The timeout value if you pause/resume too fast seems to be lost, or the plugin abandons some timers that increase the speed at which it updates. An example, if you hover of this too fast:
<html> <head> <title>Test JQuery Cycle Plugin</title> </head> <body> <script src="http://jqueryjs.googlecode.com/files/ jquery-1.3.2.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script src="http://malsup.com/jquery/cycle/jquery.cycle.min.js? v2.60" type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function() { var $ss = $('#feature').cycle({ timeout: 7000, slideExpr: 'dd', startingSlide: 0 }); $('#feature dt a').hover( function() { $ss.cycle($('#feature dt a').index(this)).cycle ('pause'); }, function() { $ss.cycle('resume'); } ); }); </script> <dl id="feature"> <dt><a class="selected">Item 1</a></dt> <dd> CONTENT 1 </dd> <dt><a>Item 2</a></dt> <dd> CONTENT 2 </dd> <dt><a>Item 3</a></dt> <dd> CONTENT 3 </dd> <dt><a>Item 4</a></dt> <dd> CONTENT 4 </dd> <dt><a>Item 5</a></dt> <dd> CONTENT 5 </dd> <dt><a>Item 6</a></dt> <dd> CONTENT 6 </dd> </dl> </body> </html>