Ge (ho97986) Mouse

My teenagers have a bad habit of snacking while using the computer when I'm not around. The inevitable consequences are crumbs in the keyboard and a sticky mouse with a dirty ball. My efforts to dissuade them from eating while surfing have been in vane, so there isn't much I can do to prevent a crummy keyboard and a sticky mouse, but I did do something about a dirty mouse ball. I bought an optical mouse. I found the GE 97986 optical mouse at Target for only ten dollars.


Description:

The GE 97986 optical mouse is stylishly sleek, but not as modern looking as many of the more expensive pointing devices on the market today. It looks slightly different than the one pictured at the top of this review. It has two silver sides with a cream colored middle which is split down the center for a little over half the length of the mouse. This split both houses the scroll wheel and provides the left and right button functions. The scroll wheel is positioned in the center of the mouse and surrounded by a silver, long, oval-shaped mount, which further separates the left and right buttons. On the bottom side, there are four hard plastic slides, one at each corner, which allows the mouse to glide easily over the working surface. The mouse is ergonomically designed to fit either hand comfortably. While it is an optical mouse, it is not wireless. It has a cord that fits a standard PS2 port. The system requirements are Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, or Vista, and a PS2 port.


Experience:

This bargain basement mouse works great! I've used it for a number of days now and have been very pleased with it. It moves responsively and I haven't noticed any skip or drift. I have used it on my black colored mouse pad and on the wood-grain desktop with equally good performance. For test purposes, I placed a blank sheet of white paper on the desk and tried the mouse on it. It worked just as well on that as on the desk and mouse pad.

The scroll wheel also works well, rolling smoothly between detent positions and stopping accurately in the detents. The wheel does make enough sound that you can hear it turning, not loudly, just a little. It's not a big deal for me. The mouse buttons also feel a little flimsy, but I would have been surprised, for the price I paid, if it didn't feel a little cheap. Installation was also a piece of cake. I just plugged it in and the system recognized it right away. There was no software installation required.


Conclusion:

I found this optical mouse to be a big improvement over my old conventional mouse. It operates more smoothly and consistently, and of course, there is no ball to get dirty. The buttons work fine, even if they do feel a little flimsy, and the scroll wheel is also quite adequate. I would not hesitate to recommend this mouse to anyone who wanted to replace their old conventional mouse with an optical mouse, but didn't want to shell out big bucks to do it.