Hourglass every few seconds in Word 2003

[TK]

When I am working in Word 2003 (and typing in Outlook, which is set to use
Word as the text editor), the cursor is replaced by the hourglass (busy)
every 7-8 seconds. When the hourglass appears, typing is interrupted until
the hourglass disappears (approx 1 sec.). I have made sure that spelling and
grammar checking are not set to "check as you type" and the Auto-save
interval is set to 5 minutes. I've run numerous Anti-virus and spyware scans.
I have reinstalled Office more than once.
Word was working fine for many months without this problem and it seems
to have started suddenly. I am not aware of any specific change to my
computer such as installing a program that exactly corresponds to when this
first started. This problem does not occur in any other program, just Word
and Outlook.

If any one has any ideas to fix this problem, I would greatly appreciate it.

Regards

 

[alex_us01]

Just happened to me today.
It was because I changed a setting of my Brother printer.
Specifically, to print NatureMade coupons, I had to change
in the Advanced Tab of the Properties of my printer
from "Spool print documents ...& start printing immediately" to "print
directly to the printer".
I made the change back to "spool print documents" and the problem is
gone.

RWN in google group "microsoft.public.word.vba.general" for the thread
with subject: system 'busy'
and date Mar 10 2004, 12:34pm
has posted this link in response to Sandy:
http://lc.yi.org/scribble/scribble_show.php?sid=30

This also talks about a printer service (spooling service) of a Brother
printer.
So, it is likely that some setting you changed with your printer might
have affected it.
If your printer is Brother, maybe the chance is even higher.
When I looked at the services with "Filemon" (mentioned in the scribble
link above), I found out the service BrMfcWnd.exe (I have Brother MFC
210C, probably Br stands for Brother, Mfc for MFC and Wnd for Windows)
was issuing requests of LOCK and UNLOCK. That was different from other
processes. I think that was what caused the busy-ness in Word and
Outlook.

hope this helps,
alex

 

[Graham Mayor]

This could be caused by some well meaning update to your AV software.
Checking of Word/Office documents can usually be deselected in the AV
program e.g. in Norton AV by turning off its Office Plug-in.

With some versions of the Norton product it may be necessary to unregister
the calling DLL by running the following command line from Windows > Start >
Run

regsvr32 /u "c:\program files\norton antivirus\officeav.dll"
or
regsvr32 /u "c:\program files\norton systemworks\norton
antivirus\officeav.dll"

Other AV apps eg the popular free ediition of Grisoft's AVG antivirus
software, require similar treatment.
In this instance:

regsvr32 /u "C:\Program Files\Grisoft\AVG Free\avgoff2k.dll"

This will not compromise you overall system security.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[TK]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! This fixed the problem immediately. It's
been driving me crazy for months!

TK

 

[Voodoo]

A big thanks to you Alex !!!!!
Couldn't find a solution to that awful bug for a week.

Cheers !

 

[Texas Gal]

I have tried all of these remedies and none worked. I don't use Norton but
use the EZArmor security suite.

The cursor turns into an hourglass every 15-20 seconds in all programs; the
hourglass only stays for a second or two. I have Windows XP, Outlook 6.0 and
Word 2003. When I am in Outlook and have two emails open, the pages will
often flip back and forth by themselves, interrupting typing and reading.
HELP!