Power Management

[anne]

Major caveat -- I'm a software, not a hardware, person. Even though I've
had a PC for many years, I break into a sweat every time I have to cable
something. I rely on friends and relatives to tell me what hardware
would work for my needs and I never, ever build my own machines.

My new DELL XPS running Vista Home Premium is causing many grey hairs to
pop up. The latest issue is that although the screen saver (a random
display of pictures) kicks in, the monitor no longer darkens after X
minutes. IOW, this power management feature worked at one time and now
it doesn't.

I'm running the nVidia GeForce LE driver v. 7.15.10.9746 that came with
the computer. I'm not a gamer so updating the driver to better display
games isn't important to me.

 

[Malke]

Major caveat -- I'm a software, not a hardware, person. Even though I've
had a PC for many years, I break into a sweat every time I have to cable
something. I rely on friends and relatives to tell me what hardware
would work for my needs and I never, ever build my own machines.

My new DELL XPS running Vista Home Premium is causing many grey hairs to
pop up. The latest issue is that although the screen saver (a random
display of pictures) kicks in, the monitor no longer darkens after X
minutes. IOW, this power management feature worked at one time and now
it doesn't.

I'm running the nVidia GeForce LE driver v. 7.15.10.9746 that came with
the computer. I'm not a gamer so updating the driver to better display
games isn't important to me.

What changed between the time things worked and the time they didn't?
Install any software, hardware, do any updates?


Malke

 

[anne]

Malke says...

What changed between the time things worked and the time they didn't?
Install any software, hardware, do any updates?

I've tweaked Vista settings and installed/uninstalled software daily,
sometimes hourly;-(

I found something either in MS's knowledgebase or via Google that said
something like 'memory intensive screen savers may inhibit power
management settings.' If I use a built-in screen saver, the screen goes
dark at the scheduled time. If I point the photo screen saver to a
subdirectory/folder of my pictures directory/folder, the screen goes
dark sometimes. I think the inconsistency may be due to whatever
settings (barebones picture, multiple pictures, layered pictures, etc.)
the screen saver has picked for a particular session.

 

[Malke]

Malke says...


I've tweaked Vista settings and installed/uninstalled software daily,
sometimes hourly;-(

I found something either in MS's knowledgebase or via Google that said
something like 'memory intensive screen savers may inhibit power
management settings.' If I use a built-in screen saver, the screen goes
dark at the scheduled time. If I point the photo screen saver to a
subdirectory/folder of my pictures directory/folder, the screen goes
dark sometimes. I think the inconsistency may be due to whatever
settings (barebones picture, multiple pictures, layered pictures, etc.)
the screen saver has picked for a particular session.

Glad to hear you figured it out. Thanks for posting back with the solution.


Malke