G502 Hero Mouse Repair
Oct 17, 20233 minute read
repair hardware
This is the first blog post I’ve made so it might be a little strange until I get used to it. I use the G502 Hero mouse made by Logitech, and it’s the best mouse I’ve ever used. I won’t get too far into the details as of why but it’s just really good. Anyway, I was in my dorm and I was doing things on my computer like normal, when I reached out for my mouse and accidentally knocked over my cup full of ramen water which subsequently spilled all over my entire desk and everything on it, including my mouse. I dried everything off and my mouse seemed to work still which was nice, and I didn’t think much of it. A bit later when I was programming, I noticed something a bit odd. My scroll wheel would stop scrolling for a few lines every now and then, and I needed to fix that.
The Repair
First, I tried cleaning it with Isopropyl Alcohol and drying it with compressed air and a paper towel, which didn’t seem to fix the issue. I couldn’t think of much else to try except to take it apart and try and fix it, so I did just that. It was about 11PM so I set up a desk lamp and brought out all of my electronics repair tools, and got to work. The first step in disassembling a G502 is to remove the pads on the bottom, which can easily be done with a spudger, and unscrew the screws underneath. After this, I used spudgers and prying picks to open the mouse the rest of the way. I was then able to dry out and clean the inside of the top cover, and I was able to carefully clean the electronics. I started with the scrollwheel since that was the main issue, but I also noticed a lot of moisture on the primary and secondary click buttons, which I also cleaned off. I plugged the mouse back in, and the scrollwheel seemed to work again. After reassembling the entire mouse, I noticed something else was off, which was middle click. I hadn’t tested this, and it turns out that it had somehow broken. I then proceeded to disassembly the entire mouse again, and now I had to fix the middle mouse click. I checked it visually and couldn’t see anything wrong, so I figured I might as well just try to take off the entire scroll wheel assembly, clean it, and then reseat it. In order to take off the scroll wheel assembly on a G502, you need to use a pointy spudger or something similar to push the back pin out, and then you can lift off the scroll wheel assembly, taking care not to lose the two tiny springs at the tip of the mouse. I cleaned every surface of both the wheel, and the electronics under the wheel that I couldn’t access before. I then plugged in the mouse and tested middle click by manually pressing the gold button that the scrollwheel presses down on, and it seemed to work. I then reseated the scroll wheel assembly, and after testing it again, I was able to successfully put the mouse back together.
Results
After my repair, I was able to fix both the scrolling issue as well as the middle mouse click issue. I did end up having to order new bottom pads for the mouse, however they were only around $12 so it wasn’t too bad. Overall, it was a pretty fun experience to take one of these apart.