Quite often you find a battery is making poor contact in its holder and slight movement of the battery will improve things for a while. This happens to me with remote controls for TV, PVR etc. Usually it's one or two AA or AAA batteries, where the holder has a spring for the negative contact and a little bendy metal tab thing for the positive contact. When batteries are quite new, there is plenty of voltage and everything is OK, but as the battery ages the voltage drops and you can get to a state where slight oxidation on the contacts or looseness can make the voltage drop so much that device stop working or gets sluggish. Of course the best thing to do is put new or recharged batteries in, but sometimes you just want to watch the TV or use the mouse, so some kind of physical disturbance seems like a plan. With TV remotes, I bang them on my leg or the soft arm of the chair, and that can do the trick. Or you can open the battery cover and wiggle the batteries a bit. Rolling them with your fingertip so they revolve in the holder can do the trick. Of course, banging a mouse on the desk can work, but as the OP has found, you can do this one time too many, especially if you are forceful.