Screen saver/power management fail to activate

[Guest]

After using Vista, I kind of like the new interface, and I like having all my
hardware magically working without having to install drivers and dealing with
problems courtesy of Dell... however, my one woe is that the screen saver
fails to start (set for 5 minutes) and the LCD never turns off (set for 15
minutes on all plans I think).

Does anyone know why this would happen? I'm not going to use Vista if it is
incapable of turning off my screen (since nobody wants a broken screen!)

Using RC2, had the same problem in RC1.

Dell E1505 Laptop / 2.0ghz Duo Core / 2 GB ram / ATI Radeon X1400

Thanks.

 

[Jeff]

Hi,
Strange,
I have the EXACT hardware setup-minus 1 gb -I have 1 gig of RAM, and my
screensaver is working fine.
Hmm,
Sorry, no clue; cuz it's working fine for me.
Didya try to set your power plans different maybe?
Maybe that'll do it.

Jeff

 

[Guest]

I had the problem with RC1.... I did an upgrade to RC2, which was probably
unnecessary... but could that have caused the problem to carry over??

I might try reinstalling later. All I know is I've had so many stupid little
problems with this laptop... with anything I try to do.

 

[Jeff]

What's your laptop's bios version?
bios A07 and A08 are problems with vista-grab the latest bios from Dell; if
you have'nt already- it's A09-and flash it-
That might fix it.
Fixed lots of power issues.

Jeff

 

[Guest]

I tried adjusting the settings.
I tried updating the BIOS (I had revision 8)
I tried using a different account in Vista.
No luck.

I'm probably going to reinstall Vista RC2 when I have some freetime and see
if I can get this working, otherwise I will stick with XP.

Thanks for the help. Feel free to donate any other ideas.

 

[Jeff]

So your bios is at A09 now?
Hmmm
I'm out of ideas.
I've found; through trial and error; that sometimes-stuff just happens;and
more than once;reinstalling;starting fresh has solved issues.
Sux, but sometimes;stuff just works after a reformat/clean reinstall.

Jeff

 

[Guest]

Do you have a wireless mouse? VISTA has some problem with the screen saver
and, in my case, a Microsoft Wireless Laser 6000.

 

[Guest]

Well, that's kinda freaky. Yes, I do have a wireless mouse. Yes, it is a
Microsoft mouse... it's just their optical one, but it works great. However,
after unplugging the mouse transmitter from the USB port, the screen saver
promptly turned on in a minute (I set a minute because it's a lot easier to
test that way!) and then the screen turned off the next minute.

So, the wireless mouse is the culprit! As far as I know, everything else
works without flaw... except Vista wants to install a driver for the "Base
System Device" but that description just does a whole lot of good telling me
what drivers I need to find. However, everything else ppears to be functional.

Do we know if the mouse issue will be resolved?? Because I dislike using the
touchpad on my laptop and I love my wireless mouse, as well as when my screen
turns off.

Thanks Paul and Jeff...
-Kevin S.

 

[Jeff]

Ahh,
Sometimes it's the weirdest things.
Sorry I threw ya off with my suggestions-at least ya got the newest bios
now!
I bought a Kensington Wireless Mouse;and it works great.

Jeff

 

[Guest]

I had the same problem. Went back to a wired mouse and the screen saver and
power management worked again. The Microsoft mouse website says Vista
drivers will release in Dec. MS, please help on this one!

 

[Guest]

A friend in my residence had me check Windows Update... Microsoft had updated
the drivers for the wireless mice, however, this did not resolve my problem
after the update. So... I sure hope this gets fixed by the end of January or
I will be rather upset that Microsoft's own products don't work with their
operating system!!

I had the same problem. Went back to a wired mouse and the screen saver and
power management worked again. The Microsoft mouse website says Vista
drivers will release in Dec. MS, please help on this one!

 

[Nicholai Yu]

I had the exact same problem in RC1 but RC2 made it go away. Among the
things that are updated is the new ATI video driver. I suspect that is the
key. You can try getting new drivers from ATI website, but they stated that
the new drivers are for RC2/RTM only. So I guess you need to manually turn
off your monitor (as I did) until you get the final version.

Nick

 

[Guest]

Turn off my monitor? If I had a desktop this would be an easy task! However,
I have a Dell laptop. And that is where the problem lies... I good old Compaq
laptop has a switch that turns off the screen. However, my Dell laptop has
some sort of switch that triggers software that turns off the screen...
because my screen will only turn off when I close the lid AND Windows XP is
running... I'm assuming my theory is correct, so correct me if I am wrong.

In other words, I've stopped using my wireless mouse when I'm walking away
from my computer... I've just left it unplugged.

So this problem should be fixed by the time I go to the store and buy a copy
of Vista?