I have recently installed a completely clean windows XP re-install (not just installed over the top of an old version - full removal and recreation of partitions, full format, etc) and since its been reinstalled, by mouse has been refusing to behave itself (I don't believe it would make a difference, but my third partition contains Woody for a dual boot). Every so often it cuts out and stops responding and needs to be unplugged and plugged in again before it will work after which it works fine for about 15 minutes before I have to do the same again. The mouse works fine in another desktop and other devices work fine in the USB ports. Also, the same problems are not experienced when using the same combination on the same laptop under Linux. The mouse is a USB Genius Netscroll + Optical Mouse. I've installed the latest drivers, turned off power managment of USB ports, installed all the latest windows updates and all the other standard problems. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Does the mouse use any software? if so, check to see if your av is grabbing it (may think it si a keylogger/trojan). its a stretch but, you have checked the obvious things.. anything in the event viewer?

Nope, no software other than the driver and nothing in the event viewer. Thanks anyway.