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

Thanks to each of you for responding! I had a computer tech come to my house & he said that the new mouse I bought did need some software installation (altho the box said it did not). He did that for me & I was right back in business. He also went through my installations & deleted some old & unnecessary ones & my computer is faster now. $37.50 & worth every penny to me! Thnx again...

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

IF the laptop is that new I would contact the manufacturer first, they may know of a known bug and have an update to fix it. If not then I would talk to them about a replacement or having someone take a look at it. A brand new laptop should not be giving you that type of freeze up issue where you have to do a hard shutdown. in most cases the jumping cursor is a very sensitive touch pad that is being triggered by your hand movements. Have you tried turning off the touch pad while typing as a test to see if you still have the problem. Also just to test try using an external mouse with the touch pad turned off. These tests will determine if that is the problem or if something else is causing it. Must do those to eliminate possibilities. Have you tried turning off the power saver features and turning off hibernate to see if that has any effect on the freezing up? if not do try that. Also on 7 down at the bottom in the tray you should see a small flag it may be hidden in the hidden icons, click that it tell you if there are any known problems on your unit and will offer to try to fix them.