[apw100]

My mouse cursor is constantly flickering between the normal "arrow" and "working in background". I restarted the pc, but that didn't work. Anyone had this happen before, or know how to stop it?

[ahslax59@yahoo.c]

Originally Posted by apw100

My mouse cursor is constantly flickering between the normal "arrow" and "working in background". I restarted the pc, but that didn't work. Anyone had this happen before, or know how to stop it?

im having this same problem it started after i ran a performance scan to get the "base number" for my computer. Have you sloved this problem yet?

[funk3r]

Sorry if I'm reviving this dead post, but I'm having this problem too, it's driving me crazy. I'm using an HP TX2500 running Windows Vista Home Premium.

[crazlunatic]

Try doing this. Go to Control Panel > Mouse > Pointers > None under Schemes

[funk3r]

I just tried that, but now instead of Vista's circular hour glass, its flashing to the regular hour glass.

[crazlunatic]

Ok. It could be something wrong with your mouse but perhaps there is some background process running that you're unaware of. How often does this happen and when does it happen?

[funk3r]

I first noticed it happening yesterday after windows update ran, it was annoying me so I reinstalled Vista, everything was fine, I reinstalled all my programs, and after Vista updated, I'm having the problem again. I only have Kaspersky AV, Microsoft Office and the hp drivers installed on this laptop.

[crazlunatic]

There are only 3 things I can think of right now that you can try. I'll order them from easiest to hardest.

1) Scan your computer for spyware and adware. You can use spybot, adware, and any other program you know. Try Ccleaner too.

2) Go to the Mouse settings and under Pointer, there is a big list at the bottom. Find the one it keeps changing to (probably busy) and choose Browse. Then find the default cursor (the normal one) and pick that. Now it will never change to busy, even when your computer is actually busy...

3) Go to the Mouse settings, hardware tab, properties, change settings, driver, update driver, search automatically for updated software. If there are no updates, you can try downloading your own driver for your mouse from the manufacturer and using that instead. Note that this may affect mouse speed or movement, and this will be irritating for gamers. If you don't mind, you can go to the mouse's company's website, download the driver, and update it like this as well.

4) This is risky. I've never tried it but if I was really desperate this is what I would try. You are going to reinstall your mouse driver. Now go back to the mouse settings and go to hardware, properties, driver, driver details. It will now show you 1 or 2 files of the mouse drivers. Backup those 2 files and put them somewhere you'll remember or safe (desktop probably.) Go back to the General Tab and press Change Settings, Driver tab, then uninstall the driver. After you uninstall, you'll probably have to reboot, and you can no longer use your mouse. Try to access Windows Update with your keyboard and see if there are any updates. Vista may even try to search for a mouse driver when you boot up because it recognizes a newly added device. If it doesn't, then you're going to have to access the control panel and run the add new hardware wizard. Follow the steps, you can select automatic driver search at first but if it doesn't find it, you can refer back to the location where you stored the original mouse drivers that I told you to save before. Then your mouse should work again if everything is fine. Use this at your own discretion because I've never tried it and am not sure what will happen but you shoudl be able to use your mouse again. You may want to practice a bit keyboard only use. But if I'm right, Windows should recognize your mouse as a new device and attempt to search for a driver for it.

[funk3r]

Thanks for the advice, I'm gonna go ahead and try the last one, I'll update when I'm done.

[crazlunatic]

you should go for #3 first, i forgot to add...

[Orumph]

It's not a driver issue.

You have already reinstalled windows because of this issue.

It is a backgound process.

Do you notice your hard drive light flashing about the same time as the cursor change?

If so, then A.) indexing service B.) Windows Defender C.) other program that you have isntalled.

[fluffybunnyv2]

I've been having the same problem for the past two months as well. I would always just go to system restore and reset the updates to fix the problem. However, I knew I couldn't keep doing this forever. I checked the task manager for any unusual processes and found one: 31105.exe. I have no idea what this is or used for. The location of the app is under your user docs&settings Application Data\Microsoft\dtsc\31105.exe. I tried several times to end process, but it would immediately reappear. I ran spybot, norton, win defender and they all assured me everything was safely in order. Finally I went into Windows Defender and checked the currently running processes. I found 31105.exe. It told me a bunch of unknowns about it, but I had downloaded it on the 3rd of July...blah blah. Since I just love to take action before thinking > END PROCESS! [using windows defender] and no more working in background cursor!
Hurray! but this might not be the same with you. I hope this helps.
P.S. the hard drive light still flickers though.

[crazlunatic]

Orumph is probably right, but it could be some fault in the driver that is causing it to display the wrong icon, although highly unlikely.

I would suggest you follow the steps 1 through 4 as I suggested =)

[funk3r]

Thanks for the help Craz, I ended up just reinstalling Vista. Like Orumph and fluffybunnyv2 mention, I had a feeling it was a background process. This problem started after I turned off my Kaspersky security suite and started using Window's Defender. So far, with all updates and SP1, I havn't had the problem again, but thanks to fluffybunnyv2, if it does arise, it's probably linked to Window's Defender.