I have a usb mouse which works fine, but whenever I turn the computer on, before it boots windows xp up, it says that it doesn't detect a mouse and I should press f1 to continue. What do I do to get rid of this message screen?

Do you have a standard PS/2 mouse?

See this picture

If so and with the computer off, I suggest you unplug your USB mouse and plug in the PS/2 mouse. Start the computer, then go into the Control Panel / System (Properties) / Hardware / Device Manager and right-click uninstall the mouse.

Then plug in your USB mouse and see if that solves the problem.

See this picture

If you don't have another mouse, try plugging the USB mouse into another USB connector. It may reinstall the mouse driver that way.

If that doesn't work, try uninstalling the USB driver that the mouse is plugged into, then restarting the computer. The system will see and automatically reinstall the USB driver, then mouse driver. Do this in the same System Properties window as shown above.

Good luck with this!

Dwight

thanks!

sorry it took so long to respond