cursor / insertion point disappears while I'm typing as computer appears to refresh

[lisashif]

While I am typing, my cursor disappears -- usually every minute or two
-- and I have to click the spot where I'm typing to continue. It seems
the windows becomes inactive because the blue border becomes a pale
blue as if the application has moved to the background. I think the
computer is refreshing automatically? It's very frustrating -- it
happens while I'm in Word, browsing the Web and typing e-mail messages.


This is not a pointer issue, by the way. I've seen suggested solutions
mentioning that. It's the insertion point and something to do with the
window becoming inactive. Other programs I usually have running are
earthlink access, norton antivirus, google gmail notifier and palm
hotsync manager. Even when I close these, however, it still happens.

Might there be a program running in the background that I don't know
about? (I run spyware software but nothing has turned up). Is the
problem related to other programs running?

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Guest]

I’ve been plagued with the same problem since download and install of SP2.

You are typing along and you hear the "boop†error sound and see that the
last characters you typed are not on your screen and you have lost the text
insertion point. You then need to use the mouse to position the cursor back
at the end of the text you were entering and left click before you can resume
typing.

There are five Dell computers, all with XP SP2, in my home. We have all
experienced this situation since installing SP2 a couple of years ago.
Sometimes it happens quite frequently and other times it will not occur for
days at a time. My daughter says she has noticed that downloading and
installing, for e.g. Windows updates, seems to alternately turn the problem
on and off. Plus her machine has now quit sounding the audible error alert
(“boop†sound) so the problem for her is magnified as she may have typed
several paragraphs before she looks up to the screen to find her text has not
been entered. (yes, her speakers are on and other sounds do play)

It does not seem to be application specific. It happens while using Word,
Quicken, QuickBooks, on web sites, when writing email, actually, it happens
anywhere you may try to enter text.

Like you, EarthLink is our ISP and we use Norton AntiVirus as well.
However, I would think that many people use both of these, and if they had
any connection to this, we would have heard of it by now.

I will be checking back here to see if anyone can tell us why this is
happening and maybe how to fix it.