ridiculous problem i'm having with my laptop

[tannenj]

i have a dell inspiron 8600 (almost four years old) with a dell 2007fp hooked up to it. every other day or so, i've been having an extremely strange problem.

it's difficult to explain (maybe i should catch it on camtasia the next time it happens), but essentially, it's like my left arrow key is being held down permanently. for example, if i have microsoft word open and click my document, the cursor starts moving to the left very rapidly until it reaches the top left of the document. if i then click somewhere in the middle of the document, it instantly starts moving rapidly to the left again.

if i try to type a word, it comes out jumbled because the letters get inputted backwards. if i try to type "poker," the result is something like "rekop" or "rkeop." i know this sounds retarded, but i swear it's what happens.

the only fix i've found is either waiting it out (it usually fixes itself in 10 or 15 minutes) or restarting the computer. i feel like my laptop is dying and that i'm going to have to just get a new computer (it's old and slow anyway, so not a big deal), but for the time being, maybe someone has a fix for this.

any responses are much appreciated. more than happy to explain further if requested. thanks.

edit: will ship like $15 on full tilt if someone gives me a permanent fix