This guide is intended for people who know what they are doing and own a soldering iron and have a way to de-solder a joint properly. Opening up your Microsoft pointing device or peeling any labels on the bottom of the mouse voids the warranty from Microsoft automatically.

Ever wondered why your new Microsoft Basic Mouse (P58-00016 or P58-00020) drifts so often on most surfaces except a mouse pad or a solid color surface? It is the defect within the optical sensor and the color of the LED. Personally I have purchased one of these mice from BestBuy and was forced to exchange the mice for 3 times until I finally gave up and called Microsoft to get a replacement as I thought BestBuy was selling defective mice. Microsoft shipped me a new mice and apparently, it had the same problem.

As quoted from the packaging of the box:

Ironically only one issue can be fixed, and that is the issue with highly repetitive patterns. As far as I know, that is.

You will need the following parts to fix the drift problem:

• A LED that is other than RED. A Blue LED with a MCD rating of 4000 worked well on my own modified Microsoft mouse
• A de-soldering tool (Solder Wick or De-Solder Pump)
• Some solder of course!
• A Phillips head screwdriver
• A Xacto blade to open the covering of the label (optional)
  

1. Flip your mouse to its underside. Locate the label that has the PID number (Not the holographic label!). Use your Xacto blade to lift the label from one of its edges. Once you've got a part of the label, it is easy to peel off. (If you intend to replace the label, peel it half-way and use something to retain the half-peeled label.)
2. Use your Phillips head screwdriver and unscrew the screw in the hole
3. Slowly remove the white mouse covering by sliding the white covering towards you. Do it slowly, it should be fairly easy to slide open
4. Locate the PCB board and disconnect the cable from the board. Remove the board and locate the LED trace.
5. Heat up your soldering iron and use your desoldering tool to remove the LED. (If you don't have any experience on de-soldering, I reccomend you to look for solder wick and go on YouTube and look for a video demonstrating the usage of Solder Wick. Buying solder wick with the width of 0.075" is acceptable for this fix.)
6. Get your new LED and bend it in the way that it matches to the original LED (with the correct polarity, longer leg is +, shorter leg is -). Solder your new LED on the PCB board with the right polarity matching the PCB board.
7. Reassemble the mouse (Reconnect the USB Cable, close the Mouse's housing with the white part and re-tighten the screw in the hole.)

Test your new mouse by plugging it in the USB port. If it succeeded, the mouse should light up with the new color and should be operational.

Some side effects:

Currently there is one side effect with my modified mouse. Sometimes it will quit working on you. To fix the issue, just simply apply pressure on the rear of the mouse and it should be functional again.

UPDATE: There is a new update to the side effects section, now there is a way to fix the problem, just screw down the mouse tighter than normal. It should partially fix the issue.