I have the same problem with all my USB peripherals (printer and optical mouse). I put it down to the fact that I have a USB PCI card (on an old G3 with G4 Zif) which just has bugs with 10.2. I get frequent system hangs as well, where I never did in 10.1, and the Finder burning to CD does nt work with ht eexternal CD burner (laCie).
My work around is to have everything plugged into a self-powered USB hub on the desk next to me. When I start up, I just need to switch on the hub again, and everything comes online. Much better than bending down under the desk to to unplug peripherals behind. Less than ideal though. Again, 10.1 did not have this problem.
Andrew