Mouse Batteries Lasting a Week if I'm lucky :(

[Joe 90]

Alreet, had my nice new MS desktop 6000 for a couple of weeks now. Alls well apart from the Mouse.

The batteries that came in the box, nice new duracells they were - lasted a couple of days before I got warning prompts that the battery level was low.
Now I am lucky to get a week from a set of batteries. I can't honestly believe they're empty when it says but its so annoying that i've been changing them anyway.

But i've just about had enough, you see along with this warning message it sends a whole load of button press messages (despite no buttons being pressed) which causes all sorts of havoc. The last one which prompted this thread occured as I'd just got to the last few options of a vB usergroup edit! the prompt popped up, I ok'd it and then the browser changed to 'user group saved' without me clicking anything else, and vista's 3d flip thing started flipping about like crazy. i've not changed the batteries, and its working fine again. just flips out like crazy every now'n'then

yeah, so anyway... That trusty old Wireless Desktop Elite used my standard energizer rechargables that I put in my xbox controllers and lasted for months... put them in this mouse and its a matter of hours/day or 2.

anyone else ever had this, or have any suggestions :'(

*edit*
OMFG it hasn't saved any of that usergroup info!!!! I'm hating setting up this bloody forum!

[iCraig]

I have an MX1000 and it will last 2 days from a full charge, but that's a built in battery. It used to last a week but I suppose the cycles degrade after time, with yours though, fresh shiny batteries each time should give you a good charge. Are they rechargeables? I would have thought you'd get quite a few charges out of them before you noticed a drop?

This is the first wireless mouse I've had so I'm not sure whether 2 days from full charge is reasonable or not.

[Joe 90]

i've tried rechargeable and non-rechargeable

guess i might just get 6 batteries in a charging cycle and put up with it, that way theres always a full charge for keyboard or mouse waiting.

[divine]

The last MS wireless mouse I had lasted 6 months on a set.

The random button clicking sounds more like interference of some sort, try moving the reciever around.

[Burble]

If they're really lasting a week then I'd be inclined to believe there's a fault somewhere. All the MS desktop sets I've got make a set of batteries in the mouse last at lest 6 months and that's just with cheap crappy batteries that I obtain from work.

As Divine said, the loopyness does sound like interference but if it only happens when the software reports the battery as being low then it would make sense - the mouse has less power for the transmitter which would allow any overlapping RF to get in the way.

Try re-pairing the mouse to the receiver, I know on the sets I have that'll force the devices to find a free channel.

As far as the battery life goes, if changing the channel doesn't make any difference (it's possible that any interference is making the transmitter use more power) then I'd be inclined to try and get the set replaced.

[Joe 90]

yeah, i've had issues with the receiver just losing any connection when plugged into the back of my PC so for some time had it on a 4 port hub which sits well in front of my PC (and not too far from myself, with no other wireless devices around it)

It'll surely get more power when in the back of the PC but when i went through the MS troubleshooting they blamed everything under the sun as a cause, including 'too much metal' and it being too close to the montior - if its PC hardware how do you avoid either!?!

My USB hub is made by Trust and has an optional power supply although the best info i got from them was it needs a '5v 2A' adapter and i'm no electrician!


Also, i've just had a thought... are MS mice cross compatible between receivers?

[Burble]

Hubs (powered or otherwise) can be a bit rubbish at supplying power so I'd normally expect the ports on the motherboard to be a bit more stable. That said, the power requirements of the receiver are pretty low, certainly not as high as the 500mA @ 5V that USB can supply.

Don't bother talking to Microsoft about the problem unless you actually bought it from them. The sale of goods act states that the 'contract' is between you and the retailer so it would be the retailer you need to talk to if you need to RMA it.

Some MS mice are cross compatible with different receivers, some aren't.