OK, lets see what happens?  So far so good and no key presses have been lost?  The culprit?  You’re not going to believe it, but so far it’s pointing to the fingerprint scanner on the laptop!   Looks like a few others are having the same problem:

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/78912-internet-explorer-text-box-typing-problem.html

Hmm – maybe I spoke too soon?  Just had a couple of keys not register :-(

Back to google…