I looked at the Device Manager and there was a set of items under "other" that didn't have a driver. One was the Video Driver. I did a "reinstall" on all of them, taking whatever the Wizard could find on the web. This put each of the "Other" items under their proper category, but he "Jerky" scroll continues. Looking at the mouse setting, it is a default that doesn't include scroll, a simple two button mouse. So there's nothing to set up there, except the laptop does have a scroll on the touch-pad, so the factory load for XP must be missing something HP put on to address their hardware. I haven't yet looked for a "synaptics" driver, which I think it too must need (too being my Gateway notebook has that icon, and the mouse utility supports a scrolling function).

Six years is doing good. However give us a make and model number, that always helps things along. Have you ever removed the side panel and blown out the dust bunnies. This is the first place to start. If the computer rests on the floor move it up, even a 6 inch block will work wonders as all dust eventually reaches floor level and you disturb it as you walk about. The fans then suck it in. If it is dusty in there buy a bottle of compressed air, remove the computer outdoors (you don't want to upset whoever cleans the house) and blow the dust out. BE SURE to hold a finger on the fan so it does not spin wildly and pay particular attention to the fan on the motherboard. This protects your processor and very likely it is overheating and shutting down to prevent damage. If you live in a VERY dusty environment and it is bad in there then also take a look between the plastic front panel and the metal behind. There is a 3/4 inch space that can get bad. You can also test for heat issues by removing the left side and use a small house fan to blow in on the components. This is not a fix but a temporary measure so you can decide if heat is the issue here. Let us know how that works for you

Update: more trouble shooting led me to check the DSL speed. The download was about 7 Mbps, and satisfactory but the upload was as low as 80 Kbps - discussing with the Teleco technical support (Century Link) the evening of Thursday last, led to the diagnosis the Telephone modem was malfunctioning, in fact it completely stopped working on the power-down/up test. The CL representative could not provide any access to a replacement modem, but they would ship me one for $15 three days (bet business days, so not until Monday or Tuesday). They could ship overnight for $25. I told them ship 3 day I'm checking with Comcast an may move my service there. I up an running on Comcast at a so-called 105 Mbps which checks out closer to 15 mbps, about the same up/down. Not sure what the 105 Mbps is about. The good news cable, Comcast/Xfinity, was able via over the counter purchase at Walmart of a Cable Modem to put me back in service over my existing TV cable access in a matter of minutes. Down side, we don't want to change our email address. I will check to see how low a price I can get from Century Link and retain my email/ISP account. So far the browser works great.

if you have java 6 you are seriously out of date and at risk. if you are going to keep java on the PC it is essential that you get the latest version directly from adobe, 7.11 earlier versions must be removed, this is very serious. And a warning, there's currently malware masqueradeing as a java update which is why only get the update from adobe or by going info control panel, java, update tab update now. Then check to make sure all older versions are removed, in your browser plugin as well as in you add remove programs area. This java security issue is the most dangerous right now. I urge you to do this asap. Then only turn on and use java on a site by site basis and only if you absolutely trust the site.