logitech cordless optical quits

Mouseman cordless optical decides to stop working one day.

Batteries? Nope.

Transmitter too close to electrical components? Nope.

Mouse broken? Nope. Plugged into another computer, works fine.

Serial port gone bad? Doesn't seem to be. The MS corded mouse that came
with it doesn't have any problem.

Drivers screwed? Not that I can tell. I've always used the drivers that
came with Windows because they are less problematic (don't get to use the
extra buttons, but that's ok.) Furthermore, I've gone back and installed
original images taken at various points during the original install, images
that should have no driver screw ups. No dice.

I've got a Dell Dimension 4100 desktop. I use a promise card with two
harddrives partitioned with partition magic. The put the operating system
on its own partition, and it is the image of this drive I've restored back
to the original install in hopes of conquering any software/driver
problems.

Is it possible some kind of worm or virus sitting on one of the other
partitions has singled out my cordless optical mouse and manages to
sabotage any attempts to reinstall a clean image of the operating system
(which by the way, was XP when it first went bad, after operating fine for
many months-- however, I've also tried reinstalls of Win98se images on
which the mouseman had functioned fine on in the past)?

What gives?

Also, if you know of any other newsgroups or website forums that are good
for this kind of question, please let me know. Thanks.