It can seem strange that a mousepad can work perfectly well with your optical mouse, and then suddenly it does not work anymore. It is as if the optical sensor in the mouse can no longer see the mousepad.
You could simply buy another mousepad but if you would like to know why the mousepad stopped working and how to fix it, then you have landed on the right article.
The answer to this is very simple if you understand how an optical mouse works in determining its movement.
How does an optical mouse work to detect movement?
Inside the mouse there is an Image Acquisition system which consist of the following:
1. Light Emitting Diode (LED light).
2. A pair of Lenses.
3. The image pixel array.
The light from the LED passes through a lens and illuminates the surface below it at a shallow angle. This light reflects off the surface below the mouse, and back into the mouse through a second lens into the image pixel array. Theses images are then interpreted by the mouse.
Basically the mouse takes photos of the surface below it and compare them to one another.
The images are close-ups and taken of a very small area at a time.
These are not images of the patterns that may be on the surface below the mouse, but rather of the texture of the surface.
What an optical mouse sees
Because the angle of the incoming light is at a very shallow angle, it will light up the higher points more than the lower points. This creates an image of the hills and valleys in the texture of the surface.
The mouse takes images in quick succession and overlays the one image onto the next image for comparison. By comparing these images, the mouse can determine how far it was moved and in which direction. Depending on the type of optical mouse you have, it can take up to 17 000 images per second.
Because the images are taken of the texture of the surface, this texture is key in how well the mouse will determine movement.
What to do when a mousepad stopped working.
Firstly ensure that the lenses on the bottom of your mouse are clean and test it again.
Next you should confirm if it is the mouse, or the mousepad that is not working correctly. You can do this by placing the mouse on a different surface, like directly on your desk or a piece of paper. (Keep in mind that an optical mouse will often not work very well on a glass surface.)
If your mouse works perfectly well on another surface, but not on your mousepad, then you know that it is the mousepad that is the problem.
We now know that the texture of the surface of the mousepad is important.
If the mouse worked on this mousepad before, then the most likely reason that it stopped working is that the surface of the mousepad could be dirty and that this is obscuring the texture of the surface.
Clean the surface of the mousepad and then test it again once completely dry.
If this does not work, then you need to examine the surface of your mousepad more closely. It may be that the texture of the surface had been worn down over time by the movement of your mouse.
This would present as a polished look, likely with some spots being shinier than others.
This is exactly what happened to my favorite mousepad. It has a vinal surface, which was worn down so much over time, that my optical mouse had difficulty “seeing” the texture.
I used a fine scourer to create texture to the surface of my mousepad and it worked perfectly after that. I did it in small increments and cleaned and tested it, until I was satisfied that I gave it just enough texture, for my optical mouse to work on it again.
Keep in mind that if the surface is too rough, your mouse may not glide smoothly over it. You would also probably not want to do it to such an extent that it looks unsightly either.