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What is making my mouse freeze?

I'm running a Pentium III 933 with 512 Mb RAM, a 32 MB Diamond Viper V770 video card, and Windows 2000 Service Pack 2. My problem is that sometimes while I'm working on the computer the mouse will freeze in place. The only thing I can do is reboot the computer. I've tried reinstalling Win2k, SP2, replacing RAM, and replacing the mouse. Can you help?
I'm going to suspect the video adapter driver. I assume you've downloaded the most current Windows 2000 driver? Is this a full system (Dell/Compaq/HP/IBM/Gateway/etc.) or is it assembled from parts? When the video locks, is the machine still operational? Can you make network connection to it? Or is the entire system frozen? You might try swapping out the video adapter with one of a different make/model and see if that solves the problem. I had a similar problem with a Dell system using an ATI Radeon display adapter. I was not able to correct the problem using drivers either from Dell or from ATI. To be honest, the lockups did not disappear until I upgraded to XP.

This was first published in September 2001

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