PS2 Mouse Problem

[Guest]

Hi
I bought my son a p.c last Christmas for his studies.
It came with a PS2 wired optical infrared mouse and a couple of months later it failed and just gave him an ordinary PS2 mouse which was fine.
This has since been sticky so I gave him another optical i.r mouse that doesn't work.
I just realised that the first one may have been o.k as this type of mouse requires power and don't think it is getting any (power I mean ha ha).
Is there an option available to activate this? I had a look in the mouse and power option settings but failed to locate anything that would turn it on. I have windows XP Home edition.
I could just buy a standard mouse but I now Know a problem exists or return the p.c as under warranty but do not want to do this if something silly.
Any assistance would be very much appreciated

Best regards
Don