I'm running an old HP Pavilion 9995 with original HP mouse and keyboard, with windows XP.  It's an optical mouse with no BALL.

    The last several months the mouse freezes in PLACE frequently. Usually I can just disconnect the USB mouse connection on on the key board, wait a few seconds, it dings" and then comes back. It happens in either USB outlet on the keyboard, or on the computer itself. It doesn't' seem to be a cable problem either.

  Can anyone out there advise if  just need a new mouse, or if it is a "software" issue which a new mouse would not correct? Perhaps a new mouse would come with different software? I'm not sure if it is related to something on a circuit board somewhere, a DRIVER issue, or a mouse hardware issue.

   Your comments are eagerly awaited. ThanksIt's probably a BAD mouse. You GOT any kids that play with it?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826105122Well. the kids are all gone now, but it did see pretty hard use with 3 new hard drives in its long lifetime so far. Thanks for your comments.Computer parts do go bad. 5-8 years is a pretty good lifespan for a mouse. 3 new hard drives in the lifetime of the computer is a little much though.