Hey guys, I've just had my Thermaltake eSports Azurues mouse's left button break today after a couple of days of trying Reflex.
I've had this mouse for around 1.5 years. It's supposed to have some gold standard for number of clicks and precision.
And the thing is, I don't even play games that many hours a week, most of my clicking I do in game engine editors to move around, and I imagine that's less than playing an FPS or RTS for that long.
On the other hand, I have shitty office mice from 12 years ago that still have strong and working buttons / leaf springs.
By broken mouse button I mean: - it sometimes doesn't register a click - it sometimes doubleclicks - it sometimes lets go of a drag on its own
Before you suggest cleaning or oiling or counter-bending the leafspring inside the mouse button, I did that, multiple times, multiple ways. Doesn't help.
Before buying this mouse I had a Razer Deathadder. That was worse. First button broke in 6 months. I swapped the leafspring with one from one of the side buttons. That lasted another few months. Repeated that process until I ran out of side buttons to swap from, then threw that garbage out.
What is the deal with GAMING mice leafsprings? Is it a corporate conspiracy? You guys have this issue? Any recommendations for mice?
i have to agree, this is the first ive even heard of a actual clicker button breaking. usually the tracker goes first. however im not surprised about the death adder. are you sure, you arent throwing around that mouse or slamming the button?
personal mice shit list: madcatz rat 7/9 razer deathadder/ naga
Had two of these and both broke within three months of careful use. The standard $10 logitech wired mouse I have used for 10 years still works perfectly despite being chewed, stomped on and thrown against walls.
The mouse sits neatly on the desk and is never banged around.
I do have a claw grip and usually I press the buttons kinda high up, close to their hinge rather than close to the front edge of the mouse. But I click thoroughly (I don't missclick. When a button breaks, I can reproduce the failure even clicking in the centre or edge of the button in controlled conditions).
And when I play shooters I prefer to click many times rather than click and hold, because of reasons.
One thing I noticed is that office mice have leaf springs that are like twice thicker and clickier than gaming mouse leafsprings.
it might not be you. its just "GAMING" products in general
i still remember all the first razer, corsair products breaking left and right. while my thermal take case is great. its also a cheap solution for ITX case.
Are these "gaming" switches made by Omron? Most mice by Dell, HP, and the like use Logitech as the OEM and Logitech uses Omron switches on all products. Not really a conspiracy, just cheap alternatives (most cheap gaming mice use cheap switches) to bring down the BOM cost. I'd recommend Logitech and Omron switches (D2F-F series to be exact). G9x has still been clickin' strong since '09
Seriously, it's marketing... A few days ago I red a review of a keyboard that started literally with the words "A good mechanical keyboard is a staple of every decent gaming rig". Does that mean, that people without mechanical keyboards are not real gamers, because they spend 10 times less money for fairly similar effect? Same with the gaming mice... It does the same job as my A4 for 7$... Even less so, when the drivers and setup software bolocks up and needs reinstall and re-setup... You don't need 100$ mouse to be gamer, but what kind of gamer are you, if your peripherals don't cost as much as an African country yearly budget? I'll tell you what kind of gamer are you. Smart. If you like the expensive toys - more power to you. But no complaints. You choose to spend 100$ on a mouse... Nobody forced you...
Sounds like you just happen to be part of the 0.1% whose products just goes bad. It happens, not really a big deal. If its still got its warranty just get a new one.
I've never had a mouse button go south in the 20 years I've been using them so idk maybe it's you, or a combination of your usage habits and your environment.
The reason why gaming mice are more susceptible to double click issue, even they use exactly same switches, is the fact that double click happens when switch bounce exceeds the debouncing period set in the firmware. Debouncing time adds to button lag, so gaming mice generally keep it low, while non-gaming mice can afford a longer one, since outside of gaming no one will care about extra 20-50 ms of button lag.
The only way to eliminate it in gaming mice without turning gaming mice into office mice is to use switches that don't use mechanical contacts.
Double click issues are a pure lottery, it doesn't really matter how you use your mouse, it's about how lucky you are with switches in your mice.
By the way, mouse manufacturers could easily add the setting for changing debouncing period to their configuration software. This way, when your mouse starts double clicking, you can just increase the debouncing period to fix double click.
I guess some thin copper leafsprings in gaming mice get weaker over time and more susceptible to bounce between states when they're not supposed to, and due to the low debounce period it becomes a problem.
Plenty of them exist. For example, Zowie and Logitech mice use infrared scroll wheel encoders. Likewise, you can make mouse buttons where the actuation is detected with an IR beam.
Capacitive switches are also a thing, though I'm not sure if they can be made into mouse switches.