FreeBSD 7.0 Suddenly Dead mouse

[dfeustel at mindspring.com]

My optical mouse has suddenly died for the 2nd time in both kde and X on
a new computer running 64-bit AMD FreeBSD 7.0. This is the second time
this mouse has died this way (last time was when I was using the mouse
on a different AMD 64-bit computer running X/kde onOpenBSD). Cycling
power and rebooting the computer does not revive the mouse.

Assuming (dangerous, I know :-) ) that the mouse is not broken, where in
the X code might the mouse be 'turned off' and how, (if that has been
done) would I turn it back on?

Also, is there a way to simulate the mouse commands using the keyboard
when the mouse becomes catatonic? I hate to have to keep using
ctl-alt-bksp to abort X.

Thanks,
Dave Feustel