Click every button and turn the wheel — each part lights up the moment the browser hears it. Then pick the check you need: double click, polling rate, DPI, click speed, scrolling or sensor drift.
Click each button and turn the wheel. Every part lights up as soon as its signal arrives.
Start here: click every button and turn the wheel, and watch the row above to confirm each part reaches the browser at all. Everything that needs measuring rather than looking — timing, rates, distance — has its own page. Nothing is installed, and nothing leaves your device.
Left, right, wheel click, both thumb buttons and both wheel directions light up the moment the browser receives them, and a gaming mouse's extra buttons are named as they fire. A part that stays grey after a firm press is not reaching the computer at all — that is the first thing worth knowing about any mouse.
A worn switch sends a second click of its own milliseconds after the first — the fault behind files opening twice, drags that let go halfway and text that selects itself. The double click test times the gap between presses, flags anything faster than a finger can move, and shows where your system's double click speed is set.
The polling or report rate is how often the mouse tells the computer where it is. Office mice report 125 times a second; gaming mice are sold at 500, 1000, 4000 or even 8000 Hz. The polling rate test counts the raw samples the browser receives, which is the only way to see past the one-per-frame limit an ordinary web page works under.
DPI, or CPI, is how many counts the sensor reports for every inch the mouse travels. Measure a stretch of your desk, move the mouse exactly that far with the pointer locked, and the counts divided by that distance are your real DPI — including whatever the driver software has set it to.
Clicks per second is half a game and half a test: six to eight is ordinary, ten or more is fast. What matters is whether the count keeps up with your fingers — a mouse that drops presses when you click quickly shows it here rather than in the middle of a match.
The scroll test measures the size of one notch, how fast the wheel can be spun, and any step that goes backwards in the middle of a flick — the way a dirty or worn encoder gives itself away, and why pages sometimes jump back while you read.
With your hand off it, a healthy mouse reports nothing at all. A cursor that creeps on its own means dust on the lens, a glossy surface or a sensor near the end of its life. The drift test holds still for a few seconds and reports every pixel the mouse invented.
Files opening twice, text selecting itself, drags that let go: the chatter check names the button and counts how often it misfires — the evidence a warranty claim needs.
Two minutes tell you whether every button responds, whether the wheel skips and whether the sensor drifts, before the money changes hands.
Confirm the polling rate you paid for, check the DPI your software claims to have set, and make sure rapid clicks are registered without any going missing.
A screenshot of the chatter warning or the drift figure gives support something concrete, instead of ‘it clicks twice sometimes’.
A quick sweep of the buttons and the wheel, so nothing goes wrong in the middle of a presentation, a remote interview or a timed test.
Straight out of the box or straight after a clean, check that every button, both wheel directions and the sensor behave as they should.