Please talk to me like I'm two since I don't really understand what is
happening. I can't figure out what is causing this.

As I type or as I'm browsing or doing anything on my pc, suddenly my
keystrokes will stop working. I originally thought that it was simply the
keyboard wearing out but have since begun to wonder if it's something else.

For example, I was reading a webpage and using my mouse, I tried to scroll
down the page. I then accidentally clicked on the page and it highlighted
the paragraph. No matter where I clicked it would highlight a bunch of words
or lines.

Then, while I am using Microsoft Works' word processor, I'll be trying to
highlight a sentence or a word and it highlights other things sporadically.

I can't tell that there is any one thing that is running nor anything I am
doing at the time that can cause this. It just happens out of the blue and
seems to be happening at random.

If I restart the pc, it does not always reset everything. Once when I
restarted a message flashed up *before* Windows loaded saying 'keyboard or
system error'. Well, that narrowed it down (sarcasm is intentional).
Needless to say, the keyboard didn't work.

However, if I completely shut the pc down and then turn it back on
everything is reset, for a time.

I'm hoping that it is only the keyboard but since the highlighting with a
mouse is acting funny I'm *very* worried that my hard drive is about to go
out.

Any ideas? If it's a driver, please explain how to update that. I'm using
DSL if it matters. Which, btw, earlier even the dsl modem stopped
functioning. All in all, the whole system doesn't freeze, just the use of
the keyboard and the mouse highlighting.

TIA very much!

C.