Mouse Driver Problems

I bought a new Dell computer a few months ago. Instead of using the Dell
mouse that came with it, I continued to use the mouse I had with my old
computer. It's nothing fancy, just an optical mouse with two buttons and a
wheel.

But now the mouse often doesn't work... it will work for a few seconds then
the red optical light turns off, the pointer stops moving and windows
informs me that a USB device has been removed. I have to unplug the mouse
from the USB port and plug it back in. The mouse will then work for a short
amount of time, from 1 second to a few minutes and it will happen again.
Obviously I can't go on like this and I need to use a different mouse.

The problem is, even though my other mouse is just a basic Dell optical
mouse, Vista cannot detect/install the drivers for it. It appears in Device
Manager as either unknown device or as a mouse device that the drivers could
not be installed. I get a message along the lines of 'the driver could not
be installed... the inf for this device was made for Windows 95 or later'.

I started thinking that it could be a problem with the USB port rather than
the devices. I plugged the mouse with intermittant power problems into a
different USB socket. Windows tries to install different drivers for the
same mouse when it is plugged into any other socket than the one it has
always been plugged in (I have 6 USB ports on my computer and my
printer/keyboard/pen drive etc all work fine). This fails and the mouse
doesn't work. If the mouse is plugged into the same old socket, it works...
intermittently... and then shuts down every few seconds/minutes as before.

I consider myself to be pretty IT savvy, I've tried all the obvious stuff
like removing all optical devices from device manager, telling device
manager to search different places for a better driver, but it is always
convinced that it already has the best driver, even though the mouse doesn't
work. I've done google searches for Dell USB mouse drivers, but couldn't
find anything. It's absolutely ridiculous that Vista cannot do something as
simple as install a USB mouse driver.

So now I have a computer with no usable mouse. Please help

Only question did you use the drivers that came with your mouse if you
didn't get them and make sure they are compatible with Windows Vista if they
are not try checking for updated drivers.Windows Vista does not always have
the proper drivers for stuff like computer mouse and keyboard I had the same
problem and solved it by getting updated drivers. If they are for Windows XP
then usually will work but so you know that's not always the case so you
will know. good luck

It is a Dell computer and a Dell mouse I can only assume that it came
preinstalled. I've looked on my drivers CD and couldn't find a specific
mouse driver.

Anyway, thanks for your reply but in the mean time I managed to get it
sorted, by uninstalling my current drivers and selecting my own from the
list of installed drivers.

i have found a solution that might work as i have the same problem and
shall try this option tonight..

I have now seen 2 computers that have very similar problems. Both have
Windows Vista Home Premium (It may affect other versions as well) and
both have problems where the computers don’t seem to freeze, you can
still move the mouse but can’t click on anything. You also can’t click
and drag. Also the mouse looks like a standard pointer, not the spinning
blue circle.
I have noticed that it does not happen in Safe Mode and it also doesn’t
happen if you go into MSConfig and click on “Diagnostic Startup” then
reboot.
After much troubleshooting, I have determined that the issue is at
least partly with the Plug and play service. When I disabled that
service, I noticed the problem went away. I then disabled everything and
re-enabled the Plug And Play service and went through the process of
finding which services is conflicting with the Plug and play service.
Apparently it is a few services working in conjunction that make the
Plug and Play Service go haywire. I can’t seem to put my finger on it
but I know for certain that disabling the Plug and Play Service makes
the problem go away. So disable it if you need a quick fix but don’t
forget that, unfortunately, it also makes USB devices unable to work.