Mouse arrow problem

When i hover my mouse icon over a link and it turns into that lil pointing hand, sometimes, completely random, it will flicker and or revert back to the arrow, it has been like this for about a week now and im stumped, not to mention getting p@#%&d off with it!

I has got to be something simple, but while I've found few people with similar problems, it is always caused by malware, and i am 100% clean.

any ideas?

Q

 

i guess you tried control panel/mouse properties/pointer & pointer options?
I also read somewhere that i cant remember ,that excessive cleaning of pre fetch data can cause this also.
did you try pointers(windows scheme default)Customize(normal select)?

 

Yeah i have been through all the settings, tried changing it to every option and back again.

Now that pre-fetch idea is interesting..... i could be accused of excessive cleaning of everything including prefetch, but i have not heard that anywhere [it also doesnt make sense to me... but then im in here asking for help about it, so what do i know ]

It's the randomness that bugs me, maybe rain man could notice something but i have studied everything i can, till my head hurt to try nail it.

Ill stop clearing the prefetch and se if that helps

cheers

Q

 

Hey there ~Q~,

Is a sys restore an option. This does alter user settings to the desktop, you could try it, then undo the restore if its no good. Of course back up any progs or settings since that restore point you are going back to - just incase.

I have also run into issues with clearing the prefetch in the past, cant remember exactly what happened but it ws pretty fatal at the time..lack of p.c knowledge didnt help way back then either. I was positive at the time that I had been told that the prefetch was one of the few safe folders to clear out along with the temp and tmp. Your issue may reside in the temp or tmp folder.

If there is an app possibly? from another user say that had altered the cursor pointer or a theme was running and had an issue there maybe some trace of it (not completely removed or registry issue) that still maybe using a shared file perhaps a shared .dll. I really dont know trouble shooting software is not my strongest point...thats why i signed with Major Geeks.:cool

L8r guy gluck with this.

 

Hmmm! unfortunately i dont use system restore (as in it is not swiched on) i never have.

I am the only user on this computer.

I have thought about it being an app' and i have removed a few to test, but i think that my next stop will be uninstalling all app's. the only down side is it can go days without doing it


Q

BTW, the more i look into clearing the prefetch the less i think it can be that causing it.

 

Q - could this be browser related :confused

 

Once It happens, it occurs in all browsers at the same time [FF, IE, Seamonkey, Opera]
All have been clean re-installed aswell.

One thing that might be worth noting is, when it happens, if i right click the link im hovering over, and move the cursor over the context menu and then back over to the link again (without clicking anything) it ALWAYS stops the flickering, until i close teh context menu then it will almost always start the flickering again.

Another thing worth noting is i have tried different mice, both legacy and usb, wired and wirless [even though im sure the mouse couldnt cause this]

Q

 

Well i havn't nailed it YET but i installed my XP [with all the latest updates s/streamed] onto another machine, i booted it and loaded kaspesky, left IE6 running for a few hours and it happened, so it must have been caused by either one of the updates or my last "tweaking" session [bout 3 months ago] or a mix of them both.

Thankfully i have all of the old tweaked versions so i can "restore" if needs be, but i wanna fix this,
so this is gonna be some fun troubleshooting

Q

 

Hey ~Q~,

Have you gone to your control panel and mice or pointing devices and checked there? You may try uninstalling the mouse driver and reinstalling, potentialy rollback, if you havent tried this already.

Sounds little suspicious if its only in web pages though. It maybe a browser plugin or associated file.

Also Try typing in the following,
"dxdiag" from the "run" menu, have a look at the tabs and see if there are files reporting an issue.

Have a look at your internet settings, in Xp via control panel. Have a look at active X files while your at it, there may be a damaged or failed active X file how this may affect your browser I'm not sure. Think it depends on the active X control, you may have several files, these can get updated and can have issues like any other update when being installed.

You can google to find the way to active X files or someone here may be able to impart some wisdom, I'm not on a windows based box at the mo and forget the exact path to get to the Active X components, think it was via the internet explorer settings in control panel (mentioned above) but cant be 100% sure right now.

Could also try reinstalling or preferably complete removal and reinstall of your browser.

At worst if its that bad, a repair install will be alot quicker than removing all you apps and then re-installing.
Although the file that maybe causing the issue may not be associated with any of the Windows files and not get reinstalled...so it maybe somewhat a fruitless and painful exercise.

My take if that doesnt fix it and its really required, back up your files, dont forget browser favourites. Do a clean install a XP Pro install should take around 40 mins or so plus patches. Then update your Windows files. See if the issue occurs. If not back this up so you always will have a good backup untill this date (and to save time in the future) and then restore your progs.

I would do any browser install related progs one at a time - and the pain in the A thing is youll possibly have to shut down and restart beetween each of the installed apps - if you use msn messenger etc.. to ensure the settings have been saved to the registry and then retest after the next install and so on untill you find the offending dodgey app / file / update...

You have tried clearing out temporary files and folders?
Should it re-occur. Come back to Major Geeks, plenty of helpful peeps here with way more g-skill than I.


G.Luck

 

Hey necro thanks for the input, but if you read the thread you will see most of what you sais has already been ruled out.
Cos as i said above it is carrying over to a clean install on another machine, with nothing but IE6 & kaspersky in it.


And I cant do a repair install with my disc

 

Hey ~Q~:wave

Tried a different browser?

 

..........

Q

 

BTW

Is your original P.C a name brand or mass produced, it may have a hidden restore partition. Dells, Compaq Hp's packard Bell, tend to be in this catergory.

The reason I ask is that this restores to factory defaults. A Destructive restore - all your data goes windows gets reinstalled. Or A repair install leaves all prog files alone? and just reinstalls windows. If this is an option F11 maybe the way to get there on booting...go to your manufactures website to find out more.

If you have installed additional hardware since purchasing your P.C such as sound, video cards, printer etc... then back up these drivers to an external source prior to trying this...if you dont have the original Cd's that is.


Is there something in your mouse driver that Kasperky doesnt like when your online?


L8r guy

 

necro, my PC is hand built, the XP install i use is heavily modified/stripped out version, that i have "created" over years, any type of "repair install" would be basically destructive to my set-up.

As i said earlier

Chances are i've removed something that when i researched at the time was harmless but a future update has been expecting to be ther and has since caused the problem.

I have ruled out Kaspersky already.

Anyhoo, ill post once i get this sussed.

Q