I did change batteries last night, but I thought well, I'll try another one and yesss, it's working! Must have been a bad battery I used last night. It was just so strange that it stopped just after Danni was clicking keys. I jumped the conclusion that she hit a combo that strikes fear into the hearts of "mice" everywhere. lol The thought of having to use the touchpad...ugh...way too sensitive. thanks, Mlou

I'm not sure what you mean by "jumping to the mouse pointer" but I assume you mean the cursor moves around the desktop while you are typing. It may be that your palm is brushing against the touchpad (new laptops especially have begun making the touchpads flush with the "wrist area" (for lack of a better term) so it is difficult to feel the difference when typing. If your touchpad has a palm sensitive touch setting, set it to the highest level (less sensitive). Alternatively, if your cursor is jumping to a default button location (e.g., when you sign into a site the location where you type your user name) then you can turn that function off by going to mouse properties/pointer options and unchecking the "snap to" button. You may also want to decrease the touch sensitivity of your touchpad. I've had a good bit of difficulty with the newer laptops (I've had four in the last six montha, long story) because the touchpads now do significantly more (rotate pictures for example) than they used to and are far more sensitive to any touch. You can disable a number of the touchpad settings that you don't use and that may also help in gaining better control.

Keyboard shortcuts for Windows Getting the most out of your Windows keyboard for example you said you were having to power off the pc by using the button, have you tried this keyboard shortcut method to do that rather than use the button? CTRL+ESC: Opens the Start menu (use the ARROW keys to select an item)you would then select to turn off also if you have a keyboard that has the windows key on it there are many shortcuts that utilize it.To turn off a pc that has the windows key(looks like the flying window next to the Ctrl) you would press windows key and then press U to get the turn off menu, press U again on a laptop to turn it off, or on a desktop press S to turn it off. Ctrl+Esc, U, Enter: Shutdown Windows (XP and earlier) Are you using a mouse that plugs into a usb port? If so try plugging it into a different usb port. for more shortcuts just google keyboard shortcuts here is another good one Computer keyboard shortcut keys if you use firefox there is a list of them also for firefox. I always also create a shutdown shortcut on my desktop for emergency use it is quite useful to have. Shutdown Shortcut  one-click turn off computer

this is the link to one of the Microsoft MVP's website, she has some good info there and also has a link to a zip file of several of her own cursors. As always prior to opening any downloaded file right click on it and have your Antivirus program scan it then you can unzip it and enjoy. Changing Windows Cursors and Icons for Vista users (xp also) Change Windows Cursors With Ease