Mouse cursor blinking, taskmgr.exe going crazy

[elightman]

I've been having some trouble with my R61i lately, and it seems to be getting worse.

When the computer idles for a minute or so, the mouse cursor starts blinking rapidly (not at any set rate), and the hard drive starts being active. When I open up Task Manager and then let it happen, I see that taskmgr.exe is going crazy when this happens (CPU usage of 50%+).

I have run hard drive and memory tests, and everything comes out clean. Have defragged, and turned off Recovery Console. Have disabled all unnecessary services, virus scanned, and spyware scanned. Have used HijackThis! to make sure Startup is clean. Ran a repair installation on XP, and it didn't change anything. I am thinking about wiping and starting over as a last resort. Anyone have any ideas of other things I can look into before taking that drastic measure?

[Marin85]

Anyone have any ideas of other things I can look into before taking that drastic measure?

I guess it´s not some kind of a lite version of XP what you use, right? If not, scan again for viruses/adaware/spyware using some different programs (you can try AVG 7.5 free if you can still find it or free Avira Antivir, Kaspersky and NOD32 have trial versions; donwload Spybot S&D or Malwarebytes Anti-Malware or both and run them if not already done). It really sounds to me like this kind of a problem.
Also, download process explorer (since Task Manager has gone crazy) and look for any processes that are shaded in purple. Also, run Task Manager, then double-click the corresponding process (i.e. taskmgr.exe) in process explorer -> click on threads -> write them down and post them here.
It could be software-related like a bad driver or some program conflicting with XP. What programs do you have running in the background (like diskdefrags etc)? Do you use any Lenovo programs (like Access Connections, Rescue and Recovery etc)?

Marin

[elightman]

Thanks for the pointers. I downloaded process explorer which revealed an interesting problem... previously, I thought that it was the taskmgr.exe process that was going crazy. Now, it's become apparent that whichever window has the focus is the one going crazy (i.e., using 50% CPU). So when I switched to process explorer, taskmgr.exe dropped back down to 0% and procexp.exe shot up to 50%. When I then switched to Paint.NET to paste a screenshot, and Task Manager was still on top (but PDN had the focus), I noticed that Paint.NET had shot up to 50%.

This certainly smells like a virus of some sort. I used AVG for years and switched to Avira when I got my ThinkPad. I just uninstalled it and will scan with AVG (BTW, you can still get it easily from http://free.avg.com). I have already scanned with Spybot S&D and am scanning with Anti-Malware as we speak.

I have thought about the driver route as well, and for a moment thought I had solved the problem. I opened Task Manager and just started killing processes two or three at a time in a guess-and-check type process. Finally, when I killed two ThinkPad processes, the two that involve the on-screen display, the problem stopped happening. Usually it happens within a minute or two of idle time, and it went probably 10 minutes without anything happening. I uninstalled and rebooted, and unfortunately this didn't seem to solve it. The ThinkPad software still installed on the machine is: Modem, Power Management Driver, Power Manager, UltraNav Driver, UltraNav Utility, FingerPrint Software.

Will report back with more information as I obtain it...

[Marin85]

If Avira and Spybot don´t come up with anything, it´s quite unlikely that AVG will do, still it´s always worth a try, especially with the good old AVG A propo AVG and slightly off topic, I followed the link you provided but I didn´t manage to find the 7.5 release, only AVG 8, but I don´t like it much...Anyway, back to your problem. If AVG doesn´t uncover anything (I would also give NOD32 a try, there is a 30 days trial of it that would do in this situation), your problem might be indeed software-related. You could try out uninstalling UltraNav utility, UltraNav driver, onscreen/hotkey features (I assume you have it installed) in this order and see if the removal of each improves the situation.

[elightman]

All right, neither scan turned up anything.

I have uninstalled every piece of ThinkPad software except for the fingerprint utility. I have disabled every driver that I could.

The problem also, I should mention, occurs in Safe Mode, and it also occurs as soon as Windows starts up. (Pressing any key immediately ends the issue until it happens again.)

