If I'm typing all is initially well but then the cursor completely disappears & is found elsewhere on the screen & of course no more letters are being seen as typed. I've taken special care that it's not myself accidentally touching the mouse touchpad. I suspect my keyboard may be at fault but I’m not sure & it seems tricky to remove just to see & as far as taking keys off, that seems to spell disaster (to me). Any ideas most welcome. Thanks in advance.

Taking keys off will almost certainly not help you find the problem. It would be my guess that it is a touchpad issue instead.

Let me ask you this: Can you "click" the mouse by tapping the touchpad? If so, open a document and move the mouse down somewhere in the middle of it. Now, press on the plastic around the touchpad in various places (firm, but not hard). Do not touch the touchpad. Does the pointer jump in this exercise? I've had this happen before.

If the experiment above shows the pointer jumps around without even touching the touchpad, then you might try turning off the function that allows mouse clicks by tapping the pad. (I personally dislike doing this, but if it makes it work... ) After doing this, you will have to use the touchpad buttons to "click" the mouse.

Access to the touchpad control will most likely be found via an icon down on the taskbar by the clock (I know Dells have this) or somewhere in Control Panel.

Best of luck,
WallyH

Taking keys off will almost certainly not help you find the problem. It would be my guess that it is a touchpad issue instead.

Let me ask you this: Can you "click" the mouse by tapping the touchpad? If so, open a document and move the mouse down somewhere in the middle of it. Now, press on the plastic around the touchpad in various places (firm, but not hard). Do not touch the touchpad. Does the pointer jump in this exercise? I've had this happen before.

If the experiment above shows the pointer jumps around without even touching the touchpad, then you might try turning off the function that allows mouse clicks by tapping the pad. (I personally dislike doing this, but if it makes it work...) After doing this, you will have to use the touchpad buttons to "click" the mouse.

Access to the touchpad control will most likely be found via an icon down on the taskbar by the clock (I know Dells have this) or somewhere in Control Panel.

Best of luck,
WallyH

Good idea to at least try. Many thanks-----just didn't want you to think I'd not appreciated the suggestion. Meanwhile I have at least cleaned the keyboard & mouse pad area as much as possible without removing it or any of the keys. I'll get back later with "test results". Thanks. David