Cursor jumps around

Is the user new at using a laptop with a touch pad? Sometimes users will inadverdantly touch the touch pad with their thumbs while they are typing and this will invoke random actions by the software. You can test this idea by temporarily taping a small piece of cardboard over the touch pad. If the problem goes away then you have your answer.

The behavior may a virus.
Run your anti-virus to check the system
Your mouse may be going bad,try replacing with another mouse to see if the same problem comes up,this also may apply to the keyboard too.

Install office 2000 sp2 and/or install a antivirus.
You can scan for antivirus online at :
http://security2.norton.com/us/lunavbrk.asp?scantype=2&venid=sym&langid=us&plfid=21&pkj=QNGLFIZTYMWPAZTJWUF

you can update office 2000 online at:
http://www.office.microsoft.com/

regards

Another possibility is heat. I've noticed on several touchpad laptops that as the box becomes hoter, it is more susptable to close brushes with hands, clothing or anything else that gets close to the touchpad. It does not require actual contact withthe pad. I first noticed this on an NEC laptop, and have seen it with many others.

clean your touchpad thoroughly or your mouse then reinstall your mouse drivers they may be corrupted just to make sure.

Try disableing power managenent polling in the device manager/ system devices APM/settings.
Sometimes the pointer on a mouse will creep up the screen too.
Rgds Steve

I have had this issue when using Microsoft Intellipoint software for my mouse. Out of the blue, the curser or scroll bars will freak out. My suggestion is uninstall the utility/driver for intellipoint from you control panel and for go the bells and whistles. If you do not have intillipoint software, the delete the mouse from the device manager and then reboot and let it be redetected.

Now this is a last resort if nothing else works. I have never worked on a gateway, but I have had to change several Dell motherboards for that problem. It fixed them. Hopefully your problem won't be that extreme.
Allen

Let's not get all too technicall with this because as bachelor number one pointed out, it's your thumbs! I used to work for the gateway country store as a tech and you would not believe the volume of calls we would get for this very problem. Yes the cardboard is a neat trick to see if it works but a more elegant and presumably a feature built into the mouse software exactly for this reason is to go to your control panel, and look under the mouse properties for "disable touchpad while typing" - Bingo! No more jumpy jumps. Note here that you will need to have the particular synaptics touchpad software installed to actually have this feature available - the standard MS mouse properties applet doesn't have the feature built in...

Cheers! Now gimme my points!

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