politby

Greetings,
I'm running Vista Ultimate (RTM) on my Thinkpad T43. I'm encountering a
strange problem that shows itself in 4 ways:

1. Text in some input fields (IE address input bar, dialog boxes) is flashing
2. When I try to click below 2 levels in the Start menu, e.g Start-All
Programs-
Accessories, the entire start menu disappears. I only get as far as All
Programs,
clicking on any subfolder in All Programs makes the Start menu disappear.
Only way to get to programs in e.g. Accessories is to right click and
"Open".
Right click and "Expand" again makes the whole Start menu go away.
Same thing if I navigate the Start menu by using the keyboard. Almost as
if the
mouse click generates an Escape.
3. The shadow outline on Explorer and application windows flashes on and off.
4. Sometimes when dragging a window using the mouse, the window will
just jump back to its original position when I release the mouse key.

This all happens with both the built in keyboard/mouse and with a USB
mouse/keyboard connected so I've ruled out a keyboard/mouse hardware fault.
But I still suspect it has something to do with input devices rather than,
say, the display driver.

I can't find a reference to this issue anywhere in these newsgroups.

Any ideas?

thanks