Windows 98SE

is a key stuck on your keyboard perhaps, or maybe your keyboard is faulty. Certain keys can cause the mouse to act sporadic. just an idea :0)

guidway

Have you tried safe mode?

I strongly suspect a computer virus but the problem could be anything.  If it is a computer virus you will need to resort to dos and a dos based anti virus product such as f-prot which is free for downloading.

dbrunton:
I have Norton Anti-Virus installed on my computer and just yesterday did a full scan and it indicated no files were infected.  Do you still think it could be a computer virus?
Thank you.

How did you run Norton's then?

This problem was corrected temporarily when I shut off power to the computer and turned it back on.  However, the next time I got on the computer it happened again.  So there is definitely an underlying problem, even though the power shut off did work once for me.  
Thank you!

could be bad memory or the computer is overheating. Does the fan work ok?

Yes, I do believe the fan is running okay.  However, I will definitely make a point to listen to make positively sure.  I am currently not at that computer, obviously, so I will check and let you know.  
Thank you.
 

out of curiosity, how much memory do you have in this computer? check on that. If it is greater than 512MB that's probabaly your problem as win98 does not like anything higher than 512.

You could try Settings --> Control Panel -->  Mouse and adjust the click settings there.  But this is a long shot.

I suspect you have some type of software problem, some application you have installed or inadvertently installed.  Try downloading an adaware scanning application and look for something that has installed without your knowing.

in addition to dbruntion's last comment, if the adaware software doesn't work go to start->run and type

msconfig

select the startup tab and remove all checks by all programs listed and reboot. Does the problem go away? If so, it is a 3rd party application.

Hi!
I am now here at work and still hoping to get some type of closure on this.  However, let me say this is really frustrating.  Even though I was 99% sure it wasn't the mouse, I definitely ruled that out by bringing that mouse here to work and it worked fine all day long yesterday.  So, last night when I got home, I plugged the mouse back in, started up my computer, and guess what?  Yes, everything worked fine.  I checked the one fan to make sure it was working fine and it is.  I have 56MB of RAM and have not installed knowingly any application.  I know that it will now be very difficult for me to troubleshoot this problem if it currently isn't happening.  Any suggestions?  I did a thorough scan disk last night and the system found no errors.  Should I procedure with any of your suggestions or is that a mute point right now?
Thank you very much!

My opinion is leave this question open for a while longer (3 weeks at max, after that it will be considered abandoned) and let's see if the problem comes back. If not, then we will assume the problem is fixed. If it does come back we'll be waiting to help you fix it (if possible). Sounds ok? :0)

I will keep my fingers crossed that it does not come back and it was just a fluke.  I appreciate all of your help.  My reason for being so persistent is that the computer is used for our business and it is very important that it is in good working condition.  I am anxious to get home and see what happens again tonight.  I will keep this open as you suggest and hopefully will not need to contact you again.  I am pleased to know that there is a place that is so willing to help those in need of expert advice.
Thank you very much!

No prob, just remember to come back in about 3 weeks (or earlier) and close the question:

either
1.) award points - if something we did helps

or
 
2.)if nothing helped - ask Community Support to delete the question and refund points. :0)

Will do!  
Thanks and have a great day!

Well it happened again.  I could not get on the computer at all yesterday after numerous attempts.  I thought of a better way to explain to you what is happening so hopefully we can figure out this problem.  Once we are at the desktop, we can double click on the MSN icon.  However, when we go to type in our password (which begins with an "r"), it seems to go into a different mode.  Instead of being able to type the password, as soon as we hit "r" the cursor goes to "r"ecycle bin.  Hopefully we can figure this out!
Thank you very much!

Try another keyboard as  a test.

I'm not sure I understand that comment.  Please explain.
Thank you very much!

It's jumping out of the application or dialog box concerned to something else, like the ALT key is jammed down on your keyboard and you are getting ALT-R instead of R.

Try another keyboard and see if that works OK and you get an R instead of it doing the Recycle BIn.

There are no keys jammed on my keyboard.  What I am going to try this evening is take another mouse home with me to see if it is still acting up after I plug that one in.  If the borrowed mouse does fail, then I suspect the problem could be something as much as the motherboard.  Do you agree?  Last night I went into Device Manager and removed the driver.  Once I rebooted, it was detected but still did not work.  I'm willing to try anything so I'll know more tonight after the mouse test.
Thank you.

Not sure proper way to do this, but I would like this question deleted.  None of these comments helped.  However, to be perfectly honest, I am currently not experiencing this problem.  Why, I have no idea, but I must say I'm glad.  I want to thank everyone for trying as it was definitely frustrating for me.
Thank you!

Then post a zero point question here

https://www.experts-exchange.com/Community_Support/

asking for this question to be deleted

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/20527404/Windows-98SE.html