I had a similar problem of the mouse freezing intermittently for several months until I found a cure last week.
My computer is a HP 990 with a HP optical mouse, running Windows XP Home.
The mouse was supplied bundled with the computer in March 2002.
The problem existed in IE, Works, or any other programme.
The pointer would stick for anything from a few seconds to minutes or reboot.
I could use the keyboard up and down arrows to scroll the pages so the computer was not hanging although that was the appearance.
The problem occurred whether the mouse was plugged into the keyboard USB socket or into the USB on the front of the desktop case.
Unplugging the mouse and then re-connecting it
nearly always restored control of the cursor within a few seconds .
I tried restoring the computer to an earlier time and that seemed to work for a period, but then the symptoms came back again and gradually got worse.
Tried "Housecall" and other clean-up systems to no avail.
I finally got a message from the computer along the lines of (I do not remember the exact words) “a USB device on your computer is not installed correctly and may have failed”.
The cure?
Changed to a different optical mouse (Belkin).
No freeze-up now for a week.
BTW, there was a previous thread on this subject a few months ago to which Naples Air Center Richard also responded.
I don't know whether a resolution was found in that case.
Good luck.