I think I'm going to buy an external hard drive tomorrow to backup and prepare for a wipe... =(

[Marin85]

That´s definitely a weird problem and my guess is it is somehow software-related (malware/viruses don´t count ). As for disabling drivers just a thought: I don´t know about XP, but in Vista the driver gets re-enabled after reboot, so just disabling it doesn´t really help. Just out of curiosity: When did the problem appear (e.g. immediately after installing XP, setting it up and installing your apps or after applying a SP or installing some piece of software etc)? What were the last changes in your setup before the issue appeared?

Marin

[elightman]

I can't think of any major system change that could have prompted it.

Since my last post, I decided to go ahead and do a repair installation of XP. I had already done one when the problem first popped up a month ago, and it had no effect, but I figured why not. What was interesting was that the problem with the mouse cursor occurred during the installation! This leads me to believe that this is NOT a software problem, but some sort of hardware problem. I should also mention that it's most definitely gotten worse as time has progressed... at first it was only at startup, and now it's literally every two minutes.

I think tomorrow I will call Lenovo (the machine is still under warranty for another month or two). I can't imagine the hoops that I would have to jump through to get them to acknowledge that this is a hardware problem or how they would actually solve it (send me a new computer? I doubt this).

[Marin85]

If you have some free space on your HD or even a whole spare HD, I would suggest you trying installing e fresh copy of XP on a separate partition (no need to install drivers or whatsoever). If the problem appears again, then a call to Lenovo would be worth it. What is more, you´ll have a good reason to mention why this could be hardware-related problem

Good luck

Marin

[elightman]

Well, I called this morning, and they agreed that it was likely a hardware problem... probably something screwy on the motherboard. So they are sending me a shipping box to send it back to them in. Of course, that means I will be without machine for 5-7 which, as a student, is difficult. I think that this might be a good opportunity to buy a new machine (I'm thinking a Mac... YIKES!) and either sell this one or use it for secondary purposes... I was really hoping this machine would make it a year... oh well. Thanks for your help, Marin.

[Marin85]

sometimes also with ThinkPads, but this wouldn´t be really a reason for me to give up on ThinkPads Yet Macs are also nice machines (but I don´t like their recent keyboard layout, the keys have too much distance from each other for me...) and if one doesn´t like Mac OS-X, one can always install Windows, or if one has always hated Windows, buying a Mac is a good point to start with another OS...

Glad to hear Lenovo is willing to check it out

Marin

[elightman]

Bump for some new interesting information.

I have the shipment box to send the machine to Lenovo, but am waiting a while until I decide whether to buy a new machine or just buy an external HDD (either way, gotta get my files off of this before I send it in). In the meantime, the problem is getting worse, to the point where the machine is almost unusable.

I noticed something very interesting today while doing some word processing. As I was cutting and pasting, I found that I had a screenshot on the clipboard. I did not take a screenshot. Some more investigation led me to find that, when the cursor starts going crazy, it takes screenshots for no apparent reason.

This certainly lends itself to a virus of some sort. Does anyone know of any free software that will let me monitor all of my Internet activity, so I can try to see if these screenshots are being sent somewhere?

[elightman]

FIXED!!!

Wow, the problem was so stupid that I'm almost embarrassed by it.

I was trying to get some work done tonight despite the state of my machine, and needed to actually take a screen shot intentionally. So I press PrtSc, and go to paste it in, and it's not the screen shot I wanted (it was one that had been taken a moment before in the background as described in my previous post). I try a few more times, without success.

Finally, it occurs to me... the computer is taking screen shots when I DON'T want it to, and is NOT taken them when I DO want it to. I grab a screwdriver and pop off the PrtSc key. The mouse flickering stops. I press the button underneath the key, and try pasting what's on the clipboard, and find that it took the screen shot successfully.

I reboot, and for the first time in weeks, there is no mouse flicker on startup.

I popped the key back on, and all seems to be back to normal. And to think I almost sent the machine to Lenovo for that. (And they surely wouldn't have figured it out without replacing the entire keyboard.)

Now, in a related manner... my right arrow key seems to be close to death. =)

[Marin85]

If you had ever posted that process explorer screenshot, we might have discovered it earlier So, how about buying a new lappy now after finding and fixing the real problem?