First attempt to fix left-handed Razer DeathAdder – part 2

Opened up the left-handed Razer Deathadder and unscrewed the circuit board (left) from the top of the mouse. For those looking for the appropriate type of screwdriver, you’ll need one with a #000 cross point head.

The tough part is that the top circuit board is fused to the bottom circuit board by the flat cable that I ended up breaking. I had to pay a visit to my godfather who owns a soldering iron to fix that up.

In the end, I was able to try the fix I had found before, but it didn’t fully fix the scroll wheel issue. I think that if I had the tools myself, I would try again, but for the sake of just being productive and enjoying my time and also having a functioning Deathadder, I’m going to be content for now.

First attempt to fix left-handed Razer DeathAdder

So I’ve been experiencing an issue recently with my left-handed Razer DeathAdder where a part of a full rotation of the mouse wheel will cause scrolling in the opposite direction. The problem is exactly as described in this video and the solution is to add some support to the worn bit at the end of the axle of the mouse wheel (e.g. a layer of tape/plastic).

So i took the three screws out of the bottom of the mouse – two under the front pads, one under the sticker toward the bottom – and pulled the base away from the top shell. So far, so good. The mouse wheel that I’m after is tucked in between the top shell and a circuit board that is screwed into the shell, so there’s still some work left. But there’s something unexpected.

So this is an image of the circuit board from a disassembled DeathAdder, with a detachable flat cable. There’s the same cable in my left-handed model, but it is a little different in that it’s actually soldered to the bottom.

I don’t think this is a major issue. I can probably still unscrew the circuit board by taking out 6 more screws and pull it out without ever detaching the cable, but I don’t have the right sized screwdriver so I don’t want to continue with the shell still awkwardly attached to the base. I’ll probably stop by the store another day during this break and give it another try.