Poor Response from Scroll Wheel SOLVED!

[Guest MadSci]

Like many of you, I've been very frustrated by the scroll wheel on my BJ2. I love it when it works, but it seems to have a mind of its own. Most of the time it gives erratic results, often appearing to ignore me for several turns before it jerks along in a herky-jerky manner that is frankly almost useless. Lately, it has gotten almost predictably poor. So much so that I found myself using the D pad exclusively, just to avoid the irritation.

Which got me thinking about whether this was mechanical or software driven, and if mechanical, why was the wheel binding so much more.

So I looked at it closely, then really closely, and I realized 2 things; I couldn't actually tell if the wheel was spinning when I tried to move it, and secondly, that Samsung seemed to have gone out of their way to make it smooth, with just the tiny concentric grooves on the wheel's surface.

What if the wheel wasn't actually rotating under my thumb, because it was too slippery, and the recent noticable decline in performance was due to a bit of wear on the grooves, making them even more slippery?

Remebering how Samsung blew the design of the circular D pad on the BJ1, and how I fixed it by attaching some egrips material to it, I tried it again on my BJ2 and voila! I now have a perfectly-working scroll wheel!

I am amazed at how much more efficient the device is now. I can really fly thru menus and webpages, and without the ache in my thumb from pressing the D pad 'down' button all the time.

All I did was order some of the 0.5" circles from egrips (www.egrips.com), then puch out a hole in the center with a standard paper punch. Then apply the resulting 'doughnut' to the scroll wheel, press hard and let it sit for a couple of minutes and - Presto a perfect scroll wheel.

If your scroll wheel's lack of consistent response is bugging you, give it a try and let us know what you think!

MadSci

Edited May 2, 2008 by MadSci

[Guest JeepinCalifornia]

Good call, MadSci...

[For now?] my scroll wheel actually works better than when I first got my BJII. When new, it seemed to move "one unit," if you will, for every 1/4 turn of the wheel; and after a few months of use, I'd argue that it's down to 1/5 turn.

[Guest MadSci]

Maybe you've been roughening up your fingertips with lots of hard work :-D

MadSci

Good call, MadSci...

[For now?] my scroll wheel actually works better than when I first got my BJII. When new, it seemed to move "one unit," if you will, for every 1/4 turn of the wheel; and after a few months of use, I'd argue that it's down to 1/5 turn.

[Guest slick045]

Has anyone had any luck trying to speed up the scrolling with the wheel via registry or hack?

[Guest ascian]

I guess I don't see a 24mm circle. I see the .5 and .625 inch circle sheets but those are smaller. Could you maybe post a link to it? I feel dumb, but screw it, I'm exhausted and probably wouldn't see a truck before it hit me.

[Guest MadSci]

I guess I don't see a 24mm circle. I see the .5 and .625 inch circle sheets but those are smaller. Could you maybe post a link to it? I feel dumb, but screw it, I'm exhausted and probably wouldn't see a truck before it hit me.

My bad, it was the 0.5" circles!

What can I say, just livin' up to my Avatar :D

MadSci

Note: I edited the original post to reflect this. Thanks ascian!!

Edited May 2, 2008 by MadSci

[Guest thebourboncowboy]

Am I missing something? I have a BJII and it doesn't have a scroll wheel? I had the original BJ it had the scroll wheel. when I got the II, the missing scroll wheel was a very big deal. Is there a different release of the II that has the wheel??

[Guest dtphantom]

Am I missing something? I have a BJII and it doesn't have a scroll wheel? I had the original BJ it had the scroll wheel. when I got the II, the missing scroll wheel was a very big deal. Is there a different release of the II that has the wheel??

The center D pad also spins in circles so you can scroll up and down. But to be honest I have had no problems with it being unresponsive.

[Guest MI 99XPL]

Holy Cow! I installed my egrips yesterday and I've seen a HUGE improvement to the scroll wheel! It responds immediately, and it's fast. I'm relearning how to use it (in terms of touch sensitivity) because it reacts so differently.

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO MadSci!!!!! :D Thanks for the idea and posting about how to do it.

.......Now, if i can only figure out how to center punch the hole so it's not offset when I use my 3 hole punch..... <_< (lol, that's my fault.)

[Guest MadSci]

Holy Cow! I installed my egrips yesterday and I've seen a HUGE improvement to the scroll wheel! It responds immediately, and it's fast. I'm relearning how to use it (in terms of touch sensitivity) because it reacts so differently.

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO MadSci!!!!! :( Thanks for the idea and posting about how to do it.

.......Now, if i can only figure out how to center punch the hole so it's not offset when I use my 3 hole punch..... <_< (lol, that's my fault.)

You're welcome, glad it helps! It seems that some people have an irritating problem with the scroll wheel on the BJ2, and others don't - curious.

I have to admit, when I did this for my BJ1 I got it centered the first time and thought I must be very talented :D But as I've had to punch out 3 egrips circles to get it approximately right this time, so I guess it was just luck before!

I am thinking about using one of the "dots" that was punched out to cover the central raised "button" on the spinner to make it a bit easier to use when selecting items. I'll post how well that works out shortly.

MadSci