UPDATE - FYI, as I know most of you haven't had a good night's sleep since pondering the problem. I caved, & took the bloody machine to the geeks at Best Buy. I expected a big thumbs down, as they'd have little to gain by fixing the thing, & would rather I go buy a new toy from their lavish assortment. But NO!
After telling me "We should know something in about 15 minutes ($30), & then telling me "Hmmm...we need more time, can you leave it?" I did, & went home to tell my gal, "It's probably headed to the landfill". Next morning I get a call. "Your laptop's ready". "Uh...ready for what?" "We fixed it". "We uninstalled & reloaded the mouse driver". "Something got corrupted, maybe a virus, but it's fine now". I'm elated. "How much" I cringe. "Thirty bucks". Woo-hoo!
Maybe Best Buy ain't always the slime they get slammed for.
Now, back to Angry Birds.
Thanks again to all who took interest.
Ron.