Why would the cursor not move smoothly across my screen?

[Timberwolf]

When I hit a page that has a lot of animated graphics (the "post" page, for instance), the cursor movement is jerky...wondering why...my internet connection is a cable modem. I didn't have this problem when I had DSL.

Any thoughts??

[rbisrb2]

usually when the curser is jerkey it means that your memory is being used by something else. Did you notice if your hard drive was active?

[Timberwolf]

Nope...HD isn't active...and it only happens when there are animated graphics on the page.

I have 384mb of memory. 500mhz AMD Athlon processor.

[JonECat]

Kind of a stupid question, but does the cursor do that on ALL programs or just the internet? Usually in my case, if it does that sort of thing, it just means I have to run maintenance (Disk Cleanup, ScanDisk and Defragmentation) and it usually does fine after that.

[Rhino]

And if it's just internet, what browser and version are you using?

[Timberwolf]

It does just seem to happen on the 'net...I'm using IE 6.0.2800.1106...

Will try what you suggested Jon....thanks.

[DoctorDoom]

With Internet Explorer, a folder called "Temporary Internet Files" stores all the web pages, graphics, etcetera. And, it doesn't dump them by itself. It has to be emptied periodically. If not, it runs out of room for new stuff and response becomes sluggish.

Right-click the IE desktop icon and click on Properties, or in IE, click Tools > Internet options. On the window that opens, in the center panel you'll see Temporary Internet Files and three buttons, Delete Cookies, Delete Files and Settings.

The two left buttons perform the emptying of TIF, although if you use cookies a lot (such as for logging in at FC), it doesn't ordinarily hurt to skip that one. Delete Files is the one that scrubs the tens or hundreds of megabytes of accumulated garbage.

The Settings button allows resizing the TIF folder if one wishes to store more crap before needing maintenance. The buttons at the bottom are self-explanatory, but you can click the '?' and then the buttons for pop-up explanations.

This maintenance needn't be done after every use of IE, but should be done on a regular basis.

The alternative, if off-line viewing isn't required, is to click on the Advanced tab, scroll down to Security at the bottom, and put a checkmark in Empty Temporary Internet Files... This will automatically delete all the trash when the browser is closed.

Another consideration is how good your video card is. If it's an older one with only a few megs of RAM, it can get bogged down processing beaucoup of those damned animated GIFs, and it will update the mouse pointer when it has a free moment.

Personally, I find the things nothing but annoying when trying to read a page while things are bouncing around on the screen. To disable the animations, in the Advanced list, look for Multimedia and uncheck Play animations in web pages. This gets rid of the wigglies (and that frigging "If this banner is flashing you won a bazillion dollars" ad). If you still see animations, they're most likely Macromedia Flash. You can also shut off embedded music and videos from there.

Another factor: any browser is a "resource" hog, and with Windows 9x, this can cause occasional strange behavior. The temporary solution for low resources is to kill the browser and restart it. This releases most of the used resources and delays rebooting the box to regain full resources.

Lastly, if you have a shipload of background programs running, these occupy CPU time, usually to no good end. Far too many companies sell programs that assume that one simply MUST have instant access with a mouseclick, and load up the System Tray (next to the clock at the lower right) with icons.

If the window that pops up with the Vulcan nerve-pinch (Ctrl + Alt + Delete) has a scroll bar, there's too much crap running at startup. Some of them, such as MS Office Toolbar and FindFast, are utterly worthless and are prodigious resource, RAM and CPU time wasters.

OFF97: How to Disable the Find Fast Indexer (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q158705)

The Toolbar does nothing that can't be done with a few shortcuts.

For Windows 98/98SE/Me, running MSCONFIG allows turning off startup programs. Start > Run, type in msconfig, hit Enter, and click the Start-up tab.

For 95/98/NT, there a nifty little freeware app called Startup Control Panel 2.6 (http://download.com.com/3000-2094-1539340.html?tag=lst-0-1) that adds a "Startup" icon in the Control Panel. It's more intuitive than MSCONFIG, and works with Win95, which doesn't have MSCONFIG.

[Timberwolf]

Thanks, Doc...let's see what happens. Not to be dissin' m' buds...thanks to all of you for chiming in...I do appreciate it.

[nosferatuscoffin]

Sorry that I disappeared for awhile yet again. Been as scarce as Hillary in Bill's bed lately. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Too many sites etc and other things taking up too much time.

Anyway, I was just wondering if Timberwolf was still having any problems with animated gifs and other graphics?

Dr. Doom went over the most common causes in a thorough manner. However, if you are still having those problems after cleaning out your cache, running disk maintainence etc., I would highly suggest checking your video card driver. It might either need to be reinstalled or updated.

Nos

[Timberwolf]

Thanks, Nos...things seem to have cleared up quite well. Once I dumped all those temp files the problem cleared up.

I may check into updating those video drivers anyway...can't hurt. Thanks.