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Cursor flashing- arrow/hourglass

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7 replies

by pbtoms

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A computer at my church is having a weird problem. The cursor starts flashing. It is an arrow, then the hourglass, then the arrow, etc. It blinks back and forth about once or twice a second. I had thought it was modem-related (started after anattempt to connect), but that does not appear to be the case. I tried Ctrl-Alt-Del to see if there was something weird running, but everything there is supposed to be there. It looks, of course, like something is running in the background, tying up the system over and over, but I can't figure out how to find it. I have run a virus scanner (McAfee, latest dats) and found nothing. System config:
(as much as I remember) - it's a Gateway, PIII-500. 64 Meg RAM, running Win98SE. It's on a small P2P network with two other machines. It is pretty consistent, doesn't appear to start or stop for any observable reason. Any ideas at all? Naturally, I'll provide whatever other info you want to help with troubleshooting.

7 replies

by b.scott1

Go to RUN in the start menu and type MSCONFIG in the box to take a look at all of your startup and boot files. This utility will allow you to turn off programs and reenable them with out having to actually delete anything. Look for any type on monitoring utilities like scanner and fax monitors that might be doing some excessive polling.

by pbtoms

I knew that! :-P I did find one thing loading that I didn't recognize. Turned it off, and it seems to have fixed it. Now I just need to find time to go back and figure out what it was!

by timwalsh

Also check to see if it might be network related. The next time this happens, check with the users of the other computers to see what they are doing.
Are you by chance sharing an Internet connection that is hosted on this particular computer?
Maybe try physically disconnecting the computer from the network and see if the behavior continues. Since you are connected to a network, there could be processes running on the other computers that are accessing resources on your computer.

by pbtoms

Yes, it was hosting an ICS connection. It doesn't seem to be related, though, as it happens whether or not the other machines are on.

by des.willcocks

Try to reinstall your mouse drivers. Does this happen with all user profiles? -If not delete the problem user's profile after backing up their settings.

by pbtoms

It's probably not mouse-related, as it isn't consistent. Seems like if it were a mouse problem, it would happen all the time. It looks like there is something else triggering it. There is only one profile on that machine, so I can't tell if it's profile-related.

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