How to clean the scroll wheel of a Logitech MX Revolution mouse

By | April 20, 2010

I’ve just completed cleaning my Logitech MX Revolution mouse. After 2.5 years of use the scroll wheel stopped spinning freely. Cleaning it from the outside did not help, so it had to be disassembled.

Please note that doing the procedure described below will void your warranty. Do it on your own risk.

Here we go:

  • Put the scroll wheel in ”free spin” mode by clicking the wheel and then power off the mouse
  • Remove 3 of the slide pads to reveal the screws. The only one that has no screw is below the thumb rest area, it should be left. I simply took the pads off by prying them gently with a finger nail. I believe that using hard tools would bend or damage the pads. Keep the pads away from dust with glue side up
  • UPDATE: I have made clean screw holes in the pads with a hole puncher (e.g. Bahco 2635, whatever works). This way I no longer need to remove the pads during the next repair.

screw locations

  • Remove the four screws and separate the bottom and top parts. There is a cable connecting the top and bottom parts, don’t break it! It can be disconnected, but it is not necessary
  • I could not find any apparent dust or dirt buildup, so the wheel had to come off too. Start with the ”clicking” switch part. I first removed a screw on its side, then lifted a small spring close to the axis of the wheel. With some force the whole part slides off

  • Remove the wheel. I simply pried the plastic holders apart and took the wheel out
  • Clean the wheel, its compartment and any other dust you can find. The wheel seems to withhold alcohol just fine, no damage was done to the outside rubber insert. I used a small paint brush to remove the dirt layer from the plastic covering the scroll wheel from below and any other dusty areas inside the mouse

  • Put the mouse back together. First push the wheel gently back until it snaps in its place. Verify that it rotates smoothly
  • Insert the ”click” lock. I used a very tiny flat screwdriver to push the spring up while inserting. Put back the screw holding the part in its place
  • It could be a good idea to replace the battery, if you can find a suitable replacement part
  • Put the top and bottom parts together, turn on the mouse and check that all buttons etc. are working properly. Check if the click/free scrolling switch is OK
  • Put back the screws, clean the pad areas and carefully stick the slide pads. The pads on my mouse seem to be fine and will not need to be replaced

The whole procedure takes around 30 minutes, including finding the tiny spring on the floor, twice.

I must say I’m impressed by the inner complexity of this mouse. Going strong after 8 years, more to come

 

UPDATE:

If you are experiencing a ‘double click’ issue, where a single click results in a double click. Or if the mouse releases the button when dragging and dropping, you need to replace the micro switch. The dissassembly is almost the same – you will also need to remove the main PCB. Undo any screws holding it and desolder the battery charger contacts.

22 thoughts on “How to clean the scroll wheel of a Logitech MX Revolution mouse

  1. Stewart

    Thanks for the guide, it took some time for me to get the scroll wheel out, but when i did manage to get it out everything went swimmingly. (I managed to lose the ratchet spring unfortunately, it jumped out while i was trying to reinstall the ratchet clicker, but i was never a fan of the ratchet mode anyway). My free-spin mode now spins freely so I thank you.

    Reply
  2. Bob

    Thanks Big Time. My Logitech was the mini for notebooks. For some reason it had more screws – 5. Anyway – I did get all 5 pads off but if I want to put them back on I might need to use a little glue. Think I am going to just leave them off.

    I did take the connecting cable off and did put it back, but suggest that you try to do it without taking the cable off.

    When it comes time to take the wheel off, do do it under some paper or something. The spring will go off. I was lucky and found mine. It does take a little faith to get the spring back on, but God loves me and I got it back on perfectly.

    I did have a lot of dust and gunk in the wheel area. Cleaned – now my wheel spins like a top.

    Big time thanks again. You gave me the confidence to give it a go.

    Reply
  3. Haravikk

    Great guide, though I can’t seem to get the pictures to load?

    I just wanted to note that a can of compressed oxygen might be a less drastic option; get one with a narrow nozzle (some come with a “straw” to fit on) that will fit between the wheel and the buttons, just give it a few good blasts and it can free up the wheel. Do this semi-regularly and it should stay running smoothly and avoid the need to open it for some time.

    Eventually other gunk will need to be cleaned, but it should help to keep the mouse going smoothly until that becomes necessary.

    Reply
  4. Anil Sethi Jnr

    !!! OMG !!!

    AWESOME GUIDE !!!

    Thanks a MILLION DUDE !!!

    This is truly a beautiful mouse that ive had for YEARS and love every single function of it and with a choice of either DOWNGRADING to ANY newer mouse out there that have been out till the end of 2012, NO MOUSE comes to the satisfaction and most excellent usability of the Old-Treasure !

    MAJOR Thanks to the Author of this Post for Keeping my MX Revolution alive for another good few years !!!

