Strange things I don't know how to fix

Running Windows 7, Firefox, on a cable modem and have just started using 7. Here are a couple things that are driving me nuts.

1. When I open my Firefox home page, my home page gets part way through loading and ten resets the the home page. Where this causes me problems is that I start to type something in the search engine and all of a sudden, my cursor leaves the search box. It's very consistent and happens 100% of the time. Any ideas?
2. I am having strange problems with my mouse pad. I have disabled the "tapping" feature because I tend to hover my finger over the mouse pad, I don't know if this was happening before because I "thought" it was the result of me hovering, but now my cursor jumps to the top right of the page without reason while I am using it....and without reason, my mouse pad becomes a scrolling pad. Any ideas?

Some more information on your laptop model will help us identify touch pad configuration. However if you're noticing glitches in Firefox, make sure you're definitely using the most up to date version and that your homepage is suitable.

In regards to the second issue, try reinstalling the driver related to your mouse. If you don't have a CD for it, jump onto the manufacture website and you should download and install it there.

But - The mousepad may be dirty and may not be a driver issue.

I hope this helps.

Thank you! A couple updates:
1. Mt laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad Edge, I know there are many models of that and I cannot find out which one I have, it is not listed on the machine or in the system.
2. The laptop is brand new.
3. The internet speed has been dramatically improved by setting my display to "best performance"
4. The mouse pad issue continues and I don't have anything that came with the machine......long story short......My fiance bought this unit for fun and a week later my old laptop died. She gave me this one so I could run my business but she has no idea where the stuff is because her life has been a wild ride for a month or so with deaths in the family.