The cursor seems to be fine right after I restart the computer. But soon after, and especiallywhen I connect to Google on the internet, the cursor starts to snag. I usually have several windows open on my screen, like a couple of wordpad pages (to drag and drop from Firefox, and a Firefox window or two which I size down so I can flip back and forth between pages). By snag, I mean, when I use the mouse to direct the cursor across the screen, it will want to open a file on the desktop, or if the FireFox browser is open, like in a Google search, it will stop, for a second or freeze on a hotlink. When it freezes I usually can unsnag it.
First I will try to wave the mouse back and forth. But when I do that, sometimes the cursor goes on a bizarre journey, as if possessed. It will open files and opens the start menu and somehow opens a command window I am unfamiliar with. (microsoft managment counsol?) It really looks like a virus or trojan has taken control of my computer, but it could just be that the mouse is going flip-shoobie and tapping onto everything in it's path like a tornado turning over cars. But it happens so fast it's like a remote computer is driving my cursor.
Often when cursor freezes, only using the up-down-left-right arrows on my keyboard will free it. Or even tapping the mouse, like when I have a WordPad page open, taking notes, and a browser window open, and I try to move the cursor over to the browser window, It will stick somewhere in mid motion. If I tap the cursor, say and it is over the browser window, then the browser comes to the for front and the Wordpad page drops behind and I can move the mouse again.
Often after a period of the above type of action, the cursor will freeze completely, and none of the above actions will free it. I will try "Ctrl+Alt+Delete" and the cursor remains frozen when that command page opens. I can use the keyboard, to try to open the Task Manager. And then maneuver the ghost cursor with my keyboard up down arrows to Start > shut down.
The other day I was frustrated and did a cold reboot (manually turning off the computer) it rebooted to "failure configuring windows Updates. Reverting changes. Do not turn off your computer, preparing to configure windows" But after 8 hours of spinning it's wheels and not starting I did a cold boot again. Then I found a suggest to tap F11 at start up and after about 30 min of the above message, the computer somehow started up again.
And like I wrote, the cursor is good for a few minutes then gets sticky again.
This has been happening more and more often, and to greater and greater degrees of sticking -if there is such a thing. Basically, in the past I had to restart my computer once a month because of this cursor sticking thing, then once a week, now it is daily, or even two, three, 4 times a day. I guess the reason I haven't asked for help before is because, oddly, sometimes after a restart the cursor goes completely back to normal, and will be that way for days until the freeze behavior starts up again.
The problem of a completely froze/unresponsive cursor seems to happen mostly when I have any of Google's pages open, Google search, Youtube or Gmail.
The cursor always seems to stop at the same spot on the screen, I can't be certain it is the exact same spot, but pretty darn close. That might be a coincidence.
Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.