linux mouse troubles

i have a strange problem...

I have a machine that was running linux redhat 9 with a ps2 mouse. It ran beautifully. I removed linux and put on win xp for a while... understandably i decided to put linux back on but when reinstalled the mouse didnt work.

Specifically, if a PS2 mouse was installed the system would boot but any touch of the mouse will make the cursor fly about uncontrollably. If a USB mouse is installed the system will jam up completely when "checking for module dependencies" appears. When i replaced redhat with mandrake 9.2 same problem, only now the usb mouse gets through bootup and only jams up while kde is "loading system interface ( i think )". Through all this XP works fine with the mice.

Has anyone got any ideas? Is it a possible hardware fault causing it?

Right now any help would really be apreciated.


Edit: the mouse works fine during both the redhat and mandrake installation programs