Replacing a shorted Mouse or Keyboard cable

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WhipperSnapper

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Oct 7, 2005
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I have a mouse that might be on its last legs--probably as the result of a short in the cable. I've grown to love the feel of this mouse (Ideazon Reaper Edge/HP Voodoo DNA), but the cord may have a short in it somewhere. My cat loves the mouse, too, so much so that she likes to lay her ass down on the mouse or the mouse cable while I'm gaming, which results in me tugging on the cord. I've been careful to pull the cord from the cord and not from the mouse, but I think all of this wild cat love has taken a toll on it.

While I was surfing around eBay I came across listings for replacement mouse cables--they just plug into a socket inside of the mouse like any other computer component cable--no wire stripping or soldering required! I'm tired of tossing away perfectly good mice and keyboards simply because the cable has been tugged on and shorted. For example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Logitech-MX500-MX510-LS1-Mouse-Usb-Cable-/180656405030

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-USB-Mouse-Cable-Logitech-G5-Mouse-/330533918372

As a general rule, how difficult is it to replace a mouse's or a keyboard's USB cable? Are these cables pretty generic? Do all mice have sockets inside of them? Is it as easy as opening the mouse or keyboard, unplugging the bad cable, and plugging in a new cable?

I'd be much more inclined to spend money on an expensive fancy wired gaming mouse if I knew that it weren't hard to replace the cable once it gets pulled or shorted out.

Do any of the E-tailers sell such replacement cables or can you only find them on eBay?

Are there any specific brands of gaming mice (Razer?) where it's easy to replace a shorted mouse cable or where purchasers routinely replace mouse cords?

I also have an MS Sidewinder X5 illuminated keyboard that I think has a mucked up cord.
 
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It's time for a thread bump since this is a great topic and the issue has never been resolved. Now I'm interested in resurrecting that Sidewinder keyboard.
 
i think it depends on the mouse or keyboard

if you are lucky they have the cord ending with some sort of socket like the MX500 replacement cord ... so then if you could get the right cord you could simply unplug the failed cord and plug a replacement in.


however... i know at first hand you may not be so lucky, my little mini SIIG keyboard had the cable get a break near where it entered the keyboard so i took it apart .. cord was soldered to controller board so got my desoldering wick and removed the cord cut off the damaged bit stripped the wires and soldered it back... worked fine but was more complicated than if it had been socketed.


but no matter if you have a usb cable and a soldering iron (ideally adjustable heat soldering station) desolder wick (or solder sucker or desoldering iron) you should be able to remove the old cable and solder a replacment in.
 
How would you know which wires to solder together? As far as I know it's not like a power cable where the cable is a single mass of undifferentiated copper threads.
 
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