There is no way of checking if the culprit is the mouse or keyboard without switching to other ones.  Our computer was occasionally muting on its own.  Just as everything eventually wears out, the arrow on the screen started stuttering when I moved the mouse.  So, we replaced it for that problem, but the muting problem hasn't occurred since.  So, it ended up being the mouse causing the occasional muting problem; but there is absolutely no way of knowing without switching them.

There's one more thing you can check.  You can also try updating your sound drivers.  Otherwise, you may want to get tech support.

How to Speed Up Windows Vista
http://tech.msn.com/howto/articlepcw.aspx?cp-documentid=6719419&icid=tg6719419&GT1=40000

*** From Free Daily Download from The Kim Komando Show newsletter:

FeeWhee

Use your mouse wheel to control windows
One of the major elements of Windows is, surprise, windows. These can be maximized, minimized and moved. All it takes is a click of the mouse on the title bar.

But resizing windows isn't as easy. You have to move your mouse to a corner or an edge of a window. Then you have to drag. There should be an easier way.

FeeWhee is the answer. It's short for Feel The Wheel. It uses your scroll wheel to change window size.

You'll hear a beep when you start the program. Then just hover your cursor over the top portion of a window. Scroll the mouse wheel to change the window's size. You can also hold the Shift key while scrolling to change transparency. It's a quick way to see what is underneath a window.

Note that this is a portable program. Some antivirus programs will falsely flag it as malware. It is safe to run.

Cost: Free
Systems: Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7

http://www.komando.com/downloads/category.aspx?id=9390&utm_medium=nl&utm_source=dotd&utm_content=2010-09-01-article&utm_campaign=end

Current email traps Phishing examples and hints on how to recognize them

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/kb/articles/tec111118/

Web of Trust
http://www.mywot.com/

http://www.mywot.com/en/aboutus
WOT Safe Surfing Tool

WOT shows you which websites you can trust based on the experiences of millions of users around the world. WOT identifies online threats which automated security technologies miss: Bad customer experience, phishing and age-inappropriate content for children are examples of threats that require human input. WOT is easy-to-use, fast and completely free for Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari

It's FF I think - I did an update for FF, then after I also updated ROBO, FF crashed like crazy. I disabled the FF roboform adapter and then it stopped.

I ended up clearing temp files/cookies & rebooting, then enabling the FF roboform adapter before opening FF and got an "allow" page.

They are finally working together and the crashes stopped.