Mysterious Background Activity in Word

[rmd]

Greetings All!

I am Running Word 2002 Sp 2 (10.5815.4219) on an up to
date Windows XP professional system.

Every 10 seconds like clockwork, the hour glass appears
for about 2 seconds. When the hour glass is active, all
input ceases until the activity is complete. In addition
to the hourglass, the upper lefthand corner of the ruler
box surrounding the document gets grayed out (about 1/2"
of ruler in both the horizontal and vertical directions).
The rulers reappear when the hourglass goes away. The
activity continues to happen even when the open document
is put into the background by clicking another open window
(such as an excel file). It doesn't appear to be a
personal setting as both users of the machine encounter
the problem. Ths problem has just started happening after
about nine months of using the machine with no problem.

The document is not autosaving as this has been checked.
It is not a speech or language recognition problem as
these have been deactivate and checked.

Help Please!!

rmd

 

[TF]

If you are using Norton Anti Virus, open NAV and deselect the Office
Plug-in. Open Tools, Opens Spelling & Grammar and turn off the 'check while
you type' options. If it is still doing it, get one of the better
scumware/spyware detectors such as SpyBot and scan your system.



: Greetings All!
:
: I am Running Word 2002 Sp 2 (10.5815.4219) on an up to
: date Windows XP professional system.
:
: Every 10 seconds like clockwork, the hour glass appears
: for about 2 seconds. When the hour glass is active, all
: input ceases until the activity is complete. In addition
: to the hourglass, the upper lefthand corner of the ruler
: box surrounding the document gets grayed out (about 1/2"
: of ruler in both the horizontal and vertical directions).
: The rulers reappear when the hourglass goes away. The
: activity continues to happen even when the open document
: is put into the background by clicking another open window
: (such as an excel file). It doesn't appear to be a
: personal setting as both users of the machine encounter
: the problem. Ths problem has just started happening after
: about nine months of using the machine with no problem.
:
: The document is not autosaving as this has been checked.
: It is not a speech or language recognition problem as
: these have been deactivate and checked.
:
: Help Please!!
:
: rmd
:

 

[Guest]

Terry,

Thanks for the response. However, I am using the McAfee
virus software and SpyHunter from Enigma to keep the
spybots clean.

Any other ideas?

thanks,
rmd

 

[RWN]

Not an expert, but;
Does McAfee have a similar function to Norton?
Seems to me I read, in another post, something about "Microsoft Office
Integration" in relation to McAfee.

 

[Guest]

Bob,

Thanks for your reply. I get the same mysterious behavior
with McAfee on or disabled, with the network cable plugged
in or not. I checked the McAfee site as well and could
not find any hint of a problem. I think something else is
going on.

thanks,
rmd

 

[RWN]

(Still) not an expert, but;
Is it only Word that's displaying this behaviour or are you getting
anomalies in any other app/function?
Install anything lately?
Have you tried a Trojan scanner? My son's XP machine started acting
strange a while back, although not in quite the same way, and it turned
out to be a Trojan that was "doing it's thing".

 

[TF]

Try SpyBot as well - its free and 2 are much better than 1! Did you disable
the Spelling and Grammar?

Terry

: Terry,
:
: Thanks for the response. However, I am using the McAfee
: virus software and SpyHunter from Enigma to keep the
: spybots clean.
:
: Any other ideas?
:
: thanks,
: rmd
: >-----Original Message-----
: >If you are using Norton Anti Virus, open NAV and deselect
: the Office
: >Plug-in. Open Tools, Opens Spelling & Grammar and turn
: off the 'check while
: >you type' options. If it is still doing it, get one of
: the better
: >scumware/spyware detectors such as SpyBot and scan your
: system.
: >
: >--
: >Terry Farrell - Word MVP
: >http://word.mvps.org/
: >
: message
: >: >: Greetings All!
: >:
: >: I am Running Word 2002 Sp 2 (10.5815.4219) on an up to
: >: date Windows XP professional system.
: >:
: >: Every 10 seconds like clockwork, the hour glass appears
: >: for about 2 seconds. When the hour glass is active, all
: >: input ceases until the activity is complete. In addition
: >: to the hourglass, the upper lefthand corner of the ruler
: >: box surrounding the document gets grayed out (about 1/2"
: >: of ruler in both the horizontal and vertical
: directions).
: >: The rulers reappear when the hourglass goes away. The
: >: activity continues to happen even when the open document
: >: is put into the background by clicking another open
: window
: >: (such as an excel file). It doesn't appear to be a
: >: personal setting as both users of the machine encounter
: >: the problem. Ths problem has just started happening
: after
: >: about nine months of using the machine with no problem.
: >:
: >: The document is not autosaving as this has been checked.
: >: It is not a speech or language recognition problem as
: >: these have been deactivate and checked.
: >:
: >: Help Please!!
: >:
: >: rmd
: >:
: >
: >
: >.
: >

 

[Guest]

Terry,

Thanks for the note. I did try to disable spelling and
grammer with no effect. However, when I open word after a
fresh boot up, the problem takes about 5 minutes to start
happening (whether or not spelling/grammer are disabled).
After the 5-min period, the background activity continues
(in Word only!) even if word is shutdown and restarted.

