Understanding the Hourglass Pointer In Windows and the Spinning Beach Ball on a Mac
As you may know, I just had one of my monthly live computer question and answer call-ins a few days ago. I had friends coming in from the mainland that afternoon, and I ran out of time before I could get to all of the questions.
To be notified about my monthly live call-ins, join my free computer tips newsletter.
In this email I wanted to answer one of the questions I wasn't able to get to during the live event this past Sunday:
"why do I get an 'hour glass' when attempting to 'reply' to some emails? I have to restart to get back into the email area, and regain my 'pointer' The hour glass will not go away by its self.
Thanks, Frank Hublar Windows 2000 (?)"
What Frank is talking about here is the mouse pointer (which is often called a cursor, but Frank is using the correct term here) will sometimes change from an arrow into a little hourglass. Windows users have probably seen this happen before.
What this means, generally speaking, is that the computer is "pausing to think" for a moment. Mac computers do the same thing, except that they show this with a spinning "beach ball" or multi-colored pinwheel.
This is normal if it happens occasionally, but it should always go back to a regular arrow-shaped pointer after a few moments, except maybe when the computer is doing something very hard on the computer like making changes to a large photo or saving a home movie you've been editing, or something like that.
And even in those cases, it should still go back to normal after a few minutes or so, depending on exactly what you're doing.
So in other words, something simple like replying to an email shouldn't cause the hourglass (or beach ball in the case of a Mac) to appear at all, or definitely not for more than a moment or two.
So if you are seeing this happen a lot, it could be something to be concerned about, because it *might* mean that there's something wrong with your computer.
Now in Frank's case, he says he's running Windows 2000, which makes me think he might have a pretty old computer. While it is possible for a newer PC to have Windows 2000 on it, it's not very common, so I'd guess it might be as much as eight years old, which is extremely old in computer terms.
The first thing I'd do is make sure to have a full backup of your important files. This is something *everyone* should be doing regularly, but it's especially important on an old computer, because they're more likely to break down.
Frank has my computer lesson CDs, so he knows that I recommend backing files up onto CD combined with "cloning" your hard drive onto an external hard drive as the best overall way to do this. The cloning process can be done using free software like XXClone for Windows, or Carbon Copy Cloner for Mac.
I cover step-by-step how to use these on my computer basic CDs available through my web site.
When you get the hourglass or beach ball that won't go away, there is something to try first before shutting the computer off -- in some cases it's just one program that has crashed, not the whole computer.
What you can do in this case is hold down CTRL ALT and DEL on a PC, or Command Option and Escape on a Mac (the Command key is the one with the Apple or the "propeller" logo on it).
On a Windows PC this will usually cause something called the task manager to open up. You can then find the problem program in the list in the window, click once on it to highlight it, then click the "end task" button. This can force the program to close and then you can shut down normally.
On a Mac, you'll get a window called "Force Quit Application" that works in a similar way -- you select the program from the list, and click the force quit button to try to force it to close. Then shut down normally.
But if this is sort of thing is happening a lot with any computer -- Mac or PC -- you should probably get it looked at by a professional to make sure there's not something serious going on. Looking at problems promptly can help you avoid them getting worse (and more costly!).
To be notified about my monthly live call-ins, join my free computer tips newsletter.
In this email I wanted to answer one of the questions I wasn't able to get to during the live event this past Sunday:
"why do I get an 'hour glass' when attempting to 'reply' to some emails? I have to restart to get back into the email area, and regain my 'pointer' The hour glass will not go away by its self.
Thanks, Frank Hublar Windows 2000 (?)"
What Frank is talking about here is the mouse pointer (which is often called a cursor, but Frank is using the correct term here) will sometimes change from an arrow into a little hourglass. Windows users have probably seen this happen before.
What this means, generally speaking, is that the computer is "pausing to think" for a moment. Mac computers do the same thing, except that they show this with a spinning "beach ball" or multi-colored pinwheel.
This is normal if it happens occasionally, but it should always go back to a regular arrow-shaped pointer after a few moments, except maybe when the computer is doing something very hard on the computer like making changes to a large photo or saving a home movie you've been editing, or something like that.
And even in those cases, it should still go back to normal after a few minutes or so, depending on exactly what you're doing.
So in other words, something simple like replying to an email shouldn't cause the hourglass (or beach ball in the case of a Mac) to appear at all, or definitely not for more than a moment or two.
So if you are seeing this happen a lot, it could be something to be concerned about, because it *might* mean that there's something wrong with your computer.
Now in Frank's case, he says he's running Windows 2000, which makes me think he might have a pretty old computer. While it is possible for a newer PC to have Windows 2000 on it, it's not very common, so I'd guess it might be as much as eight years old, which is extremely old in computer terms.
The first thing I'd do is make sure to have a full backup of your important files. This is something *everyone* should be doing regularly, but it's especially important on an old computer, because they're more likely to break down.
Frank has my computer lesson CDs, so he knows that I recommend backing files up onto CD combined with "cloning" your hard drive onto an external hard drive as the best overall way to do this. The cloning process can be done using free software like XXClone for Windows, or Carbon Copy Cloner for Mac.
I cover step-by-step how to use these on my computer basic CDs available through my web site.
When you get the hourglass or beach ball that won't go away, there is something to try first before shutting the computer off -- in some cases it's just one program that has crashed, not the whole computer.
What you can do in this case is hold down CTRL ALT and DEL on a PC, or Command Option and Escape on a Mac (the Command key is the one with the Apple or the "propeller" logo on it).
On a Windows PC this will usually cause something called the task manager to open up. You can then find the problem program in the list in the window, click once on it to highlight it, then click the "end task" button. This can force the program to close and then you can shut down normally.
On a Mac, you'll get a window called "Force Quit Application" that works in a similar way -- you select the program from the list, and click the force quit button to try to force it to close. Then shut down normally.
But if this is sort of thing is happening a lot with any computer -- Mac or PC -- you should probably get it looked at by a professional to make sure there's not something serious going on. Looking at problems promptly can help you avoid them getting worse (and more costly!).
Labels: beachball osx, spinning beach ball, spinning beachball, windows xp hour glass blinking
posted by Worth Godwin at
9:15 PM
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