Laptop recognizes that wireless mouse USB piece is present, but won't work

Hi, first post. I can get the exact message in the popup, if requested. The USB piece has been confirmed to work on two other machines (Win. 7, Win. XP). I started looking this some ways back but then put it on the back-burner for maybe a couple years until recently. Here's what I remember trying since:

• Removing and reinserting the laptop battery.
• Trying different ports.
• Restarting without USB piece, then plugging it in.
• Downloading drivers for the mouse, "Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000," which I couldn't do because only Win. 7 and Win. 8 were offered.
• Running some "Fixit" software by Microsoft.
  • This might've partly worked. It seemed to do nothing at first but I reinserted the piece after running the program and for the first time the computer seemed to install the software and the mouse was working... for a few minutes, then suddenly stopped.. lol? Since then I've reinserted it a few times, with it working one time. I ran Comodo antivirus in the middle of that... only possible variable I know of.

I tried a couple other things too but can't remember. Thanks in advance!

Hi,

Could you be more specific regarding the Make & Model of the laptop & also the mouse etc..

Okay, I updated my system specs profile section.

The exact message is, "USB Device Not Recognized."

Hi,

Look here for the drivers: -

Software Downloads: Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000

I hope you have success from here. Direct to IntelliPoint 8.01 32-bit for Vista (EXE)

The download lead to a popup saying I already had a later version installed :-( I rep'd you for trying to help anyway.

Edit: it worked twice very briefly, out of the number of times I've tried a solution or reinserted the USB piece: one time, it worked for a few minutes then suddenly stopped; the other time it stopped once I removed and reinserted the piece.

The Technical Data Sheet for that mouse shows that Win 7 or later is required.

wither 3 said:

The Technical Data Sheet for that mouse shows that Win 7 or later is required.

Click to expand...

I thought of that, but then why would the mouse work for my XP computer (Dell Dimension 3000)?

Interesting. I just read the CNET review and it shows it for XP and mentions how the scroll function works in Vista to enable Flip3D. I also saw some other specs that show it for XP and later.

Further review shows there are three different versions of the 4000. The one called just 4000, shows drivers for Win 7 and Win 8. The ones called 4000 Limited Edition and Studio Edition both show the same driver for Vista 64 bit-

Software Downloads: Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 Limited Edition

wither 3 said:

Interesting. I just read the CNET review and it shows it for XP and mentions how the scroll function works in Vista to enable Flip3D. I also saw some other specs that show it for XP and later.

Further review shows there are three different versions of the 4000. The one called just 4000, shows drivers for Win 7 and Win 8. The ones called 4000 Limited Edition and Studio Edition both show the same driver for Vista 64 bit-

Software Downloads: Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 Limited Edition

Click to expand...

I just installed both and got the same popup about the software already being installed for each. Could uninstalling and reinstalling either software make a difference?

Edit: one piece of advice I came across is, "Go to the control panel and open device manager. If the mouse that came with the laptop is still shown, remove it. Then try plugging in the new mouse and see if it is recognized and installed." The only mouse showing is the touchpad (Synaptics PS/2 Port); is there a way that could work where I'm not left with no mouse and no touchpad?
The post, to someone else's mouse problem, continued, "If not try using the new hardware wizard to install it. Be sure you have the drivers for the mouse."; I tried this but didn't see any option that seemed like it could involve a mouse.

Another post writes, "Also turn your computer completely off and the power plug too. Then hold the computer power button down for 30 seconds. It resets everything. You will not loose any info it just brings your computer back to a good configuration. If that doesn't work hit the f key on restart, mine is f8 but yours maybe different. Select set my computer back to the last known good configuration.
If all that fails, go to your control panel and click the performance and maintenance key, then select system tools. Then click system restore. All you need to do now is select a time to restore your computer to when the mouse was working properly."; might that work, and will it erase anything of consequence? Thank you.


Edit #2: From “Microsoft Mouse Help” on the Vista computer: “If you want support […] for a Microsoft USB mouse that is not detected, download a version of this software earlier than 8.0"; where can I get older drivers?

I'm curious. If you open Control Panel, Mouse, Hardware and select HID compliant mouse, what is shown?

wither 3 said:

I'm curious. If you open Control Panel, Mouse, Hardware and select HID compliant mouse, what is shown?

Click to expand...

The only button option given once at the hardware tab, other than the global options on the bottom, is "Properties." "Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad" shows under "Devices:" and this doesn't change when I stick the USB piece in.

You know what's interesting- I have a Logitech wireless mouse and keyboard and they work fine. However, there is no entry for it in Control Panel anywhere. The accompanying software controls all it's functions. There is an unknown USB device shown with a yellow exclamation point and I could install it using Add Hardware but I'm not sure what I would be installing.