep on main).

Your requirements are basically “I need a new mouse”. Have a look on rtings for any similar shapes to what your old mouse was and go from there. What I would say though is don’t tie yourself to a wired mouse, especially if you’re gaming. I understand the keyboard side of things but then they generally don’t move all over the place and having a wire attached isn’t a big deal, but dragging a mouse around everywhere with a wire is a bit pointless nowadays as you can’t notice any difference between wired and wireless performance. If you’re worried about interference (I’ve personally never had this on any wireless mice), you could always order something, test it out and then return it if it isn’t working for you.

Yeah, we have heavy interferrence here unfortunately, we're not certain on the cause. We know it can interfere with mobile signals and other wireless devices but we've never been able to track down this interferrence to anything within the residence, suggesting something external is the problem (and it sometimes being strong enough to impact all devices). Hence the desire to go for a wired solution rather than wireless - it's not a performance issue, just functional/reliability issue.

Will have a look at the comparisons, see what's close enough (and doesn't break the bank).

When I built my own custom mouse shell I built it around the Coolermaster MM730 which at the time I picked up for around £8 delivered which was a fantastic deal.

Good technology, decent mouse software with some good tweakables to configure the mouse and the shape is quite similar to the Intellimouse Pro. I gamed with it stock for a while but didn't get on with the shape.

Nice. Will have a gander at that when I head over to the rtings site for the mice comparison. Thanks!

 

[superleeds27]

Thanks, will give this a go later to see if it can help revive the wheel on the Intellimouse (and then migrate it to another rig rather than keep on main).


Yeah, we have heavy interferrence here unfortunately, we're not certain on the cause. We know it can interfere with mobile signals and other wireless devices but we've never been able to track down this interferrence to anything within the residence, suggesting something external is the problem (and it sometimes being strong enough to impact all devices). Hence the desire to go for a wired solution rather than wireless - it's not a performance issue, just functional/reliability issue.

Will have a look at the comparisons, see what's close enough (and doesn't break the bank).


Nice. Will have a gander at that when I head over to the rtings site for the mice comparison. Thanks!

I moved from the Intellimouse to the Zowie EC1 series. Similar shape. Less heavy too

 

[Kanpai]

So, what are the alternatives to this mouse these days?

The closest I've found to the intellimouse is the Glorious Model O