Screen saver resets to none on demo laptop

[Guest]

I purchased a floor model Toshiba laptop running XP Home and Norton
Anti-virus 2005. The screen saver resets to none. I've tried vbs help from
Kelly's Corner and manual registry changes, but they always reset after about
20 seconds. I installed SP2, but the problem still exists. The following
registry entry also disappears: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.
Scrnsave.exe. I didn't get much help at the store, so I'm checking here.
I've also disabled various Norton protection elements. Any ideas?

 

[Russell]

The laptop may of had policies installed on it. Since it was a demo, the
store proprietors may have wanted to limit any damage that people could
do to it.

Did the laptop get formatted and have the OS installed when you bought
the machine? If not; I would do, or have it done, so I know it is clean.

You could also try and find the policy editor program, and see what
policies it has. But Windows XP Home does not come with it. Personally,
I think it would be easier to just re-format and re-install since you
seemed to have just purchased it.

 

[Sharon F]

I purchased a floor model Toshiba laptop running XP Home and Norton
Anti-virus 2005. The screen saver resets to none. I've tried vbs help from
Kelly's Corner and manual registry changes, but they always reset after about
20 seconds. I installed SP2, but the problem still exists. The following
registry entry also disappears: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.
Scrnsave.exe. I didn't get much help at the store, so I'm checking here.
I've also disabled various Norton protection elements. Any ideas?

Is it possible the monitors are going into low power mode and that's why
the screen blanks? Some monitors respect the setting in Power Options that
are specifically for the monitor. Others have a built-in standby feature
that kicks in regardless of the Power Option settings.

 

[Guest]

You may have a point about the power settings overriding other display
options; however, my problem isn't that the screen blanks, but that the
registry changes are reset after about 20 seconds. I'm taking Russell's
suggestion and I'm going to reformat. Who knows what junk is on my system,
being a floor model. Thanks all for the replies.

 

[Sharon F]

You may have a point about the power settings overriding other display
options; however, my problem isn't that the screen blanks, but that the
registry changes are reset after about 20 seconds. I'm taking Russell's
suggestion and I'm going to reformat. Who knows what junk is on my system,
being a floor model. Thanks all for the replies.

Yes, if the registry is willfully changing, that is quite another story.
Good luck with this.