Intermittent hour glass

[L Reese]

When in Word, about every 15 seconds an hour glass comes
on for a couple of seconds. I can continue typing and the
letters appear properly, but it is very irritating and
disruptive. It acts as if it were trying to auto save the
document, but that is not turned on. This is Office XP on
a brand new Dell desktop--it has been doing this for three
weeks and my tech support can't figure out what is causing
it. Any ideas?

 

[Beth Melton]

You may have Speech Recognition enabled. It can cause the delay you
describe if it is attempting to determine if you are dictating or
issuing a command. This can still happen even if you don't have a
microphone plugged in. Take a look under the Tools menu and see if
Speech is enabled.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Michael Rich]

The same thing is happening to me - and the speech is disabled.

The hour glass is popping up on extremely regular intervals. Like once
every ten seconds.

I have uninstalled, re-installed, disabled auto saves, deleted normal.dot,
disabled and deleted all add-ons, delete ALL macros, but NOTHING seems to be
working here.

I am concerned that this is some sort of Office virus.

 

[TF]

Michael

Try uninstalling the Speech Recognition as that is the usual reason for the
problem you are describing.

--
Terry Farrell - Word MVP
http://www.mvps.org/word/

The same thing is happening to me - and the speech is disabled.

The hour glass is popping up on extremely regular intervals. Like once
every ten seconds.

I have uninstalled, re-installed, disabled auto saves, deleted normal.dot,
disabled and deleted all add-ons, delete ALL macros, but NOTHING seems to be
working here.

I am concerned that this is some sort of Office virus.

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Michael,

Are you using Word 2002? What patches do you have installed?

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Larry Reese]

Michael, I have done the same things you have done and
can't get rid of it. We suspect a virus also, but can't
find anything present on the system.

 

[Michael Rich]

Thanks for the suggestion, but it didn't work out.

I totally uninstalled all Speech components, and it is still hitting an hour
glass like clockwork every ten seconds.

Any other suggestions? I'm desperate...

 

[Michael Rich]

I am using Word 2002. I have visited officeupdate.com and applied all
patches, etc.

 

[Michael Rich]

I should also add that I am running the latest AV from Symantec and Spybot
S&D... I can't find anything wrong virus-wise...

 

[TF]

Michael

Open Task Manager and size it so that you can see all the open processors.
Keep it on top and then try editing the Word document. Does it indicate Word
(or any other process) hogging the processor?

Another possible problem is the grammar (or spelling) as you type option is
hogging the processor because of a language conflict. Test by temporarily
turning these options off (Tools, Options, Spelling & Grammar tab. If that
does stop the problem, then check that all languages are set correctly
(Keyboard Language in Regional settings as well as the language in the Word
document and template).


--
Terry Farrell - Word MVP
http://www.mvps.org/word/

I should also add that I am running the latest AV from Symantec and Spybot
S&D... I can't find anything wrong virus-wise...

 

[Michael Rich]

No - word has no unusual spikes in processor time. In fact the idle process
is still the biggest CPU time slice on any of this.

Turning off all spelling and grammar options didn't help either...

 

[TF]

Michael

Very baffling. Two possibilities I would check next: the network and the
Internet. Try isolating the computer from the network and the Internet and
testing it in standalone mode to see if that stops the problem.

Less likely may be the Anti Virus. As it new computer, make sure that the
graphics driver and printer driver are the latest available.

Terry

No - word has no unusual spikes in processor time. In fact the idle process
is still the biggest CPU time slice on any of this.

Turning off all spelling and grammar options didn't help either...

 

[Michael Rich]

The problem was related to the Brother printer driver I have installed.

I removed the printer and the problem goes away.

I'll either have to contact Brother and see what's up, or (more likely)
switch to a generic printer driver.

Thanks for all the suggestions!
MR