Cursor hourglass

[Guest]

All of a sudden the arrow cursor in windows xp pro has the hourglass beside it, even when I am not doing anything. It will go off briefly but comes back on. It looks like the hard disk is trying to access something but it happens when I am doing nothing. It just started the other day. It seems to make things run a bit slower as well. I didn't add any programs or do anythnig that I can think of to cause it. It happens even when the hdd light is not on or anything seems to be accessing the hd. I opened task manager and it dosen't show anything running. Should I try to re install xp or what?

 

[roger]

Hi LeeComp10,

All of a sudden the arrow cursor in windows xp pro has the hourglass beside it, even when I am not doing anything. It will go off briefly but comes back on. It looks like the hard disk is trying to access something but it happens when I am doing nothing. It just started the other day. It seems to make things run a bit slower as well. I didn't add any programs or do anythnig that I can think of to cause it. It happens even when the hdd light is not on or anything seems to be accessing the hd. I opened task manager and it dosen't show anything running. Should I try to re install xp or what?

Perform a malware scan using updated ad-aware and spybot (both free):
More info about parasites:
http://www.aumha.org/a/parasite.htm

Ad-aware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/

Spybot S&D
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?lang=en&page=download

Perform an online scan of your computer at ony of these sites:
Trend Micro HouseCall:
http://housecall.antivirus.com/pc_housecall/

Panda Active Scan:
http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan/

RAV AntiVirus Online Virus Scan
http://www.ravantivirus.com/scan/

BitDefender Free Online Virus Scan
http://www.bitdefender.com/scan/license.php

Use the stinger tool just in case:
http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

Good luck

 

[Andrew Stapleton]

Aslo you might have Indexing active - it seems to have a mind of its own
Administrative Tools | Services | Indexing

Hi LeeComp10,

beside it, even when I am not doing anything. It will go off briefly but
comes back on. It looks like the hard disk is trying to access something but
it happens when I am doing nothing. It just started the other day. It seems
to make things run a bit slower as well. I didn't add any programs or do
anythnig that I can think of to cause it. It happens even when the hdd light
is not on or anything seems to be accessing the hd. I opened task manager
and it dosen't show anything running. Should I try to re install xp or what?

 

[Guest]

Thank you Roger, and Andrew. I sure appreciate your help. It ended up being the Sasser Worm which I detected thanks to the housecall scan. Sure appreciate it. Things are back to normal. Lee

 

[roger]

You're welcome, Lee
Thank you for your feedback.
I'm glad you solved your problem.

 

[Guest]

Roger
I am having the same problem. Have completed all of your recommended solutions but the problem still exists. Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated. It is SO annoying

----- roger wrote: ----

Hi LeeComp10

On Tue, 4 May 2004 14:01:02 -0700, LeeComp10 <[email protected]
wrote

All of a sudden the arrow cursor in windows xp pro has the hourglass beside it, even when I am not doing anything. It will go off briefly but comes back on. It looks like the hard disk is trying to access something but it happens when I am doing nothing. It just started the other day. It seems to make things run a bit slower as well. I didn't add any programs or do anythnig that I can think of to cause it. It happens even when the hdd light is not on or anything seems to be accessing the hd. I opened task manager and it dosen't show anything running. Should I try to re install xp or what

Perform a malware scan using updated ad-aware and spybot (both free)
More info about parasites
http://www.aumha.org/a/parasite.ht

Ad-awar
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download

Spybot S&
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?lang=en&page=downloa

Perform an online scan of your computer at ony of these sites
Trend Micro HouseCall
http://housecall.antivirus.com/pc_housecall

Panda Active Scan
http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan

RAV AntiVirus Online Virus Sca
http://www.ravantivirus.com/scan

BitDefender Free Online Virus Sca
http://www.bitdefender.com/scan/license.ph

Use the stinger tool just in case
http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger

Good luc

 

[roger]

Hi Sunshine,

You scanned looking for viruses and malware?

If nothing came up, try going to IE > Tools > Internet Options >
Advanced Options, and uncheck third-party browser extensions.

Good luck

 

[Guest]

Hi Roger
Thank you so VERY much! Your suggestion to uncheck browser extensions worked! I have no idea what intitially caused the problem and hope that it does not surface again
Again, thank you for taking the time to answer this query
Sunshine 4

 

[roger]

Hi Sunshine,

Hi Roger,
Thank you so VERY much! Your suggestion to uncheck browser extensions worked! I have no idea what intitially caused the problem and hope that it does not surface again!
Again, thank you for taking the time to answer this query.
Sunshine 48

You're very welcome

I suggest you run BHODemon, to see which Browser Helper Object may
have been influencing your machine:
http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm

Good luck

 

[Guest]

Hi Roger
Seems as though the culprit was WtoolsB.dlll so I disabled it. Thanks again for the BHO suggestion
Sunshine 48

 

[roger]

You're very welcome, Sunshine 48
Glad you found the culprit.