basically my mouse will only move up and down the left hand side of the screen.
So I am using a spare computer to post this topic up!
Any ideas how to fix the problem, what about system restore using the keys?
Try another mouse, reinstall drivers (if any came with it).
You don’t mention what type of mouse it is which may be helpful (wired/wireless, wheel/no wheel, optical mouse ball/no ball, etc.)
I would say system restore for something like this is more likely to screw other things up (I hate system restore).
it is a wired mouse with a wheel. There is a ball in it!
Mouse these days are going looney, my mouse can’t right click ever since I bought it. You should try to get a new mouse if you can. 
Yep, system restore is for critical emergencies (had one today ;D ). After that I had to repair Kerio and other 3 programs manually, also I still don’t know if where are more somehow affected programs by restoration. Buy new optical mouse.
Usual drill would be to remove the ball and clean the debris out of the inside, especially anything stuck to the roller bars that the ball contacts, a pencil eraser is best for this.
Mice are cheap or borrow one to check if the fault lies with your hardware (mouse).
But the symptom that the pointer is stuck to the left side isn’t one that I would associate with a dirty/sticky mouse as the pointer usually starts in the middle of the screen after you boot.
Is there not a mouse controller you can access, Control Panel > Mouse. This should allow for some changes perhaps. But I would suggest Update Driver… or Uninstall (if update doesn’t work) the mouse driver. You may at some point require your Windows CD (or Mouse CD if you got one with it).
Right click the My Computer icon > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager > select your Mouse > right click > Properties > try the Update Driver… option first then Uninstall if no joy with update driver.
After uninstall/deletion of the mouse driver you need to reboot and windows should recognise new hardware and install the driver for the mouse again.
http://www.zug.com/pranks/fooltool/dirty.html 
(page is clean)