I cannot use my Windows 2000 desktop machine. (Almost) every time I boot it, it refuses to recognize the mouse. I say “almost” because once in a while it does. When it does, I use it, and hope that I won’t have to reboot again. It seems to be random, but it doesn’t work much more often than it does. Can anyone imagine what causes this behavior?

I’m writing this from my Fedora machine (which is on the same KVM switch as the Windows machine, and using the same mouse, with no problems). Fortunately, I finished up my work for the client, that required MS Word, before I had to reboot (I was installing a flurry of Windows security updates…)

[Update a few minutes later]

Well, the sixth time was the charm. Oh, did I mention that part of the ritual is making vigorous mouse motions during boot to get it to work (this seems to be a necessary, but not sufficient condition).