The answer will concern the overall module hierarchy, and the placement of one or more "dispatching" modules in a place that is basically too high up in the hierarchy. If you post it or email it I can spot it quite quickly.
In the end Iit will be something like a JobProgressIndicator that is placed somewhere where it is not downstream from any Search module. Essentially when there is no other search defined at a point in the hierarchy, there is an implicit "" search over all time. If a dispatching module is therefore present somewhere where nothing is overriding that "" search, the "*" search will indeed happen.
Take a look at the "Introduction to the Advanced XML" page in the Sideview Utils docs, they will tell you about "dispatching" modules and there is a section on that page specifically about how, when, where and why searches get kicked off.
If you can't find the misplaced dispatching module or how to rearrange your view, you can email it to me at nick [at] sideviewapps.com and these things are very easy to spot if you know how.
