Freezing Mouse Cursor

Dear Fellow Users:

I have a Dell Dimension XPS T500, which is few years old.
I am running windows XP (Professional.)

For some time, when I am working within an application
(including Microsoft Word and Excel,) my mouse-cursor on
the screen gets haywire.

Sometimes, without a reason, the cursor arrow jumps to a
different spot of the screen, or it freezes for few
moments and then wakes up.

Worst of all, sometimes, it freezes and never wakes up or
it completely vanishes form the screen. The only recourse
that I have is to reboot my computer, which results in
loss of data and my work.

I have also noticed that, while I am working, say, on a
Word Document, different windows open and close, which
moving the mouse makes this worst. Thus when this
happens, I simply take off my hand form the mouse to make
the things to calm down and stop. As soon as this event
stops, I just close the unwanted windows and continue on
my Word document, whose screen size sometimes is altered.

Could someone, please, propose a solution for this problem
of mine and kindly send me an email
at "ardebili@fastem.com".

Thank you in advance.


R Ardebli