about the hourglass and freezing?

[Alice]

Why has the hourglass started to appear by my cursor and then the screen freezes. The cursor can jump around the screen while I am typing leading to words in the wrong place. I would appreciate any helpful suggestions.

[Fred]

I suspect 2 main problems- too many programs in the Startup group which run every time you boot the computer and not enough free space on your hard drive. Other possibilities are malware (I assume you are running an up to date anti-virus) and not enough RAM.

Run CCleaner and also in the Tools, Startup area, disable programs which do not need to run every time you start the computer. (Be careful, many programs belong here). This does not uninstall programs, it just stops them from running all the time and they will run when YOU open them. Google the names of programs you are unfamiliar with to see their function and if they are safe to disable. Also run Malwarebytes to check for malware.

Press Win key-E and on the left side of the dialog box that opens, right click on the C drive and select Properties. This will show you how much free space you have. At least 10% and better 20% of your hard drive should be unused.

If IE or Firefox is very slow opening pages, go to Help and select "Start without add-ons" and see if this speeds things up. If it does, go to Tools, Manage Add-ons and disable add-ons until things speedup. Uninstall browser toolbars and search engines that you do not use. Simply not using them is not enough.

If these steps do not help you may have to take the more drastic step of restoring the computer to factory condition. If you opt to do this, first print out the results of a scan by Belarc Advisor. This will give you a ton of information about your computer including product keys necessary to reinstall some software. Restoring to factory condition is less drastic than reformatting the hard drive.