Gamepad doesn't keep Vista x64 from doing power save functions

[S.SubZero]

I have a Logitech USB gamepad which I use on my Vista x64 laptop.
Games run fine, but Vista doesn't seem to count the gamepad towards
the power management functions (ie. blank screen after 20 minutes) so
after 20 minutes of only using the gamepad, my video blanks and I have
to wake it up by nudging the mouse. At least one of my games isn't
too friendly with this and it tends to have trouble waking up.

Is there a way to get the gamepad input to be 'heard' and keep my
screen from blanking out?

 

[Poky]

I have a Logitech USB gamepad which I use on my Vista x64 laptop.
Games run fine, but Vista doesn't seem to count the gamepad towards
the power management functions (ie. blank screen after 20 minutes) so
after 20 minutes of only using the gamepad, my video blanks and I have
to wake it up by nudging the mouse. At least one of my games isn't
too friendly with this and it tends to have trouble waking up.

Is there a way to get the gamepad input to be 'heard' and keep my
screen from blanking out?

Not that I know of. You could disable power management completely when
playing games or maybe go to device manager and select USB Root Hub(s)
and turn off allowing windows to put USB devices to sleep (don't think
that will stop it though).