Windows98 mice recognition

Yesterday, windows 98 on my laptop wasn't able to load/recognize the mouse (either the touchpad or ps2).

I dont want to reinstall windows but I am...reliant on the mouse not knowing the keyboard commands very well.

Please help


I'll post the exact details i a little while.

Do they show up in device manager? Have you tried reinstalling the drivers for them?

I have reinstalled the drivers and both are shown as beng hooked up to the computer but windows isn't rcognzng the mousepad and says it is incompatble. It has been workng fine for four years now so I have no idea what happened.