Jo-Anne wrote:

Using WinXP and Contour USB optical mouse. Today, several times the cursor
didn't move when I moved the mouse; then it would start up again. Finally,
Windows informed me that a USB device was malfunctioning and I should try
another port or another device. I plugged in another mouse, and it's working
fine. The Contour mouse is expensive to replace (around $110), so it's a
good thing I had an extra one in my office. My question: Are optical mice
fixable, or should I just toss it?

Did you use a penlight and tweezers to clean out the hair, dust, lint,
and other crap that has gotten in front of the LED/laser?

I've had a single hair (so thin I couldn't see it with my naked eye
until I hit it with a light to change the angle of reflection of the
light off the hair) that cause erratic movement of the mouse. The hair
would jitter about, the sensor saw that movement and thought it was the
pad moving, and the mouse cursor would lag, jitter, or suddenly bounce
to somewhere quite a ways from the current position. If enough crap
gets in front of the sensor, it's not going to see that the mouse is
moving (the crap is moving with the mouse).