MS trackball moves slower when a program is opened. How can I fix this?

[coolred]

I think it is an intellimouse trackball, it's my girlfriends, moms computer. It works fine on her desktop, but whenever any program is opened, it moves slower and more mouse movement is required to move it across the screen. Almost as though the mouse sensitivity was turned way down. Is this a memory issue, as the aging computer is only equipped with 32MB right now? Or is it something else? How do i fix it. She went out and bought a new intellimouse optical, but I doubt that it is actually the mouse causing the problem, but I could be wrong.

 

[coolred]

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