Constant Refreshing

[Guest]

My pointer switches to an hour glass every 5 or so seconds. It seems to be
timed with the usage increase for the System Idle. This is affecting a lot
of things that I do in Microsoft Office.

Outlook - I could be in a month view, and scrolled down a week or two where
the top week is mid-month. When that hourglass shows up, it will
automatically adjust the calendar in Outlook back to the top of the month
that I'm in the middle of.

I'm adding an item into the calendar, it will let me type for a few seconds,
and then when that hourglass shows up, it cuts me off mid-entry and starts
another entry.

In Excel or Word, if I'm doing a print preview, and "show margins"...it will
show them for a few seconds up until when the pointer switches to an
hourglass. If I double click on the clock/calendar in the lower right, and,
say I go forward a couple of months, it will adjust back within a few seconds.

These are just a few of the things that are going on.

 

[JS]

You need to find the specific system process (and not the 'System Idle'
process which indicates that the CPU is doing nothing) that's taking all
(there are lot of sub-processes tied to the 'System' process) the CPU
resources and slowing down your PC.

To do this try Process Explorer:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/ProcessExplorer.mspx

Once you have Process Explorer installed and running:
In the taskbar select View and check 'Show Process Tree' and 'Show Lower
Pane' options.
(This will provide some of the detailed info you need)
Next click on the CPU column to sort processes by %CPU usage.
Then click on and expand the 'System' or 'Explorer' process to expand and
identify the specific sub-process that's using most or all the resources.
Next click on the sub-process or process listed under the System Process
that's using most or all the CPU %.
Once the process or sub-process is highlighted, right click and from the
options listed select: Search Online. This should display what out there on
the web about that process.

Note: some entries like Explorer, System process (as explained above) and
svchost entries may need to be expanded to show the detail (sub processes),
in this case click on the + located to the left of the entry.

JS

 

[Gerry]

Nancy

What are your anti-virus and anti-spyware arrangements?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Guest]

I haven't gotten a chance to do the other thing that JS said to look at...but
to answer your question, I have a Norton package. I have tried disabling
both the Internet Security and the virus Auto-Protect, and it did not help.

 

[JS]

Norton AV has a 'Live Update' service running and this was for a while a
problem on my PC, I have since turned off the 'Automatic Update' feature (in
the Control Panel there may be a LiveUpdate icon) and now download updates
manually each day. You could have a similar problem with NIS.

JS

 

[Gerry]

Nancy

My reason for asking is that many unexplained processes turn out to be
spyware. It was important yo establish that you had some protection. You
will find few fans of Norton here because it is resource hog. You can
get freeware alternatives that can provide the protection needed.
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

You need to run some anti-spyware programmes such as Spybot as well as
to use Process Explorer. It can be difficult to track down these types
of problem and both routes can provide an answer.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~