Semi-Frozen Mouse

[Cosecha]

When I upgraded to an XP machine, I brought along a Belkin trackball, which seems to work fine for four hours or so and then suddenly confines its movements to one single horizontal line, and will not travel vertically. This is an extremely regular occurrence. The only way out is to reboot, which returns it to normal function for another four hours. I have updated the driver for XP; this problem occurred both before and after that fact.
Any ideas? I've tried another identical trackball, and had the same results.

 

[muthabored]

USB or serial mouse? Latest XP drivers installed for the mouse?

 

[Cosecha]

Thanks for your response, mothabored
I originally set the trackball up for PS/2 but the port went bad and I had to convert it to Serial using an adapter. Could this be a motherboard problem? I had a USB port stop functioning as well.........