Synaptic Touchpad Scrolling Problem

[gerrybeech]

I'm using Vista Home Basic on a Compaq Presario laptop (refurbished) which I bought in Jan '08 (roughly). I have installed all updates (except Siverlight, whatever that is) provided by the automatic update facility.

Here's my problem: periodically the scroll function stops working. I think it happens most often after going to media-rich sites like MSNBC and watching a video.

It's not a "help me now or I'll shoot the computer" kind of thing, but it's very annoying. Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

I'm NOT very technically savy (more the intellectual type, which is to say dumb) and otherwise, Vista is working quite well (after installing an additional 1.5 gigs of RAM). I'm very, very reluctant to do anything which might crash Vista, and we intellectual types have a very hard time figuring out what may or may not interfere with a complex program reputed to be quite unforgiving.

Please note that I've used the resident "update driver" function in device manager (specifying web search), which reported the driver is up to date.

If my problem has already been addressed in this or other forums, my apologies for missing that - just refer me and I'll find the thread (forum?).

Thanks

Gerry