Microsoft 5000 Mouse doesn't work

Microsoft 5000 mouse worked fine for a month, now doesn't. Inspiron 1520, Vista Home Premium 32bit. Changed batteries. Plugged dongle in to different USB ports: get message: USB device not recognized, USB device has malfunctioned. Uninstalled drivers, reinstalled; device manager says device is working properly. Disabled, enabled. Downloaded driver IntelliPoint 8.2 32-bit for Windows Vista (EXE) from http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/d/wireless-mouse-5000: it crashes, computer crashes, never quite gets to the end. Once this morning I replugged dongle in and got "installing hardware...your device is ready to use"...and it worked for 2 minutes then stopped again and "USB device not recognized." Very frustrating. Not a bluetooth issue, right? since it's got a USB dongle...thanks for any suggestions. Can't think of anything else to try.

 

My suspicion is either the mouse or USB dongle has gone bad.

If it's still under warranty (I think Microsoft has a 3 year warranty), I'd go to the Microsoft website and check out your RMA options.

Hope this helps.

 

Gman, I'm sure you were right. Clearly the effect of resting for the weekend had the same beneficial effect on the mouse that it had on me. It worked perfectly Monday morning. Last week was traumatic for both of us. thanks!