David Justman wrote:
>My mouse is beginning to refuse to respond generally, but especially
>in the upward direction.  I've read here that this can be caused by
>dirt in its innards.  If this is so, could someone please send me
>quickly easy and detailed instructions for cleaning it, which even a
>novice can understand?  I'm in the middle of a project, and I use the
>mouse a lot.

Hi, I'm not sure if this is relevant to your problem, but I noticed my
mouse was moving very erratically, even after several cleans. I
eventually found that it was only malfunctioning when it was very
sunny, and it seems that if I put the mouse in a shadow, it would work
fine. I presume the movement of the mouse ball is tracked by optical
means, with which direct sunlight would interfer with. My solution
 to spray the inside of the mouse with black paint, which seemed to help.

Hope this helps,
Rupert Thomas