Mouse SELECT failure with KDE

I am unable to 'click-select' any item with the mouse. For instance selecting a word or phrase in a document or selecting a URL in the web browser with either single or double click.
I am able to start programs using either single or double click depending on the mouse setup but some programs that rely internally on double click to start a function, those functions fail.
I have adjusted the ms. delay time from the 400 default up to 1000 without change. Tried both double and single click setup options.
I have both XFCE as well as KDE installed together ....... with XFCE my mouse works correctly; on KDE it fails.

I have 2 systems that exhibit the same problem. One a desktop 32 bit system, the other a 64 bit laptop.
Both systems were installed from the appropriate (32/64 bit) disks downloaded fro the OS download site. (4.7Gb. DVD option openSUSE 13.1)
If I boot the laptop (64 bit) system from the disk directly, which shows the KDE desktop, the mouse does NOT work.

I have reinstalled on my desktop system a clean KDE version (without XFCE) the mouse still does not work.
I have installed a mouse from another system .. ie. a third mouse ... the problem remains.

Help would be appreciated.