I do appreciate all the advice a great deal, and will start washing
procedures suggested.

On an entirely unrelated subject addressed to gmail users among orchid
fans: sometimes it takes me ages to type a gmail message.

What happens is that the cursor simply vanishes. I click it back into
place and once again try to type the evasive letter. More often than
not the letter fails to materialize. The cursor may vanish again or it
may stay in place, flashing on and off deceptively normally. I have to
click to animate it and after two or three typing attempts the desired
letter graciously appears. You can imagine the frustration of trying to
type a gmail message. Am I the only one, who suffers from this plight?

Some time ago I sought advice from the Smart Computing user group. I
got excellent advice from this group on another occasion, but little
more than sympathy on this frustrating little typing problem. My
keyboard has been blamed, but why does it misbehave with gmail while
functioning without hiccup in Outlook Express and other applications?

Leon