Annoying mouse problem

Alright, I have this extremely bothersome issue going on with my mouse lately. It seems that, at the most random times, my mouse will suddenly decide to stop working. The on screen cursor will simply refuse to move at all, and after about two or three seconds it will become responsive once again. After a certain period of time, the mouse will simply just "die" on me and will not become responsive again. Not until I unplug and plug back in the USB cable will my mouse return to working normally.

I have not changed my BIOS settings at all in the past three months, nor have I changed any hardware in this system. The biggest change was plugging in someone's iPod to set it up for them. No new software was recently installed and no new drivers for that matter were installed either. I'd REALLY like to fix this problem seeing as it's being rather detrimental to my use of the computer.. Any help would be much appreciated.

Like you suggested, trying another mouse is the only thing that comes to mind.

Do you have trouble with any other USB device?

How many usb devices do you have plugged in? Plugging in the ipod may have overloaded the usb line just enough to cause it to have intermitent failure.
Try a usb pci card and see if problem persits, if it does then just return the card.