Weirdest issue with my mouse hack

[SirPeale]

My first mouse hack failed.  Utterly.  I blame it on the mouse I used.  It was an old one I found in a box, which I probably placed there because it wasn't working correctly.

So now I'm using a Memorex three button mouse, and the results are flawless.  The trackballs move like smooth sliky satin.

What's the issue, you ask?  The ground wire.  I traced the ground on the mouse and found all common ground points.  I used one of the button grounds.  It did not work.  At all.  To check and make sure it was actually the ground and not something else, I ran ground from the power supply, and viola!  It worked perfectly.  

Concerned that perhaps I had screwed something up, perhaps a cold solder joint, I went back to the lab, pulled the wire, and soldered it to another ground point.

No dice!  It still refuses to work.

Busted out the multimeter.  Continutity on the ground point from where it comes in to the board, to every other ground point on the board.

What's the story?  I mean, I can get the ground from the PS, but it's annoying to have that extra long wire going to the PS when I could have a nice and neat wiring job that's self contained.

I'd provide a picture of the hack, but I don't have a camera at the moment.

[Edgedamage]

Mouse Connector Pinout
   The keyboard connector is a 6-pin miniature DIN. This is a view of the socket on the back of the computer.

Pin
   
Signal
1
   
Data
2
   
Reserved
3
   
Ground
4
   
+ 5 V dc
5
   
Clock
6
   
Reserved

__________________________________________

Just use the ground on the mouse board where the #4 wire connects to.

[SirPeale]

What difference does it make?  A ground is a ground is a ground, right?

Besides, if I do that it will be much messier than if I connect it to the PS.

[Nightmare03]

How would it be messier than connectin it to the PS ? Just trace the pin to the mouse board...

[SirPeale]

Because if I I'd have to pull the original wire from where it is soldered to the board, then try to fit both wires thru the hole.  Your argument would probably be to solder it to the back of the wire thru the hole, but it would not be a proper joint.  

AFAIK, there is no reason that the ground that I have for it now should not work.  I measure for continuity, and sure enough, it's there.  Since it's coming straight off that wire anyway, likely if I make the messy solder connection it still won't work.

[Nightmare03]

Fair Enough Good luck anyway!