Mouse not working - "USB device has malfunctioned and is not recog

Hi all

Can anyone help? (Bear in mind that you night have to use laymans terms...!
;-))

My PC keeps on making a sound and then my mouse will stop woking. Sometimes
there will be another 'beep' and it works again immediately, sometimes it
takes longer, sometimes this keeps happening continously and sometimes just
once every few minutes.Occassionally I get a message in the bottom right
saying the USB device has malfunctioned and Windows does not recognise it. I
have been through all the troublshooting for mice and USB devices in the
Control Panel and it hasn't worked. Does anyone know what the problem could
be?

Thanks in advance

Pete