Mouse pad on Toshiba Satellite Laptop keeps screwing up?

Okay! i seem to be asking tons of questions about this freaking toshiba laptop I got two years ago. The mouse pad that's attached to the computer keeps screwing up. The mouse would freeze on the screen and i can't fix it! I tried clicking a button (i forgot it's name but I remember my ex boyfriend telling me to do it one time to fix the mouse and it worked-he's a computer wiz). And sometimes the mouse wouldn't show up at all on the screen no matter how many times I move my fingers to move the mouse. What could be wrong with it? What could i do, besides get a new computer, to fix it? Also it's working now cause I refreshed the computer however I lost quite a few things on the computer itself so is there anything I can do to reduce the chance of having to refresh the computer again if this does it again?