Moved this post from windows issues. Thought there was something more seriously wrong with my pc because I didnt realize when my hand was tapping the little volume wheel on the front of the computer. Doing so makes the system lock up. The mouse cursor still moves around the screen but clicking on things does not do anything (including telling me that it isnt responding) -- the windows key still works, and pulls up the start menu, but the arrow keys and the mouse cannot select any buttons on it. alt + tab does not work, but ctrl + alt +del does pull up the task manager, but I can't actually click or select anything on it. The only real change I made to the system (immediately after buying it) was removing vista and installing xp. The system is designed for vista, but seems to run fine on xp, and hasn't been a problem before. I've got a soundcard driver for xp that works fine, the sound works fine, dxdiag says it's ok. Is this an issue of compatibility with xp or some kind of fatal hardware problem? The volume wheel worked fine a week ago, in xp.

Hello,

Did you find an answer to your question...
I am facing the same problem..I am running Windows XP Media Centre Edition...
Have tried everything from re-installing all the related damn drivers...but nothing has helped till date....

yes and no. The problem is that the drivers for the laptop were all implemented only at the GUI level. Basically, toshiba requires you to have their crappy software up and running in order for the computer to work. The solution, in my case, was to run vista, the OS that the laptop came with, much to my chagrin, because they don't make comparable drivers for XP. That may solve your problem. You could also try just taping the wheel, but I don't think that'll work that well. On a side note, the volume wheel does not function but does not cause a system crash either in most Linux distros