2006-11-06 mouse wheel settings tab missing

Mouse Properties dialog in Windows XP showing the "Wheel" tab

The "Wheel" tab on the mouse applet in the Control Panel on Mel's computer (running Windows XP) mysteriously went away after switching to a new mouse (which did have a scroll wheel). I had him delete the existing mouse driver and then reboot, so it would detect the new mouse and hopefully install a better-working driver, but...

(17:03:31) MoeyTehr: The Wheel tab is still missing, meaning I can't adjust the scrolling speed

(17:03:39) Woozle: feh.

(17:04:00) Woozle: Was that tab just... there already, when WinXP was first installed?

(17:04:12) MoeyTehr: It was there until I switched mice

(17:04:21) Woozle: If you switch back, does it reappear?

(17:04:26) MoeyTehr: I can check

(17:04:31) Woozle: k

(17:05:10) MoeyTehr: Yup. it does

(17:05:18) MoeyTehr: And that mouse is working again...for the moment

(17:05:19) Woozle: How... weird.

(17:05:35) Woozle: I'll have to ask around, to see if anyone knows why that might happen.

(17:05:58) Woozle: It may be that the other mouse's wheel has some special capability that this one doesn't, but I have no idea what that capability might be.

(17:05:53) MoeyTehr: But here's another problem...with everytime I reboot the computer, I have to change the setting for the wheel speed

(17:06:18) Woozle: You mean, it loses your setting and returns to its default?

(17:06:31) MoeyTehr: Yeah

(17:07:15) MoeyTehr: That's been happening ever since the computer was fixed

(17:07:23) MoeyTehr: Wasn't a problem before the crash

The "fixing" he mentions is when I completely reinstalled WinXP.