Right - ive tried loads of excercises and been really careful about studying whats going on with my 4th fingure.. and ive noticed something. Its fine for every scale / sequence of notes except for when my second finger is used. This may not make much sense, but heres what happens:

If i lift my little finger up, and then play a note with finger 2 afterwards, as soon as i lower finger 2 ontro the strings to fret a note my 4th finger flys backwards / outwards so it is sticking out away from the neck. I can maintain a good floating position, close to the frets with fingers 1 3 and 4 (for example while playing the excercise posted here:

--1-3-4------------
---------1-3-4-----
---------------1-3-4 etc etc

but if i then try to play something involving second and fourth finger

e.g.
the crossroads thing

---7---4------0-----
----------5-------


i have the problem return with finger 4. this is getting frustrating because whatever i try to do about it doesnt seem to work - its almost like my little finger has like only two positions it locks into - fretting a not and sticking out away from the neck (it isnt quit that bad but that how it feels)

also i notice that when i push finger 4 down, finger 2 kind of moves away from the fretboard - the two are antagonistic to each other - i push one down and the other flys off - especially when i try to play fast. have tried relaxing more, helps a bit but not much.

amy futher advice / excercises would be great... Many thanks once again all.

~Tweak~