Mouse pointer, working in background
 

The condition may have begun over a week ago; I'm not sure. The small
hourglass figure alongside the mouse pointer easily goes unnoticed but if
it's showing when I try to quit, the computer always hangs up. I don't know
what turns it on. I have eliminated all except Explorer and System Tray but
the hourglass still remains. If, at that point, I restart the computer the
hourglass disappears and I can then shut down normally. Its presence seems
to have no effect at all on other things I do until I try to quit. Please,
where do I look now?

Ken Bland

Get Process Explorer, free, from www.sysinternals.com . Along with showing
you every active process (to include background) and the amount of cpu
cycles in %, used by each, it will also keep a short recording of running
items and their usage. In the upper right of the PE GUI, you will see the
graph (green line), if you hover your pointer over any 'spike' it will tell
you what process made it. Might help you narrow down what it happening.
Heirloom, old and due a process

"Justin Thyme" wrote in message
...
The condition may have begun over a week ago; I'm not sure. The small
hourglass figure alongside the mouse pointer easily goes unnoticed but if
it's showing when I try to quit, the computer always hangs up. I don't
know
what turns it on. I have eliminated all except Explorer and System Tray
but
the hourglass still remains. If, at that point, I restart the computer
the
hourglass disappears and I can then shut down normally. Its presence
seems
to have no effect at all on other things I do until I try to quit.
Please,
where do I look now?

Ken Bland

Sorry for the delayed response, Heirloom; I hadn't forgotten but I wanted to
have a little more information for you before replying.

I'm familiar with Process Explorer and , frankly, it tells me zip. If a
heart monitor was as flat as this thin green line the patient would be cold
stone dead. Typically System Idle is between 96-97%; True Vector, Zone Labs
Client, and Spam Filter, all part of ZoneAlarm, comprise together about 2%;
Sysinternals itself uses about 2%. If there are any smaller trace usages
they don't show up. The only time a spike occurs is when I deliberately
query one of the running processes and then only momentarily.

Luke, if you're reading this, the programs typically running when I do a
Ctrl-Alt-Delete are, in order: Mozilla Firefox (if I've opened Firefox);
Explorer; Zlclient (part of ZoneAlarm); Mantispm (Matador, part of ZoneAlarm
spamblocker); Vsmon (part of ZoneAlarm); Em_exec (part of Logitech);
Systray; and Isafe (part of ZoneAlarm). For those time when I use Internet
Explorer in lieu of Firefox I will see Cpal and Cpbrwtch (from Cookie Pal, a
cookie screener app that I've used for years).

That's it. The hourglass and mouse pointer aren't always associated
together when I'm ready to shutdown, but perhaps 90% of the time.

Ken Bland
==============================================
"heirloom" wrote in message
...
Get Process Explorer, free, from www.sysinternals.com . Along with
showing
you every active process (to include background) and the amount of cpu
cycles in %, used by each, it will also keep a short recording of running
items and their usage. In the upper right of the PE GUI, you will see the
graph (green line), if you hover your pointer over any 'spike' it will
tell
you what process made it. Might help you narrow down what it happening.
Heirloom, old and due a process

Ken wrote :-

.... True Vector, Zone Labs

I've had quite a bit of trouble with this aspect of ZA on my XP box (long
story). If possible, try 'uninstalling' ZA for a day or two and see if the
problem goes with it. I've now given up with ZA (sadly) and rely on XP's
Firewall - not an option in WinMe.

Before you uninstall it, - at shutdown, when the hourglass is showing - look
in Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) under Processes to see if there is more than
one instance of Explorer.exe running.

Mart


"Justin Thyme" wrote in message
...
Sorry for the delayed response, Heirloom; I hadn't forgotten but I wanted
to
have a little more information for you before replying.

I'm familiar with Process Explorer and , frankly, it tells me zip. If a
heart monitor was as flat as this thin green line the patient would be
cold
stone dead. Typically System Idle is between 96-97%; True Vector, Zone
Labs
Client, and Spam Filter, all part of ZoneAlarm, comprise together about
2%;
Sysinternals itself uses about 2%. If there are any smaller trace usages
they don't show up. The only time a spike occurs is when I deliberately
query one of the running processes and then only momentarily.

Luke, if you're reading this, the programs typically running when I do a
Ctrl-Alt-Delete are, in order: Mozilla Firefox (if I've opened Firefox);
Explorer; Zlclient (part of ZoneAlarm); Mantispm (Matador, part of
ZoneAlarm
spamblocker); Vsmon (part of ZoneAlarm); Em_exec (part of Logitech);
Systray; and Isafe (part of ZoneAlarm). For those time when I use
Internet
Explorer in lieu of Firefox I will see Cpal and Cpbrwtch (from Cookie Pal,
a
cookie screener app that I've used for years).

That's it. The hourglass and mouse pointer aren't always associated
together when I'm ready to shutdown, but perhaps 90% of the time.

