USB Mouse Keeps Dying - Aspire 150, Win XP

Hi people, got a problem thats just started with my acer aspire 150. Using WinXP normally, surfing the web, maybe playing the odd game. An hour or 2 after starting the computer the USB mouse i plug in suddenly cuts out.

I unplug the mouse into another port, nothing. Use another mouse. Nothing. The mouse works fine in another computer, straight away. If i restart the computer, mouse works again. Cant think of what the problem may be... Anyone else had similar trouble?

 

Ok another thing, when the usb connections die, the computer wont go into standby or shutdown, it just freezes when i goto shutdown and i have to hold the power button down for 5 seconds. It works as normal before this.

I seem to remember a problem with Windows XP services causing shutdown problems?? Something about it trying for 20 seconds to close a service, there was a fix for this, cant remember what...