Twinkles, do you have a wireless mouse or one that plugs in? My wireless mouse does that when the batteries need recharging. Also had a mouse once that had a trackball that needed cleaning often. When it was gunky under the ball, it would cause the pointer to be shaky like and miss what I was clicking on.

Thanks for your suggestions!

I'm away from home right now, so can't try them for a couple of days.

My mouse has a tail and no trackball, but good thought anyway 2K2C.

I hadn't thought of MalWare, so will try that when I return, Deji.

I might even try to install Windows 7 using your helps, JoMar.

Do you have XP or Vista now?
I found some more info about installing it on same computer vs a new or different machine.

If XP you'll have to use a flash drive or CD/DVD to back up any files or settings that you want to save. it tells how to do that on the link.

plenty of pages to explore with clickable links to more info..

[Upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7

The Upgrade option is not available in Windows 7 Setup when installing Windows 7 on a computer running Windows XP. However, you can use Windows Easy Transfer to migrate files and settings from Windows XP to Windows 7 on the same computer. To do this, you must first copy files to a removable media, such as an external hard drive or UFD, or to a network share. Next, you will install Windows 7 and then migrate your files back from the removable media onto your computer. When you are finished, you must install your software programs again, but your files and settings will have been copied from Windows XP.]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...8WS.10%29.aspx

JoMar, I've got Vista and am excited to try the new Version 7.

I'll tackle that tomorrow -- just got home and too late tonight. Thanks so much.

One other dreaded thought is that the hard drive might be failing.
Mine went like that in the early stages.
Ended up having both replaced under warranty, 20 months old.

Oh my! That's about the age of mine, which is a Dell. What was yours?

Did you try a different mouse? Perhaps it is having issues.
It doesn't really sound like anything else to me. Hard drives usually dont give much warning before they fail - they just do. In my years of computer nerding, I've probably had about 4 drives fail on me. None of them gave warning - they just went dead. Same with the 2 fried motherboards I've had.

As far as viruses/malware, take this advice from a total computer nerd: Get a free antivirus called Avast. I have used it for years and it has caught everything without ever once recognizing something as a virus that was not. Look up reviews of it if you'd like - it's considered one of the best, if not the best, out there - free or otherwise.