Mouse Woes - Fedora Core 5

My Microsoft Wireless Mouse, which had been working perfectly for months, quit this morning. (I am running Fedora Core 5.) I didn't have time to fool with the wireless mouse, so stole a mouse from my husband's PC, plugged it in, and rebooted. This is an optical USB mouse, which is plugged into a serial adapter. Mostly it works, but every once in a while the pointer goes "wheeee!" and skids off randomly as I move it. Any suggestions, aside from trying to locate yet another mouse in the house?