Still perplexed,
rmd

 

[Guest]

Rob,

Thanks for the reply. Strangely, it is only word. I
looked into excel, etc and no problem. I'm guessing there
have been automatic windows and McAfee updates, but I've
not installed any other hardware or software recently
enough to tie to the problem.

I watched the process monitor, and it is the winword.exe
process that is using CPU time corresponding to the
background activity.

thanks,
rmd

 

[RWN]

You may want to check out the help regarding the Startup Options.
I'm wondering about Global templates/Addins that may have macro's
starting up (unbeknownst to you!).
I've never had to do it (or even "played" with it) but evidently you can
add a switch ("/a") when starting winword.exe that will prevent all
global templates (including normal.dot), plus any addins from firing up.
Also, I've read that "Works suite" has been known to cause problems, do
you have this?.
Again, this is probably over my head (using Wd2k on win 2k) but
hopefully you can narrow it down until an "Expert" shows up.

HTH

 

[Guest]

Bob,

I gave it a try..winword.exe /a to no effect. After about
5 minutes of word being open following a system restart,
the activity comes back..every 10 seconds! I don't use
works suite. I think I'll try reinstalling if I can.

Thanks,
rmd

 

[RWN]

rmd;
I did some looking in this ng and found the fiollowing thread which I've
pasted here.
Doesn't look as if it was resolved but it may be worthwhile. The article
in question doesn't really talk about your problem, specifically, but
has some links that may(?) apply.
As well, the site was rec. by Terry Farrell in response to a user whose
problem is (eerily) the same as yours.

Good Luck, and, when you get it fixed, please post back - self defence
for when I upgrade and get the same problem!
--
Regards;
Rob



Starting Word with a switch suggests that there is an add-in causing the
problem. See the following document for finding the cause:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm

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

I found it, and now it's turned off, but the problem is
stille there.

Suggestions anyone?

-----Original Message-----
How can i see if it's turned on? and how do i turn it
off?
Do you have any other idears if that not the solution?
br. P. Moll

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Barry]

I have another mysterious activity in Word 2003 as Word is
entering text - basically random text - attempting to do
so as I type, rather like autocomplete but using random
words, from the thesaurus it seems as the pen continually
is in motion over the thesaurus icon in the status bar at
the bottom of the Word windowIt was . Below is an
example - it's quite uncanny. Any theories?

Wheeling one year of the San Juan island and what's a
little Diego has the sense that Cincinnati and that's
what's amazing with the attendance is by U.N. staff and as
it did when I was there that the Internet has said and
done that the Internet has the sense that Cincinnati and
that that's and that's that's amazing with instances but
instead of the Israeli defense and on the Internet has the
sense that Cincinnati and then was uninterested as an
action hero who hasn't slowed in the middle of just enter
in the land was a little is known on the lead his internal
and was looking a little and the reason to let you know
how to handle it was going to know their own the good and
that didn't mince and>-----Originits al Message-----

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi, Barry,

That's something completely different, and well known here. You have
speech recognition enabled, and Word is interpreting random noise (not
necessarily audible noise through the microphone, but apparently also
electrical "noise" inside the computer). You can try turning off
speech recognition, but if that doesn't stop the gremlins you may have
to go through Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel and actually
uninstall it.

The pen icon on the status bar isn't for the thesaurus, it's the
"check spelling/grammar as you type" indicator. You can right-click
that icon and hide the squiggly underlines if you want to.

::::::::
Aside to Rob, if you see this... Have you looked in Outlook to make
sure it isn't journaling Word documents?

 

[RWN]

rmd;
Buried in this thread is a response by Jay Freedman to another question.
In the response he offers the following (addressed to me in error);

"Aside to Rob, if you see this... Have you looked in Outlook to make
sure it isn't journaling Word documents?"

As I don't use Outlook and don't know if you do, I thought I'd make it
more "visible".

 

[Guest]

Rob,

thanks for the tip. I would have never know about the
journaling. I checked outlook, no journaling was
activated. I noticed another post with exactly the same
problem. (Jan 19; 7:52 pm titled "Hour glass keeps
flashing on....)

Still have the problem but I learned something!

Thanks,
Rmd

 

[Guest]

Rob,

In addition to the guy below, a lady posted on
1/19 "Hourglass keeps flashing on ....) with exactly the
same problem...even down to the 10 second interval!!
Something is going on here.

rmd

 

[RWN]

I tried "Googling" but the only substantive hit I got was your post!
I can't remember your entire configuration (and I'm too tired to
look(!)) but, do you have a firewall like Zone Alarm installed where you
could know if something was trying to "phone home"? I can't remember
the details but I seem to remember having ZA tell me once that Word was
trying to access the net. For the life of me I can't remember why it
was trying to do that!


Maybe you should try re-posting the question and outline all the things
you looked at(?)

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi, Rob,

Speaking of Google, it turned up one thread where somebody actually
found and removed the cause of regular hour-glass stops:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=#[email protected]

He said it was the Brother printer driver.

 

[RWN]

Jay;
I don't think I'll ever be able to properly enter keywords on a search!
Tried "Word 2002 hourglass" and several variations on the theme but
never thought of just entering "Hourglass"!!

Thanks very much, just hope that the OP will see this.

--
Regards;
Rob
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi, Rob,

Speaking of Google, it turned up one thread where somebody actually
found and removed the cause of regular hour-glass stops:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=#[email protected]

He said it was the Brother printer driver.