Assuming that the amount of back-scroll is only a single click of the scroll-wheel and not half-way up or down the page, then what you describe is typical of wheel-mice, especially older ones.
If you open a wheel-mouse and look at how the scroll-wheel mechanism works, you’ll see that it has a series of bumps inside the wheel and a spring that presses against the bumps to cause the click-y feeling. Moreover, you’ll notice a series of thin slits on the face of the wheel through which a small beam of infrared light passes, and the mouse detects the interruptions as the wheel rotating.
The problem is that the bumps inside the wheel (“resting positions”) are not always perfectly aligned with the slits. This can be exacerbated with age due to wear. As such, when the wheel is rotated, the mouse things it has stopped scrolling, but when you release the wheel, it settles in the bump, causing a slight rotation forward or backward.
There’s not a whole lot that can be done about it, but one option is to open the mouse and remove the spring altogether (the one with an end inside the wheel, not the one holding the wheel up). Personally, I find it better because then the mouse has no clicking at all and feels smoother. In fact, it is quite desirable because excessive clicking with some mice can create a big headache due to all the vibrations. The problem of course is that if the wheel is too loose, then it may spin too freely and cause its own erratic scrolling issue.
It's a "two steps forward, one step back" kind of thing. – Umopepisdn – 2015-11-27T19:47:13.463
I've blown it with a special compressed air spray. It still behaves the same :( – SuperJMN – 2018-05-12T17:01:00.817
I'm experiencing this with Logitech G403. Blowing with a compressed air spray didn't work. – SuperJMN – 2018-05-12T17:02:09.700
This problem is not always dust and not just typical of scroll wheel mice... there's at least one instance where the issue was actually a firmware problem. This improved the behavior of my Logitech G403 although I don't think it fixed it entirely (hard to tell as I've been troubleshooting this so long) https://community.logitech.com/s/question/0D55A00006zB4MbSAK/g403-scroll-wheel-goes-opposite-directions-randomly-fix
– michiakig – 2018-10-07T15:25:28.030Are you scrolling with a scroll wheel, or by grabbing and dragging the scroll bars? – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2011-06-17T00:19:57.597
With mouse wheel. Tried different mouse, and no problems. – bnieland – 2011-06-23T15:15:59.973
1I hate to throw a "me too" onto this, but here it is. I have scoured the farthest reaches of the internet and have not found anyone with this exact problem until now. I'll try to come back and post an answer if I ever hear of one. – Jesse Slicer – 2012-03-20T18:32:42.340
When you say that it scrolls back “someway” in the opposite direction, exactly how much do you mean, one click of the wheel or a lot? – Synetech – 2012-08-29T04:38:18.593