Whenever I go looking for that kind of thing I always finish up by doing a full scan of my computer. Costs nothing but gives you peace of mind, well worth the effort to set the scan in motion.

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

raven... thanks your continued help with links I should have looked for myself. That said, I do like "looking" on this forum due to the many helpful leaders. On first looking at the link you provided I'd concur that it is the same question/problem. But, it seems to get get complicated quickly. At first try I thought switching off the Firefox "caret browsing" would be my fix. It is not, but at least I know "F7" is how we turn it on and off. I sometimes push "F7" when I want to activate spell check, but it on automatically (or by my choice). I think F7 is the trigger for Outlook spell check on email. The point, if I have one, is I hit F7 a few times when in Firefox and may have done some switching of the caret.

Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2 Scan saved at 3:22:12 PM, on 28/12/2008 Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600) MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP2 (6.00.2900.2180) Boot mode: Normal Running processes: C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\aswUpdSv.exe C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashServ.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\1100830323\ee\AOLSoftware.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\dla\tfswctrl.exe C:\WINDOWS\BCMSMMSG.exe C:\PROGRA~1\ALWILS~1\Avast4\ashDisp.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\ACS\AOLacsd.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe C:\Program Files\America Online 9.0\waol.exe C:\Program Files\America Online 9.0\shellmon.exe C:\Program Files\America Online 9.0\aolwbspd.exe C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = O2 - BHO: DriveLetterAccess - (5CA3D70E-1895-11CF-8E15-001234567890) - C:\WINDOWS\system32\dla\tfswshx.dll O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HostManager] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\1100830323\ee\AOLSoftware.exe" O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [dla] C:\WINDOWS\system32\dla\tfswctrl.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [BCMSMMSG] BCMSMMSG.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [avast!] C:\PROGRA~1\ALWILS~1\Avast4\ashDisp.exe O4 - HKLM\..\RunServicesOnce: [washindex] C:\Program Files\Washer\washidx.exe O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [ctfmon.exe] C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [SUPERAntiSpyware] C:\Program Files\SUPERAntiSpyware\SUPERAntiSpyware.exe O9 - Extra button: Research - (92780B25-18CC-41C8-B9BE-3C9C571A8263) - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~4\OFFICE11\REFIEBAR.DLL O9 - Extra button: AIM - (AC9E2541-2814-11d5-BC6D-00B0D0A1DE45) - C:\Program Files\AIM\aim.exe O9 - Extra button: Real.com - (CD67F990-D8E9-11d2-98FE-00C0F0318AFE) - C:\WINDOWS\System32\Shdocvw.dll O10 - Unknown file in Winsock LSP: c:\windows\system32\nwprovau.dll O16 - DPF: (BB21F850-63F4-4EC9-BF9D-565BD30C9AE9) (a-squared Scanner) - http://ax.emsisoft.com/asquared.cab O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip\..\(12C5C676-13A0-49F9-A83B-4EA630B5E530): NameServer = 205.188.146.145 O17 - HKLM\System\CS3\Services\Tcpip\..\(12C5C676-13A0-49F9-A83B-4EA630B5E530): NameServer = 205.188.146.145 O20 - Winlogon Notify: !SASWinLogon - C:\Program Files\SUPERAntiSpyware\SASWINLO.DLL O23 - Service: AOL Connectivity Service (AOL ACS) - AOL LLC - C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\ACS\AOLacsd.exe O23 - Service: AOL Spyware Protection Service (AOLService) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\AOL Spyware Protection\\aolserv.exe O23 - Service: avast! iAVS4 Control Service (aswUpdSv) - ALWIL Software - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\aswUpdSv.exe O23 - Service: avast! Antivirus - ALWIL Software - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashServ.exe O23 - Service: avast! Mail Scanner - ALWIL Software - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashMaiSv.exe O23 - Service: avast! Web Scanner - ALWIL Software - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashWebSv.exe O23 - Service: InstallDriver Table Manager (IDriverT) - Macrovision Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver\11\Intel 32\IDriverT.exe O23 - Service: Pml Driver HPZ12 - HP - C:\WINDOWS\System32\HPZipm12.exe O23 - Service: Viewpoint Manager Service - Viewpoint Corporation - C:\Program Files\Viewpoint\Common\ViewpointService.exe -- End of file - 3826 bytes