dissapearing cursor

[petersek]

i have a strange problem that didn't show up until i installed the last service pack ( the one with the windows firewall). when i am typing along, the cursor just disappears. in fact it seems like the computer has forgotten it's awake. if i click the mouse on the spot where it stopped, it comes back and allis normal until it happens again. it has happened twice while i'm typing this message. any ideas? i have a dell dimension 8200 with 256 meg fo ram. - thaks isn advance for any help.

[EzyStvy]

Look in Control Panel->Mouse and disable the "hide while typing" option.

[petersek]

i screwed up! i neglected to explain the most important problem - when the cursor disappears, so does any typing i have done since. i will be typing away and look up at the screen and all of the words since the cursor went away are not there. it's like the computer has lost focus on the document. it happens in all applications, including this one. the frequency also comes and goes. it has not happened once during this message, but happened three or four times when i typed the last one.