It is only happening in MS Word. When opening a new or old document, the insertion point is flashing with a grayed out spinning wheel. You can still type but the wild flashing and spinning continues. This is on a networked computer running Windows 7. Right before this started I had installed a new driver to run an hpP1005 printer. The original driver for this printer was not compatible with W7 so I had to upload a new driver from hp. I went to the pointer/insertion point settings but couldn't see any changes that I had to make. Any suggestions?? Thank you.

Hi Joanne,

The problem is most likely due to interactions between Word and the printer driver - Word uses information from the printer driver to work out the optimum way to lay out the document. You could try using temporarily using Word with a different default driver (eg the XPS driver), to see whether that cures the problem. If it does, that suggests a problem with the new HP driver - which may need some configuration work done before it's ready for use. If there are no configuration options, or changing them doesn't improve matters, I'd suggest uninstalling & reinstalling the driver (make sure the incompatible one is uninstalled also). If changing drivers doesn't fix the problem, you might need to repair Word (Office button|Word Options|Resources|Diagnose).

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

How do I find those configuration options for the hp driver? I read somewhere that there is a compatibility mode for some drivers?

"If there are no configuration options, or changing them doesn't improve matters"
Where would I find the configuration options? I read somewhere that there is a compatibility mode for some drivers.

joanne

Hi Joanne,

You'll probably find them via Start|Devices and Printers, select the HP printer, then choose 'File' followed by one or more of 'Printing Preferences', 'Printing Properties' or 'Properties' - while there, you might also give 'Troubleshoot' a try.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks so much macropod! When I got back to the computer, the problem had resolved itself! It may have fixed itself after a restart, although I had already tried that. But thanks for your help.

joanne