I've been repairing my mice and joystick all the time...
It's a question of wether you enjoy this kind of activity 😉

To check if the cable is bad [on a spot close to the mouse] open it up and pull on the wires. If one is broken it will not resist as much as the others and you can pull it out. Cut the cable and resolder the wires to the mouse pcb. If there is some sort of plastic lead through on the cable you'll somehow have to get that off of the cable (I used a drill) so you can re-use it.

If they're not sealed I don't see why you couldn't. I've been fixing old mice for a long time but other controllers should be similar. The biggest problem is after a while they get all gunky inside and conducting parts don't make good electrical contact anymore. Actual hardware damage is more rare in my experience. For mice, check that the cable isn't knicked or kinked, if it looks good then remove the ball from underneath and gently scrape the rollers that transfer the motion to the circuits inside. You'll have to use wood or plastic because metal objects could damage the rollers. Toothpicks are perfect. Rotate the rollers and continue to scrape off any gunk stuck to them. Replace the ball and try using it. If it still doesn't work, and you can find all the screws (sometimes they are hidden under stickers or the mouse feet) open it up and check the button contacts. Odds are you probably have some accumulation of gunk, hair or dirt in there anyway that is always good to clean out even if that's not the problem. Once everything is cleaned and it's still not working then start looking for any physical damage that may not have been obvious from an external inspection. Usually, though, a good cleaning will fix most issues.

I'm a big advocate of repairing game controllers and mice... especially if they're good ones worth fixing.

I myself have fixed my two Logitech serial "MouseMan" mice quite a few times. IMHO those old mice are the absolute smoothest ball mice that I've ever used, and the buttons are a dream... nice and easy to push 😀

Anyhow, both of my mice have had their 'tails shortened' numerous times; the break in the cable always seems to be where it goes into the body of the mice. An easy matter of simply cutting the cable, and then resoldering the cable to the connections in the mice.

I've also had a problem on one of them where the littile plastic 'tit' had worn down; it's on the left mouse button, and is what makes contact with the little micro-switches on the mouse's PC board. A simple matter of a little JB-Weld epoxy to "build up" the plastic tit again, and all was well.

BTW, I've had these mice since 1993... and still use them today. Heh, they've seen 286s, 386s, 486's and several Pentium class machines; as well as DR-DOS, W3X, W98, and WXP <grin>.

Game controlers:

I've done similar things to my gameport Gravis GamePads (had them since 1992). The plastic nubs on the disk would eventually get worn down so bad that they woouldn't make contact with the membrane switches on the PC board for the GamePad. Again, a bit of JB-Weld and all was well 😀

Lastly, my Thrustmaster NASCAR PRO USB wheel. Had to replace one of the pots in it, found a replacement online from an electronics company, and easily replaced it 😀

Most likely both the mice in question should be pretty easy to fix. The Intellimouse usually gets a bad spot in the cable right where it comes out of the body of the mouse, so it'd probably just be a matter off knocking a few inches off that end and re-soldering it. As for the Kensington... if it is just a bad socket, it's easy enough to buy a new connector to replace the bad one. ADB uses the same connector as SVideo, and those are readily available.

Thanks for these replies, I'll be having a go at the said items later in the year - had them in the draw for must be 5 years now awaiting their fate.

Does anyone remember those mice that were locked down to a base by a stalk and only had a limited range of motion? My brother had one of those and I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever seen.

you mean the
Logitech Wingman ForceFeedback Mouse

I used to have a thing (not the Logitech Wingman ForceFeedback Mouse though) that sounded similar to that. I totally forget what it was called (or what it looked like). But, I do remember it was made by Logitech, and it was returned for refund the same day I bought it (eons ago); as it really seemed like a POC(rap) to me.

(Edit) Maybe it was called a "Logitech 3D Mouse"?

I remember such a thing too, it looked like an elongated mouse mounted on top of a joystick. You could turn the mouse-thing clockwise and anticlockwise and tilt it in every direction. And it was possible to move the whole contraption on the desk, like a normal mouse, but it was almost impossible to move it without accidentally tilting it into the same direction, so you needed both arms .

After playing around with it for half a minute at a trade show, my arm started to hurt, so I didn't buy it. 😉
Can't remember the name of it either, it was typical mid-nineties marketing gibberish, like "Logitech 5D space pilot" or somesuch.

That reminds me of the MS Strategic Commander, got one of them somewhere. Never got used to it, are they any good I wonder.

5u3 wrote:

I remember such a thing too, it looked like an elongated mouse mounted on top of a joystick. You could turn the mouse-thing clockwise and anticlockwise and tilt it in every direction. And it was possible to move the whole contraption on the desk, like a normal mouse, but it was almost impossible to move it without accidentally tilting it into the same direction, so you needed both arms .

My memory severely fades, but this sounds about like what I was refering to in my previous post. Been too long ago (and I only had it for a day before returning it), so I'm not really sure.

I used a Strategic Commander for about 2 years. It was hard to move the top piece without the base shifting on the desk so I used some force downward on it. It took some practice to work it the way I wanted. Such as forward, back, left, right, and turning. I quite liked it up until I bought a more cooperative Belkin Nostromo.