Norb said:
I recently have problems getting my screen saver to come on and my power
options to work. They do not work at all in fact. I have reset them and
changed and applied those changes, but they still do not respond the way they
used to.
I have windows XP SP2 with regular updates. Any suggestions?? Thank you.
It sounds like your system is not idling. The power options and screensaver (the screensaver is the giveaway) measure how long your
system has been idle and activate when the threshold has been passed. For some reason your system is not reporting that it's idle.
There are various things that can cause this.
Some media players have options to prevent screensavers and power saving from activating while they are playing (especially videos).
This makes sense since you won't be using the keyboard or mouse when watching a movie, and you don't want it to suddenly shut down
or run a screensaver. Make sure that it's not a media player.
Some other kinds of programs prevent things like screensavers and power savings from initiating even though there's no feasible
reason. These are rare however and I've only seen it occur with one P2P application.
Another problem could be your hardware. If your keyboard or mouse are dirty, they could be sending false signals. For example if
there is some conductive dirt in the key or button, it could be allowing electrons to flow, thus closing the circuit which is
detected as a key press or mouse click. In this case the system would not activate the power savings or screensaver because it
keeps seeing keys being pressed or buttons being clicked.
Do you have an optical mouse? If so, then it might be that preventing the system from idling. If there is a hair stuck under the
mouse, ever time it moves, the optical sensor reads it as though you are moving the mouse. Or it might be the surface on which the
mouse is resting. Some surfaces trick optical mice into thinking that it's moving when it's not. Place the mouse down and watch
the mouse cursor on the screen. See if the cursor jiggles around a little bit. If so, then you should check to see if there's a
hair, or try a different surface.
HTH
