Yaaaay! I found the answer on how to open up a Pro Mouse and repair it!
Here is a link:
http://students.washington.edu/rainer/promouserepair/It has pics with a step by step!
Hope someone else can make use of this!
Here is the text:
Apple Pro Mouse Repair
...not for dummies
by Rainer Leuschke
I recently got my hands on a broken pro mouse to disect and fix or toss out. From google I learned that frequently the cable breaks where it exits the housing and this tends to happen just after the warranty expires as was the case with this specimen. I also found numerous links stating that they are not easily repairable (which is true) and no hints on how to open one up. I opened mine nonetheless, fixed the cable and put it back together. Here is how: ...YMMV...
The pro mouse housing is glued together. Both the external, clear cover as well as the internal, dark cover are glued to the dark ring on the bottom of the mouse. Only a few small dabs of glue had been used on my mouse. The glue spots can be seen through the plastic. Use a razor blade to slice through some of the glue in the tiny gap between ring and clear cover. With a small pocket knife blade you can break the rest of the glue joint and dislodge the clear cover. This step requires some care as the ring can easily be broken with excessive force.
With some more careful prying the ring can also be removed from the internal, dark cover. The picture above shows the ring removed from the mouse. The clear cover can be taken off.
The internal cover is attached to the mouse body by two plastic hinges. They are visible through the cover. It can easily be removed using a flat screwdriver as pictured above.
The cable leads to the USB connector. Unplug and pull the cable out. This picture was taken after the cable repair, which explains the unsightly tape job.
The cable breaks where it leaves the clear rubber adaptor. Since the adaptor is crimped to the cable insulation, I did not see a way of removing and replacing it. Instead I pulled the wires and shield out of the cable housing to get to the section with broken wire.
This picture shows the broken section exposed. Other wires show signs of excessive bending as well. After soldering I taped up the wires and pushed the cable housing back over shield and wires, but not quite to the point where it was before. I will hopefully have another 15 months before it breaks again. This way of repairing the damage shortens the already-too-short cable very little.
That's it. Reassemble in reverse order. Mod the mouse as desired. There is plenty of space between the two covers for all sorts of stuff. Use only as much glue as necessary on the ring so you can open it when it breaks again or you feel the need to redecorate. Good luck.
Questions? E-mail me.
v1.0 © 2002 Rainer Leuschke
