Better mouse trapped

I was so excited when our new computer came with an optical mouse a couple of years ago. Until then, I hadn't bothered to upgrade the one we had. I was well versed on cleaning the mouse ball and rollers, but tired of it. The optical mouse worked well for a couple of years, and then, through normal wear and tear it finally started showing its age. I replaced it with a MS mouse, but got annoyed with all of its "special features" that popped up when you didn't want them to and some of the issues with movement control. I replaced that one with an el-cheapo but popular Belkin branded mouse... Now that one is having trouble. I'm starting to think that there's something else going on...

Basically, the current mouse won't keep track of where you are well and when it gets confused, it hides in the corner. Some quick wrist tricks or physically tapping it on the desk will usually snap it out of hiding, but this is becoming more a more difficult to deal with. Occasionally, when trying to draw it from it's lair, it ends up closing the app you were working on. That's not good...

I've tried updating the drivers, using generic drivers, ripping out (as best I could) the MS driver/apps they installed, but nothing seems to work. I'm gonna try the kids non-optical mouse once, but if that doesn't work...

I'm also gonna have to find a way to upgrade my Flash player soon. I've found documentation that describes my issue and inability to upgrade, but even following those directions and remedy haven't worked. Computers are supposed to make our lives easier and more productive, right?