Hey jwarren,
Sorry to hear your experiencing a problem.
In order to troubleshoot it better I am going to need to know a bit more information:
1. Has the New Activity screen been customized at all?
- By default Method populated the Activity Type with Other and ActivityStatus with Not Started.
2. Have you customized the list of options that are available to users in the Type or Status field?
3. Have your users modified their CRM preferences?
- You can find this on the Home tab > My CRM Preferences
Cheers,
Nelson