Here's a why on the hellish handbasketness of the digital consumer age: who ever heard of irreparable dust damage?

I have this Logitech Marble Ball trackball, I love it, outside of poor fine-motor control at tracing lines or outlines, for all the usual use-case sweep/select motions of mousing about, it's one step short of psycho-kinetic control. Fast forward a few years, way past cleaning the ball pivots, and, as happens with all electronic switches anywhere near humans, dust collects, made worse likely because of the compressive action of using the device. My mouse-1 button now sticks or fails to grab, very annoying, but you and I both know it is just a matter of shooting the switch with some contact cleaner, 10 seconds work with a Q-tip and a screwdriver.

Only, unlike your normal ball-bottom mouse, removing the screws still won't let the shell budge, and levering the edge of the buttons with a blade won't yield. I'm stuck, so I contact Logitech support.

Modern tech support. Nearly always a bad idea. Last resort of the desperate. Emails bounce back and forth until I finally convince someone that it's the buttons and not the ball that bothers me ...

> Customer - 11/07/2005 05:45 PM I have a critical
> problem: button-1 is sticking and I know I could clean it if
> only I could get the thing open, but removing the bottom 4
> screws won't let me separate the base from the cover shell (not
> without considerable force)
> how can I get this thing cracked open without destroying it?
> Can the buttons be safely pulled off somehow?

Thank you for your recent inquiry about your Trackballs.
I understand that you would like to know how to clean the
buttons of your Logitech Trackball Marble Mouse.
Please note, Logitech does not recommend opening its device for
cleaning as this will void the warranty on the device. If the
buttons are sticky and not working properly, I suggest you to
get it replaced. Please refer to the following URL ...

Their final word on cleaning a Marble Ball: Return, at your own expense, as the device is now irreparably damaged, irreversably 'defective', you should obtain a replacement, and, of course ...

If your product is out of warranty, you may be able to replace it after paying an out of warranty charge.
[ Logitec Support ]

Gee ... thanks for the advice, but warrantee returns is not an option, the courier cost is nearly the retail of a new unit and this seems
hilariously absurd overkill for a "defect" that is only "needs a bit
of cleaning"! Yup, yet another byte of eco-friendly techno-landfill ... and all because it got a little dusty.

Nice marble, tho', I think I'll keep that.