driving me crazy here as I forget when walking around in my socks and either the screen gets darker, the cursor freezes and I have to take the battery out, unplug...jump through all the hoops...Grrrr...suggestions?

Don't touch the CPU when you are "electrified"...you can kill
the hard-drive. My son accidently did that at a job he had at
the University..and blew out the whole motherboard at work! (he was sooooo embarrassed!)

There are antistatic mats you can put your stuff on, that helps.
But no guarantees.
Also those mats that go under your chair, do help.

Thank you Mrs.D...my sister got me some great warm socks for Christmas and I forget to wear shoes/slippers with them....zap! zap! I haven't killed it yet but you've warned me!

I see a mat in my future. *grin

We used to have this thing called a zerostat. Looked a little like a pistol. Antistatic gun.

Static electricity can fry chips and other sensitive devices. I worked in the semiconductor industry for years and I recall the SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) pictures that we were shown of PN junctions that were destroyed by static electricity.

You can also buy anti-static wrist straps, which I use, fairly cheap. One end fits over your wrist and the other end gets clipped to anything metal that is grounded. I usually clip it to the computer chassis cover screws or bolts. These are grounded via the 3 prong power cord.

I'm being dragged into the 21st century kicking and screaming.

Only residual problem this morning is the dang screen is so dark it's hard to see. *whisper...only residual problem with the computer!