Anyone who has owned or used an Eee knows that the mouse sucks. The left and right click button (yes, it is only one giant button) tilts left or right, barely tapping the cheap button below it when you click down hard.
I use my Eee constantly — at least 4 hours a day. Lately, the mouse performance has been degrading horribly. I was fed up with it, so I decided to crack open my Eee and see what I could do.
I started by disassembling my Eee. My 900HA has a cover over the RAM and hard drive. I removed it first, then took out the hard drive. Below the hard drive was another screw that had to be removed. I proceeded to remove all the screws around the bottom of the chassis. I flipped the Eee over to the top side, and removed the keyboard by depressing the 3 tabs on the top of it. I detached the ribbon cable to the keyboard, then detached the ribbon cable below it in order to unlatch the mouse. I unscrewed all the chassis screws below the keyboard, and gently lifted off the upper chassis, exposing the motherboard.
Mouse "button"
I took the top cover, and gently pried off the mouse button. The mouse button is held on by two clips, both in the center of the mouse button.
It came off with relatively little force. I used a small screwdriver and applied pressure at the center of the button to detach it.
You may notice some paint chipped off on the right middle side of the button. I’ve used the mouse so much that the paint is starting to wear off of it.
Mouse "button" underside
To the right is a picture of the underside of the mouse button. You can see a closeup of the clips.
The next step is to cut straight down the middle of the mouse button.
Separated mouse button
I used an X-Acto knife with a relatively fresh blade, scored both sides thoroughly, then bent it apart.
I cleaned up the cuts with the X-Acto knife, using it at an angle to smooth out the cut I made.
Removing the padding
I removed the padding below the mouse button to make it lie lower on the button, that way less effort would be required to click.
The half-clip on each side of the mouse is adequate enough to hold the mouse on, but I decided that it should have some extra support, just in case.
Yay! Duct Tape!
So, as much as I hate to “ghetto mod” things, I broke out the duct tape, and neatly cut two rectangular pieces to attach to the chassis and each button.
Despite me making this guide, the mod is only a temporary solution.
Left button, clipped and taped
Duct tape, in my opinion, should never be used permanently to affix things. If you have to use it, there is a better way. Mind you, I haven’t found a better way for this problem yet, but I will!
Back on topic, I put the left mouse button back where it belongs, and pushed down firmly. You will hear a small click when the button is in all the way.
Both buttons attached
I taped the right button, and affixed it to the laptop the same way as the left button. Just liike the left button, it made a nice, satisfying click when it was pushed in place.
Finished mod
I put the laptop back together again, and booted it up to make sure it worked.
The finished mod has both its pros and cons. Both mouse buttons are not much more sensitive to touch. Unfortunately, clicking the mouse button will only register if clicked on the outer edge of the button (far left for left-click, far right for right-click).
This con is caused by the original design flaw that this mod is intended to solve. Normally, the middle of the button doesn’t even move, so naturally it will not pick up clicks there. In my mind, this is a critical flaw that makes the mod, as it is now, unnecessary and silly. Performing the mod will make the mouse extremely responsive, but only in the “sweet spot” at the outer edge.
I am working on figuring out another way to mod the buttons, to correct this flaw. Stay posted, I’ll be back in a few days with a potential solution.
