All of a sudden no USB mouse works on my laptop. reasons why?

[djphil]

I have an IBM Thinkpad T42 and all of a sudden no mouse will work with it. Been using the same mouse for months and today it just stopped working. I do not receive an error message. my USB keyboard, USB Wireless adapter, USB Sound card and USB Hub all work with no problem. also both mice that i tried on my laptop work fine on my PC. i disconnected all the usb devices and just plugged the mouse in and i still get no movement. the laser light at the bottom of the mice light up normally. I have also rebooted multiple times(Hard and soft) when i plug the mouse in the new hardware icon shows in the notification area then it goes away as if the driver or whatever installed with no problem.. doesn't give a message saying so or not. Ive tried system restore as well as unistalling/reinstalling the USB port drivers via the Device Manager... im stuck.. someone please assist for this is driving me crazy. ..

XP pro SP2
Pentium M 1.5 Ghz
1.5 GB of Ram

 

[djphil]

also i just tried a wireless usb mouse and got no such luck... idk what the heck this could be... and to think i go to school for this stuff... i just dont want to have to re-image this machine...

 

[MindoverMaster]

Welcome to TF!

Did you try different ports, try putting another device in that same port? that could be the problem.