Blue Loading Circle Near Cursor

[Bobcat9]

When I am using my laptop there will be a blue loading circle near my cursor from time to time. This appears about every 5 minutes, no matter what task I am doing on my computer. 

I have heard that this loading sign could be popping up because of a process that is running in the background, but I haven't seen any suspicious process in the task manager. The main process that I see a lot is: Intel(R) Optane(TM) Memory Service, and System. Norton scan comes up clean.

I hear my fans fluctuating a lot while using my computer, sometimes they are loud and then they slow down and then they will speed up again. 

I am not sure what is causing this and any help is very much appreciated!

[Dragon-Fur · Accepted solution]

@Bobcat9 

"Loading circle" is just what you think - it is a visual indication that "something" is running and possibly causing a slow down in system response.

What?

Could be anything, of course - one of the most common is the Index Search service that is pretty much constantly "doing something" with the Index search list.  The database, depending on what you are doing - and sometimes for no apparent (obvious) reason - updates, runs, swallows system resources and causes the fans to fun fast.

If the Index service is not important to you, or if the Index contains folders that you rarely search, you could forego having those folders in the Index search database.  Control Panel > icon view > Indexing Options > Modify

What else?

If you don't like the Blue circle (and I agree it is bothersome), you can at least change the Mouse Pointers to the default - this doesn't make the computer run faster, of course, but it does replace the Blue-Circle-of-Busy with a black/white hour glass.  Not necessarily an improvement, but different.  Settings > Devices > Mouse > Additional Mouse Options > Pointers

If you really want to track down whatever is happening, you will have to study the Task Manager response and possibly open the Resource Monitor to find the culprit.  Know that depending on the amount of total resources your computer has (for example - network,cpu, memory, disk speed and space), there may not be much to be done.  If, for example, "everything is fine" and your computer is not powerful enough to handle all the tasks it must run at one time, some of the tasks will be put into a wait queue - this is normal, of course - the impact is more noticeable on smaller, less powerful computers.

What?  How to check...

There are literally dozens of articles on the net to help you learn to use and read the Task Manager.

One example: Windows Task Manager: The Complete Guide

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[Bobcat9]

Thank you for the quick response Dragon-Fur, 

I haven't really messed with the Indexing Option menu, because I don't want to accidentally mess anything up. 

I studied the task manager and resource monitor quite a bit, and I found that nothing suspicious is running, just system processes and whatever I have open. 

I think that you are right and there is nothing much more I can do, except change the mouse pointer 🙂

Thanks so much for your explanation and quick response! 

[Dragon-Fur]

@Bobcat9 

You are welcome.

Index will normally take care of itself.

If it does need attention you will be able to tell (sometimes) because search (within Windows) drags and hesitates.

There are articles on the net to help understand and adjust the Index if / when needed.

Stay Safe.

Thank you for participating in our HP Community.

We are a world community of volunteers dedicated to supporting HP technology