Saturday, July 7, 2007

Some stuff about cursor freeze

Additional background to my main adobenortonzyxelcpu post. Here's some information on cursor freeze.

From the St. Petersburg Times:

Something that many XP users either don't know about or overlook is the Event Log. This records almost all system, security and application events on your system. You can find this under Start, Programs, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer, or you can navigate through Control Panel. Check the System log for shutdown notices and see if there is some explanation that may give you a clue as to what may be causing the problem.

Incidentally, I checked Event Viewer and found nothing.

In the same article, a specific question about cursor freeze was answered, in part, as follows:

[C]heck the possibility that something in your Startup processes is causing a problem. Run MSCONFIG and check the Startup tab. Uncheck all processes and then start adding them back one by one (rebooting after each change) until you find the culprit. Once found, try uninstalling and then reinstalling the application.


Kirei Blossom went to TechSpot to discuss a cursor freeze problem:

During the past month, my computer keeps freezing way way too much.. and its completely random and doesn't matter what I'm doing at the time. I've tried system restores and everything, but it doesn't solve the problem.

Right before freezing, the cursor becomes huge and I can't click anything, and then a few minutes later the computer freezes. When I turn it off and on again, it always freezes again during startup, so I have to go into Safe Mode and shut it down from there, after which it boots up and works fine again. But freezes again within half an hour to one hour.

What should I do? I can't pinpoint any software problems. The only change to new software has been that I've got a new Wireless Internet connection now. Could that be a problem? But the computer still freezes even if the antenna wire isn't plugged in.


Advice included a suggestion to check the system event log for error messages, delete temporary files, use Disk Cleanup, use AdAware, use Diskeeper to defrag, run a spyware removal tool such as SpywareBlaster or SpywareGuard, vaccuming the computer, etc.

By the way, I tried vaccuming my computer, but that didn't help either.

Computing.net included a cursor freeze discussion:

For the last week or so my pc has frozen anything from 5 mins to an hour after booting up. The mouse cursor freezes and ctrl Alt delete does not bring up task manager. I have run my anti virus scanner (Nortons) and also a spyware remover and also windows updates but to no avail. My initial thinking was that the system is overheating but the fans are moving freely and I have also cleaned out any dust that was in the casing.

Turns out this was a Windows ME user, so much of the advice centered on a Windows ME issue (failure to release memory). Norton was mentioned, but not as a possible contributor to the problem.

And here's one more cursor freeze problem from Diane:

My HP Windows XP is 15 months old and has never given me one minutes trouble. Tonight it has frozen (screen, cursor, everything) 9 times in a row. We've tried running virus scan (it was done this past Wed. and is up to date on def's) and it freezes before it can complete. Defrag'd.

I can't locate scan disk or PC Doctor to run them.


For the record, I don't have a Hewlett Packard PC. I have a Compaq PC. :)

Diane subsequently ran chkdsk, and was advised to run in safe mode, check the Device Manager (I did that - no problems), look at the Event Viewer, and use the MemTest program to look for faulty RAM. Many other suggestions were offered, including AdAware. (I'm beginning to suspect that if President Bush asked his generals for a new Iraq strategy, they'll tell him to use AdAware. That program is suggested for EVERYTHING.)

Just thought I'd add those to the mix. None of them corrected my problem, but they might correct yours.

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2 comments:

Mike Hobart said...

My sister got a new laptop and it worked great for the first day. Then it crashed and now it crawls ever-so-slowly, the cursor freezes and it won't do System Restore. #Sigh# Why does this happen so often? Have we offended the gods somehow?

Empoprises said...

Mike, sorry for the late response, but I quit blogging at this blog some time ago and only came back to moderate the comments. After I wrote this post I bought a new computer which worked fine for a few months, then it suffered a hard disk crash. Luckily this computer (not a Compaq computer, an HP computer) was covered under warranty, so I shipped the computer to HP and they replaced the disk. Things have been fine since. Obviously a lot of time has passed since you wrote your comment, but I hope your sister contacted the original manufacturer and took care of things.