LinuxQuestions.org - Touchpad/Pointer Freezing Randomly?

Hello!

I am a true Linux newbie

Using Mandriva 2006 since about 3 weeks on my HP Pavilion DV5000. Aside from figuring it out, playing around, trying to install more applications, etc... there is one thing that is driving me up the wall!

My mouse pointer and its functionality consistently fails. Everything works fine until suddenly it seems to get 'stuck' at a desktop location, "jumps" randomly to different desktop location (confusion!!), doesn't recognize existing files, unable to select anything, etc. I have to wait for a few seconds (that seem like hours!) until it "frees" up again and hope to be able to use it for a little while until it happens again.

Before Mandriva, I also checked out SuSe and experienced the same problem. When I installed Mandriva, I stripped it down to the bare minimum at first (It was my 2nd install). Everything worked fine. Now while I step-by-step add desired applications, the issue appears to become worse. I have besn suspecting GKrellm to be one of the issues, because it appears to work 'better' without it being loaded and running, but I am not sure.

I searched for quite some time to find ppl w/ similar problems, but oddly enough and aside form the millions of other problems posted, I could not find anything similar. So here I am :confused:

What could possibly cause this? Does/did anyone else experience the same problem and what fixed it? Could it be a hardware compatibility issue or driver issue? As you can see - me the rather ignorant fresh Linux newbie.... - is clueless.

Your help is HIGHLY appreciate. (So far it did not discourage me and I have not seen WIN on my laptop ever since Mandriva came alive! :)

Angel XIII