How To Fix Bad Double-Clicks

By Richard Pedersen / 11/15/2016 / 9 Comments / Computer Hardware, How-To

The Annoying Double-Click

When you use your mouse to click on something, whether it be a button, link, or scroll-bar, you intend it to click once. Older mice will sometimes send an unwanted double-click instead. This can lead to all sorts of frustration. Two browser tabs will open instead of one. You’ll download the same file twice. You’ll do the scroll-bar dance. It’s all very annoying. Oh! How about when you try dragging a file to another location and it opens instead? Arghhh!

I watch a lot of “How-To” videos on YouTube. Many of them are pure nosh for the brain and others are, well, baloney for the brainless. The latter is what I thought when I watched a video explaining how to eliminate the unwanted double-click on a Logitech mouse. Boy, was I wrong.

The Unbelievable Fix

There was nothing to lose, so I tried this:

Unplug your mouse so there’s no power going to it. In the case of wireless mice, simply turn it off and remove the batteries
Here’s the zany part– start clicking your mouse buttons. Do this for 30 seconds or so, especially on the offending button
Now, plug everything back in and presto! No more unwanted double-clicks!

Sounds crazy, right? Unbelievably, this worked on my mouse and the problem hasn’t recurred in over five days of use. I wish I’d known about this four mice ago. At 30 bucks a pop it adds up!

Apparently, according to the video, the capacitors, as they age, begin holding a static charge that shouldn’t be there. By doing all that powerless clicking, it drains those components of any left-over charges.

Note: I have a Logitech M-500 mouse. Whether this will work for you, or not, can’t be foreseen and I offer no guarantees. All I can say is that it worked for me and your mileage may vary.

See For Yourself (video 2:10):

If you would like to give the video creator a “Like”, or want to subscribe to his channel, then here’s a link to this KACE Channel video.

I hope this helps and will maybe save you a few bucks,

Richard

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About The Author

Richard Pedersen

Richard received his first computer, a C-64, in 1982 as a gift and began dabbling in BASIC. He was hooked! His love for computing has led him from the old “XT” boxes to the more modern fare and from clunky 10MB hard drives to smooth and fast modern day SSD drives. He has run BBS services, Fido mail, and even operated his own computer repair business.

9 thoughts on “How To Fix Bad Double-Clicks”

Zoey
11/20/2016 at 12:14 pm

Now I find out. It makes sense. I’ve done simlar by shorting other devices battery terminals to get them to clear problems. Sort of like a reset. Well, at least I like my wireless trackball so much now I have 2 and other desktops/laptops to work with. Plus, I did get it on sale!
Dave Pawson
11/21/2016 at 12:13 am

I had the same problem a year ago with the wireless mouse doing all sorts of crazy things. So I bought a new wireless mouse online and while waiting for delivery, I searched on YouTube. I found a few complicated videos.
And then scrolling further down the searches, I came upon this deceivingly simple video of removing the batteries and clicking.
I made it a habit that as I shutdown, I remove the batteries and have a couple of seconds of clicks.
The new mouse is still on standby.
1. Richard Pedersen
  11/21/2016 at 4:55 am
  
  Hi Dave,
  
  This is great news for us but the mouse manufacturers won’t like us at all, at all 🙂
  
  Richard
Alexander Yudenitsch
12/04/2016 at 1:01 am

Thanks for this tip! It worked on my misbehaving wired mouse…

Besides stopping the unwanted extra clicks (and a few other oddities), it’s even better because it explains the reason for the problem, and why this particular action solves it: That’s the best type of tip/help, IMHO!
1. Richard Pedersen
  12/04/2016 at 9:41 am
  
  Yep! I like to know how and why things work, too. I’m with you , Alexander!
Alexander Yudenitsch
01/12/2017 at 4:06 pm

Unfortunately, it didn’t last: A few days after I had ‘clicked my way to a behaved mouse’, it started doing the same tricks again… I duly repeated the process, as soon as I was sure the problem was back, and it seemed to clear up again, but the misbehavior came back even sooner.

I’ve tried repeating the process, but it seems my mouse is too far gone for such ‘surgery’ to fix it… I guess I’ll have to ‘put it (and me) out of its (and mine) misery’!

Maybe there’s some sort of ‘shock therapy’ as a last resort?
1. Richard Pedersen
  01/12/2017 at 4:25 pm
  
  Howdy!
  
  Mine is still working OK but I have had to apply the same “medicine” multiple times.
  
  Sooner or later, I expect it won’t work anymore, but if it adds even a couple months to the mouse’s usefulness, then I think it’s a good tip.
  
  Richard
Marek
05/14/2018 at 11:05 pm

I’ve had problems with unwanted double clicks for months before finding your page. Thank you (and to the author of the original youtube vid), this was the solution I needed!
1. Richard Pedersen
  05/14/2018 at 11:37 pm
  
  Thanks for your comment, Marek!

Comments are closed.