focus not working

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hey all,
i'm trying to set focus to a textbox on my page and i've tried using
..focus() in javascript and it finds the text fine and sets the focus on it
but when the page is displayed the cursor is nowhere to be found.

i have several different componenets on one page like the UpdatePanel, a
FormView, FreeTextBox. any clues on how to possibly troubleshoot this?

thanks,
rodchar