Programs freezing upon keyboard input

[ryanman]

I recently ordered this HP laptop and have been very happy with it despite some annoyances. One of those annoyances is the fact that at random times, whatever program I am running will freeze upon any keyboard input; this of course happens most frequently in Firefox 3 when I am searching Google, surfing, etc. I had though that this was isolate to the browser so had been searching for support for Firefox, but recently discovered that when running Steam, any gaming software, even Word, that the program would freeze the second I used any key on the keyboard for whatever reason.

Upon restarting whichever program and retrying keyboard input, the same thing happens over and over again until I get frustrated and restart the computer, after which everything is fine.

Is this a glitch with Vista? Is it fixable? Or is this something else? It doesn't seem like any virus or malware I've ever seen, plus I am a subscriber to Microsoft OneCare and this is a brand new computer with which I have been very careful when surfing the internet.

Also on an unrelated topic (since I don't want to make another post about it immediately after posting the first problem), would anyone happen to know why my icons will not stay where I move them after I restart the computer? I separate my icons by type (i.e. gaming applications, business, computer utilities, etc) to find what I need more easily, and separate the different groups. But when I restart they are all grouped and locked into the grid on the left side when Windows boots. This has never happened to me before, even in Vista. Does it have anything to do with the fact I am using a Hitachi "32 LCD HDTV as a second monitor via HDMI?

Any help would be appreciated, and my current system specs are in my signature.

Thanks,
R.