What's in your .vimrc file?
lanstein: perhaps of interest:  " for vertical split, with the pipe dividers hidden
  :hi clear vertsplit
  :hi vertsplit ctermbg=Black ctermfg=Black

  " quit quits all
  :nmap :q :qa
  :nmap :wq :wqa

  " H/L go to beginning/end of line without moving fingers
  :nmap H 0
  :nmap L $

  " turn off matching paren highlighting
  let loaded_matchparen = 1