Wireless mouse scroll wheel timing out too soon

The scroll wheel seems to be ignored about every 15-30 seconds of not being used, whereas everything else takes a while to timeout (I haven't noticed when yet), so after that time I have to left-click to get the scroll wheel to work again (which it does perfectly at that point).

Windows Settings has nothing for this (just very basic mouse stuff), so I'm wondering of any secret menus or CLI commands where I could say "Hey, mouse scroll wheel, only sleep after like 5 minutes of non-usage, OK?".

Honestly I don't see how the scroll wheel trigger would take up any more battery usage than anything else on the mouse, so it's a bizarre design flaw if that's what it is (and it's what I think it is).

dalchina said:

- have you actually tried dismantling your mouse and cleaning up the rubbish that can accumulate around the scroll wheel mechanism?

I bought two combos within the last 3 weeks. They're both new. They've been open for less than a month. I've seen mice timeout too soon, but I've never seen a certain part of a mouse timeout before another part... that's a strange feature. The problem appears to be some dev/manager wanted it that way... I can't imagine why. It needs no defense either, it sucks; I just want a solution, proper or otherwise. If I have to use electric tape and a paperclip, great, as long as it works and isn't too cumbersome.

dalchina said:

For example, before a driver killed my cat, I would pick up some ultra fine hairs from her inner fur, and these would build up inside the mouse- wrap themselves round the scroll wheel axle etc and affect its function.

That's interesting but... see above answer.

dalchina said:

And have you tried a different mouse for comparison?

This isn't my first wireless mouse 😆 I've been using many many different ones for at least a decade. This is the first time I've had a scroll wheel timeout issue.

dalchina said:

What sort of mouse are you using?

Dell Pro Wireless Keyboard and Mouse – KM5221W

dalchina said:

Do you only see this problem with your Dell Pro mouse and no other?

I already answered this in my last reply:

- I've been using many different wireless mice with scrollwheels for at least a decade.
- This is the first time I've had a scroll wheel timeout issue.
- I mentioned a specific model.

I don't know how this leaves any room for ambiguity on whether it only happens on the mouse I specified or otherwise.

dalchina said:

What happens if you boot to Safe Mode?

Same behavior. I don't see how the answer either way points me to what to look at to find the problem or fix it.

Isn't there something I can actually look at to see what's going on?

I'd rather know what to look at than A/B blind testing to see if things behave differently, unless you can say how that will lead me to something to look at.

dalchina said:

No you didn't explicitly and exactly say you had recently substituted a mouse of different manufacture for comparison,

That's because I didn't do that... my bullet list is saying I was using different mice before the current problem on the current mouse.

I really think you're persistently reading something different than I've written, so thank you for stepping out of the conversation.

If anyone else knows how to look for where the problem is, such as something that lets me see mouse wheel tic registrations to the system somewhere (maybe a tool Dell has, or something in Windows), that would be great.

Really, I posted here as a longshot to see if someone here knew of a Windows interface or CLI command or 3rd-party tool to track or troubleshoot mouse wheel tics, but maybe that's all it is, a longshot, and this is maybe too nuanced to ask about here.