problems with my computer recognizing a mouse

jaystevenson,

Are you plugging the mice into the system BEFORE you reboot or start the computer.
If not it won't recognize it al all.

yeah, unfortunately that is not the problem because I have restrated my computer several times after plugging in the device.  As a side note, everytime I restart my compuer, down in the system tray I get a message saying that it recognizes a USB device has been plugged in.  When I go to the found new hardware wizzard, I cannot get it to detect my mouse.  This is partially because I can only use my keyboard and can't get around too well. 

Message Edited by jaystevenson on 12-18-2003 12:47 PM

If you can access another PC, I suggest that you try your mouse on that. If the mouse works there, then you could use the keyboard to look in device manager on your PC, to see what Windows thinks about it.

This is for a mouse connected to the Mouse PS/2 connector on the PC.

From the keyboard, assuming that you have one with the Windws key, press the windows key and r. In the run box that opens, type devmgmt.msc, press enter. This opens Device manager. Press the tab key to highlight the my computer icon, then use the down arrow (or press m) to get Mice and other pointing devices. Press the righ arroiw key to expand the mice section. Press the down arrow to highlight the subsection. Press enter; this opens the properties box, where you should find info in the status box. If the mouse is recognised, it should say 'this device is working properly'.

For a USB mouse follow the same keyboard procedure, but also navigate to USB controllers, see if there are any problems there.

I have intellimouse, and can also open the mouse properties in control panel by typing main.cpl in the run box (reached from the keyboard as indicated above). Use tab and arrow keys to navigate through there (experiment a bit. tab takes you through options in one tab, left/right arrow keys navigate between tabs), if that works for you, and check that the mouse settings are correct.