Ken Bland
==============================================
"heirloom" wrote in message
...
Get Process Explorer, free, from www.sysinternals.com . Along with
showing
you every active process (to include background) and the amount of cpu
cycles in %, used by each, it will also keep a short recording of running
items and their usage. In the upper right of the PE GUI, you will see
the
graph (green line), if you hover your pointer over any 'spike' it will
tell
you what process made it. Might help you narrow down what it happening.
Heirloom, old and due a process

Sorry that didn't help. Maybe something here will:

http://66.39.115.252/win4/a/shutdown.htm

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=149962

http://support.microsoft.com/support/windows/tshoot/

I looked at your program list.....nothing really stood out as a source of
problem.
Wish I could be of more assistance.......please post your fix, I'm
interested.
Heirloom, old and had a nap, now time for bed

"Justin Thyme" wrote in message
...
Sorry for the delayed response, Heirloom; I hadn't forgotten but I wanted
to
have a little more information for you before replying.

I'm familiar with Process Explorer and , frankly, it tells me zip. If a
heart monitor was as flat as this thin green line the patient would be
cold
stone dead. Typically System Idle is between 96-97%; True Vector, Zone
Labs
Client, and Spam Filter, all part of ZoneAlarm, comprise together about
2%;
Sysinternals itself uses about 2%. If there are any smaller trace usages
they don't show up. The only time a spike occurs is when I deliberately
query one of the running processes and then only momentarily.

Luke, if you're reading this, the programs typically running when I do a
Ctrl-Alt-Delete are, in order: Mozilla Firefox (if I've opened Firefox);
Explorer; Zlclient (part of ZoneAlarm); Mantispm (Matador, part of
ZoneAlarm
spamblocker); Vsmon (part of ZoneAlarm); Em_exec (part of Logitech);
Systray; and Isafe (part of ZoneAlarm). For those time when I use
Internet
Explorer in lieu of Firefox I will see Cpal and Cpbrwtch (from Cookie Pal,
a
cookie screener app that I've used for years).

That's it. The hourglass and mouse pointer aren't always associated
together when I'm ready to shutdown, but perhaps 90% of the time.

Ken Bland
==============================================
"heirloom" wrote in message
...
Get Process Explorer, free, from www.sysinternals.com . Along with
showing
you every active process (to include background) and the amount of cpu
cycles in %, used by each, it will also keep a short recording of
running
items and their usage. In the upper right of the PE GUI, you will see
the
graph (green line), if you hover your pointer over any 'spike' it will
tell
you what process made it. Might help you narrow down what it
happening.
Heirloom, old and due a process

Justin Thyme wrote:
snips
the programs typically running when I do a
Ctrl-Alt-Delete

ummm.... Start/Shutdown too complicated ?


Rick

I believe he was just using CAD to see what processes were active, but, ya
never know.
Heirloom, old and everything is complicated

"Rick T" wrote in message
...
Justin Thyme wrote:
snips
the programs typically running when I do a
Ctrl-Alt-Delete

ummm.... Start/Shutdown too complicated ?


Rick

"Rick T" wrote in message
...
Justin Thyme wrote:
snips
the programs typically running when I do a
Ctrl-Alt-Delete

ummm.... Start/Shutdown too complicated ?


Rick

Not at all, Rick, please go back and read my first entry in this series. If
the mouse pointer is associated with the small hourglass Start/Shutdown
doesn't work. Screen goes black, requiring a power off, and subsequent scan
disk to start again.

Ken Bland

heirloom wrote:
I believe he was just using CAD to see what processes were active, but, ya
never know.

oh yeah (duh)

Rick

Heirloom, old and everything is complicated

"Rick T" wrote in message
...

Justin Thyme wrote:
snips

the programs typically running when I do a
Ctrl-Alt-Delete

ummm.... Start/Shutdown too complicated ?


Rick

If this is a consistent thing you can shutdown those processes in
TaskManager to see at what point the hourglass disappears.


Rick


Justin Thyme wrote:
Sorry for the delayed response, Heirloom; I hadn't forgotten but I wanted to
have a little more information for you before replying.

I'm familiar with Process Explorer and , frankly, it tells me zip. If a
heart monitor was as flat as this thin green line the patient would be cold
stone dead. Typically System Idle is between 96-97%; True Vector, Zone Labs
Client, and Spam Filter, all part of ZoneAlarm, comprise together about 2%;
Sysinternals itself uses about 2%. If there are any smaller trace usages
they don't show up. The only time a spike occurs is when I deliberately
query one of the running processes and then only momentarily.

Luke, if you're reading this, the programs typically running when I do a
Ctrl-Alt-Delete are, in order: Mozilla Firefox (if I've opened Firefox);
Explorer; Zlclient (part of ZoneAlarm); Mantispm (Matador, part of ZoneAlarm
spamblocker); Vsmon (part of ZoneAlarm); Em_exec (part of Logitech);
Systray; and Isafe (part of ZoneAlarm). For those time when I use Internet
Explorer in lieu of Firefox I will see Cpal and Cpbrwtch (from Cookie Pal, a
cookie screener app that I've used for years).

That's it. The hourglass and mouse pointer aren't always associated
together when I'm ready to shutdown, but perhaps 90% of the time.

Ken Bland
==============================================
"heirloom" wrote in message
...

Get Process Explorer, free, from www.sysinternals.com . Along with

showing

you every active process (to include background) and the amount of cpu
cycles in %, used by each, it will also keep a short recording of running
items and their usage. In the upper right of the PE GUI, you will see the
graph (green line), if you hover your pointer over any 'spike' it will

tell

you what process made it. Might help you narrow down what it happening.
Heirloom, old and due a process