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A wireless mouse uses a USB dongle to connect to your laptop.
💡 This post will identify different solutions if you lose or break the USB dongle.
Now let’s get into the details.
The post walks you through troubleshooting steps. You can also jump ahead using the following table of contents to your specific brand of mouse
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The first step is to find out what wireless technology your mouse uses
A quick google or bing search using the part or product number will answer this question.
A wireless mouse uses two different wireless technologies:
There are three different scenarios:
In case you lost the dongle, you have two options:
In case you lost the Bluetooth dongle
In this case, the mouse will not work without a dongle. The mouse needs a receiver dongle to communicate with the laptop or PC.
As well, 2.4 GHz RF is proprietary and cannot be used across brands. For instance, a Logitech mouse that uses 2.4 GHz RF dongle to communicate with the laptop cannot use a 2.4 GHz dongle made by Amazon Basics. So you cannot mix and match dongles from different manufacturers.
Let’s now look at what do for specific mouse brands.
Many Logitech Mice are supported by Logitech Unifying Receiver technology. If this is the case then you’re in luck. In this situation the simplest solution is to purchase a Logitech Unifying Receiver Dongle.
A Logitech unifying receiver lets you connect up to six compatible keyboards or mice to one laptop.
You can find out in one of two ways:
Logitech also makes three other mouse receiver technologies.
Amazon Basics uses a proprietary 2.4 GHz wireless technology. It is called a Nano receiver (just like Logitech). The mouse does not work with Logitech or any other brand of USB receivers. It’s not a Bluetooth mouse.
Most importantly you cannot buy a replacement receiver if you lose it.
Unfortunately you have to replace the mouse.
Lenovo uses a proprietary 2.4 GHz wireless technology for their USB mouse dongles.
Lenovo sells a replacement nano receiver on their website but it only works with a few different models.
If you have a product that’s different from the above, then you might try eBay for a used dongle.
Alternatively you will need to replace the mouse.
Razer uses a proprietary 2.4 GHz wireless technology for their USB dongles. Razer sells mouse dongles on their website. Alternatively, you can also search eBay for a dongle.
All of the following brands of wireless mouse products sold on Amazon use their own proprietary 2.4 GHz technology to connect.
You cannot buy replacement dongles and instead have to replace the mouse entirely.
Yes, if the mouse supports Bluetooth technology and your laptop or PC has Bluetooth built in. In this case, you don’t need a dongle. However if
No, every non-Bluetooth mouse implements a proprietary 2.4 GHz wireless technology to connect. Products within the same family – for instance Logitech Unifying can be connected with a unifying dongle – shown below. But such products cannot use a different – e.g. nano USB dongle.
In the case of a Bluetooth mouse, you can use any BT dongle as the it’s a universal standard.
In general we recommend the Logitech Unifying products as the company has a large selection of mouse and keyboard products and replacement dongles.