Don Firth:

At the link you gave for your chair, there is a downloadable "operators manual" that shows 3 different controllers, none of which look like they have the rheostat speed control you described. That raises the possibility that your chair is the beta model and they have changed the controllers for newer models. It might be worth talking to your dealer about whether a controller replacement might be possible; but it depends of course on whether it's worth it to you and of course on whether other things might have to be u$p$g$r$a$d$e$d to accomodate a different one.

The problem is similar to the laptop computers with the "touch pad" mouse built in just below the space bar. If you inadvertently brush against the touch pad while typing, the insertion point moves as if you'd "moused it" to some new position. If you're a touch-typist and don't watch the display at all times, you may find your text mangled into disconnected fragments splattered all over the place.

You can turn off the touch pad, but if you plug in an external "real mouse" it's on the same connection as the touch pad, so the pad has to be turned on for a normal (cheap) add-on mouse to work. Fortunately, a "USB Mouse" will work with the pad turned off (on the ones I've seen); but you have to figure that out for yourself. The documentation that comes with most such laptops doesn't mention the problem. (My observation has been that most people who think laptops are just as good as a real computer are "two fingered typists," so their opinions are easy to ignore. There are a few exceptions of course.)

John