    Reply
  5. Lourenço

    When you opened the mouse, did you see any rubber band? because i’m getting a common problem with my revolution mx, the sticky scroll, and I’m pretty sure it’s the rubber band it’s getting loose, according to what the forums say

    thanks

    Reply
    1. Antanas Post author

      I did not know about the rubber band problem. My mouse does not suffer from it. Anyway, the rubber issue should be fixable without taking the mouse apart.

      Reply
      1. Lourenço

        Thanks, I’ll see what I can do, but how can I access the rubber band without opening the mouse?

      2. Antanas Post author

        There is a suggestion in logitech forum about the loose rubber band on the scroll wheel. Basically, you need to cut it, remove a short segment in order to make the strip shorter and glue it back in place. I have no need to do that myself, my mouse is OK

  6. M S

    Thank you so much for this! Just wanted to say that I used your guide to do something fairly adventurous: I swapped out the entire wheel assemblage from an RF MX Revo into a Bluetooth MX Revo. I had to remove the battery holder (which notably is different between the two versions of the mouse, the RF has the battery contacts built into it, the Bluetooth does not and instead there is a cable running from the battery onto the board), unscrew the tip of the wheel assemblage off the board, unplug its cables (a two-pin and a three-pin for the RF, just the two-pin for the Bluetooth, assuming the three-pin is the RF board), and just transplant it. Since I was going from RF to Bluetooth, the extra 3-pin RF board cable is just hanging out freely in the Bluetooth mouse and not causing any trouble.

    Of course, the RF mouse is now non-functional because it no longer has an RF board, and I may at some point in the future try to get that RF board back out and transplant it, but I needed the whole wheel assemblage because the click/freespin controller (the spring-loaded one) was bad in the Bluetooth mouse, I think the spring just got weaker because it wasn’t making enough contact to properly make the wheel click, so it felt like it was always in free spin mode. I also of course took out the wheels and cleaned them in the meantime, but I tried swapping the wheels between the wheel assemblages and determined both wheels worked the same, which is when I decided the whole thing had to get transplanted.

    So, now I have a gutted RF MX Revo good for parts! Its left clicker is bad but the right one is still good, so if I ever need a clicker, a wheel, a thumbwheel, or even button chassis tops, I’ll be good to go. The battery might be incompatible, but also worth a try.

    Thanks again!

    Reply
    1. Antanas Post author

      Cool! Just a thought, it’s not a good idea to reuse the button switches – they have a limited lifetime and will not last as long as new ones. I had mine replaced because the left button started misbehaving. I bought mine here.

      Reply
      1. M S

        Good to know. Any ideas on salvaging that RF board back out of that wheel holder? I don’t have a photo right now but it’s a tiny little board that’s mounted pretty high up on the right side of that whole wheel assemblage, and the three-pin cable runs out of it. Because that’s my “good” wheel, I feel nervous about messing around with it too much.

      2. Antanas Post author

        Sorry, I can’t find such board in my own photos

  7. scep

    MX Revolution good as new thanks to this and some new teflon feet. Feels fantastic — cheers!

    Tip for spring replacement: push on rocker half way, stand mouse on end and drop spring into hole. Hold down with blade and push rocker on fully — went on first time this way.

    Reply
  8. Squidly McBeeblebrox

    Worked fine for me on different model of mouse. I couldn’t believe all the lint down in the wheel. Almost was going to get a new mouse, prior to this.

    Reply
  9. Singh

    Thank you so much! After three years of daily usage my mouse’s scroll wheel was really dirty and hard to move. I was just about to trash the mouse and get a new one. Following your guide it took me less than 20 minutes to clean and put everything back together again. Now I will likely use the mouse until it completely falls apart.

    Reply
  10. Brandon C Fernald

    This worked great. Have had my MX Revolution going on five years. Scroll wheel like new.

    Reply
  11. ions

    Hello,

    I have the opposite problem. My click to click no longer engages. I am always in Free-Spin mode. Would opening it up and adjusting the Spring fix the click to click in your opinion? I like being perpetually in Click to Click mode.

    I actually have three MX Revolution mice. The other two have different problems such as double click on left click and they don’t seem to track as accurately anymore.

    I love the MX revolution. Have been using them for 7 years. Would love to get my click to click back and possibly even fix the other two.

    Thank you

    Reply
  12. jfrmilner

    Great post. Just used your guide to fix mine being stuck in free-spin mode! I just checked and its now five years old, quite impressive really and fingers crossed for a few more years!

    Reply
  13. Alfred Borel

    Mine was also stuck in free-spin mode, and thanks to this post, I could clean the mechanical switch between wheel modes (a rotating part on top of the wheel mechanism) and all set, good to go! đŸ™‚
    Thanks a lot!

    Reply

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