Macbook Air not recognizing my usb mouse

Help!

My Mac OSX 10.6.8 is so fickle. At times my mouse will work properly and then suddenly without provocation the mouse will not work. Usually my mouse will turn back on in a few minutes but other times I make do without it. When the mouse isn't working the red light on it is not on and my system preference settings doesn't recognize the mouse. I've tried switching the usb ports but it doesn't make a difference. Don't know what to do guys.

First thing would be to try another USB mouse. Could be that your mouse is defective or intermittent. What kind is it?

Thanks for the quick response! I've tried another mouse and it worked just fine but sometimes my regular mouse works fine too. The mouse I use is Belkin.

If it's an optical mouse, the receptor may be dirty. My Apple Mighty Mouse required cleaning every so often as it was doing the same thing. Try cleaning the Belkin to see if it helps. I'm not familiar with that mouse but most optical rodents need to be disassembled in order to properly clean them.