Meces Squeak - isolated to hardware

[MadRat]

My optical/plain mice makes some type of audible feedback through the speakers whenever I move it. This happens in both Windows and Linux, so its a hardware issue apparently. I am using a SB Live! and a "Wheel Mouse Optical USB and PS2 Compatible" from Microsoft on a vanilla S370 motherboard in Windows 98SE and XP. I switch to a plain PS2 scrolling mouse in Linux.

Has anyone else found their meces (pl. mice) squeaking?