IIRC, there are a few old optical mice that require the use of a special mouse mat with a specific pattern on it.

But if you bought them NOS the mat should have been included...

I've used a HP PS/2 optical mouse (don't know the model) with machines as old as a late 1994 486 without any issues, myself. If my 386DX-33 box could be booted into something that uses a mouse I'd try it on that too.

I am using these Logitech mice for my old systems - got several of them... Never had an issue with them...

bump, because i was never able to figure out the issues with this mouse. presumably a lot of people must be using these and maybe someone recognizes this problem. there was at least one confirmation of problems by another user, and possibly another one. i'm now wondering if a bad capacitor in a NOS mouse that sat unused for maybe 10-15 years could be causing this sort of thing.

i've since tested some logitech drivers in DOS as well, and it didn't fix the problem. incidentally, i've also realized that ms mouse 9.01 doesn't work at all with this mouse, causing freezes, loss of mouse control and eventually complete system hangs. mouse.com 8.20 with an IBM copyright is the version that i found to work best.

another aspect i forgot to mention is, this mouse quicky dims its sensor LED when no movement is detected, presumably to save power. when movement is detected it runs it at full power again, etc. wouldn't be surprised if this is the cause of the problem, but there isn't exactly an easy way to disable this behavior.