Text Cursor Disappears While Typing after a few seconds

[Guest tks]

I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 notebook running Windows XP Home. I am using the

touchpad. No mouse.

 

Whenever I am typing (e.g. in MS Word, text search box in Google, composing

Gmail message), the text cursor will suddenly disappear after a while. If I

realise it, I have to click on the touchpad and bring the cursor back to the

text box before I can continue typing. If I do not realise it, I would be

typing but nothing goes into the text box. The time it takes for this to

happen varies from 2 to 20 seconds. It is most frustrating.

 

My anti-virus is up todate and I have also run various malware and adware

removal software. No success. I googled and found several people complaining

about a similar problem but so far there is no real solution offered. Usual

solution proposed by some people is to change the mouse settings to disable

"Hide pointer while typing" but this is neither the problem nor the solution.

Anyway, I tried it and it does not work. Plus, even if this is enabled in

this and other computers, it does not pose a problem. Mine is not a question

of the cursor being not visible but still there; the cursor goes somewhere

else!

 

I noticed that whenever the cursor disappears, my current windows becomes

"inactive" as the top bar becomes less blue. If I wait for several seconds,

my window becomes active again and the cursor comes back, but not necessarily

in the same place. For example, I may be typing something in the google text

box and the cursor disappears halfway. If I wait till it comes back, it may

come back but this time, the entire text in the box is highlighted, so if I

type again, it overwrites everything that I have already entered in the box.

Then after a while, the cursor disappears again and the cycle repeats.

 

I have a few user profiles and strangely, this problem exists only for one

of the profiles. So, it does not appear to be a hardware or system software

issue. I tend to think something fishy is running in the problematic profile

but I don't know what it is. If I really cannot resolve this, I will just

delete this profile and re-create a new one. But this is just side-stepping

the problem rather than solving it.

 

As far as I can tell, there is nothing special about the problematic

profile. I encounter this problem even if only one application e.g. Internet

Explorer, is running. When it happens, I try to look for the other process

which might be running but I cannot see anything. Not in Task Manager. Not

sure where else to look.

 

Anyone has any solution before I tear my hair out? And again, let me just

repeat that it is not the "hide pointer while typing" problem.

[Guest Kelly]

Re: Text Cursor Disappears While Typing after a few seconds

 

Have you tried the normal.dot removal?

http://www.yotatech.com/f98/word-2003-cursor-disappears-43194/

--

 

All the Best,

Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

 

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

 

SupportSpace

http://www.supportspace.com/pages?aiu=kellyskorner

 

"tks" <tks@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:95521419-485F-4D2F-8B97-AD75FD6B486D@microsoft.com...

>I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 notebook running Windows XP Home. I am using

>the

> touchpad. No mouse.

>

> Whenever I am typing (e.g. in MS Word, text search box in Google,

> composing

> Gmail message), the text cursor will suddenly disappear after a while. If

> I

> realise it, I have to click on the touchpad and bring the cursor back to

> the

> text box before I can continue typing. If I do not realise it, I would be

> typing but nothing goes into the text box. The time it takes for this to

> happen varies from 2 to 20 seconds. It is most frustrating.

>

> My anti-virus is up todate and I have also run various malware and adware

> removal software. No success. I googled and found several people

> complaining

> about a similar problem but so far there is no real solution offered.

> Usual

> solution proposed by some people is to change the mouse settings to

> disable

> "Hide pointer while typing" but this is neither the problem nor the

> solution.

> Anyway, I tried it and it does not work. Plus, even if this is enabled in

> this and other computers, it does not pose a problem. Mine is not a

> question

> of the cursor being not visible but still there; the cursor goes somewhere

> else!

>

> I noticed that whenever the cursor disappears, my current windows becomes

> "inactive" as the top bar becomes less blue. If I wait for several

> seconds,

> my window becomes active again and the cursor comes back, but not

> necessarily

> in the same place. For example, I may be typing something in the google

> text

> box and the cursor disappears halfway. If I wait till it comes back, it

> may

> come back but this time, the entire text in the box is highlighted, so if

> I

> type again, it overwrites everything that I have already entered in the

> box.

> Then after a while, the cursor disappears again and the cycle repeats.

>

> I have a few user profiles and strangely, this problem exists only for one

> of the profiles. So, it does not appear to be a hardware or system

> software

> issue. I tend to think something fishy is running in the problematic

> profile

> but I don't know what it is. If I really cannot resolve this, I will just

> delete this profile and re-create a new one. But this is just

> side-stepping

> the problem rather than solving it.

>

> As far as I can tell, there is nothing special about the problematic

> profile. I encounter this problem even if only one application e.g.

> Internet

> Explorer, is running. When it happens, I try to look for the other process

> which might be running but I cannot see anything. Not in Task Manager. Not

> sure where else to look.

>

> Anyone has any solution before I tear my hair out? And again, let me just

> repeat that it is not the "hide pointer while typing" problem.