add new hardware

Hi,

I'm using an acer travel mate 230. Every time I open "add
hardware" it tells me that another device is being
installed.

I came across this because I tried to install a USB mouse
and found that it was not working even after running the
manfacture's software and even though I had success by
just plugging it in on another laptop. I finally got it to
work by finding it in the device manager under "other
device" and manually getting XP to assign the driver from
there.........................back to the initial problem.

I believe that the reason that I can't get it detected as
a plug and play device is because of the problem I'm
experiencing with "add hardware. To rectify this I have
tried checking every device in device manager, checking
the task manager and uninstalling the USB mouse but every
time I boot up , I get the same message when I open " add
harware".................any ideas????

Cheers

Zan K