I tried connecting my USB mouse to my laptop (Windows 8 HP Pavilion g7) and it says it windows 8 can't recognize the device please help.

What kind of mouse is it?  Windows 8 should have generic mouse drivers in order to recognize it.  Do you get an error code or dialog box?  Open device manager and see if it sees the mouse then try and update the driver.

Hi iApathy,

Please update the driver from the device manufacturer's website. If you are unsure of how to contact the manufacturer, go to the Microsoft Help and Support webpage for a list of contact information for most hardware vendors.

After you find a driver for a device that Windows cannot identify, you will have to install the driver manually.

For your information, please refer to the following articles Why isn't Windows finding my device? and What if a device isn't installed properly? to get more help:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/why-isnt-windows-finding-device

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/what-device-isnt-installed-properly

Regards,

Lany Zhang