Screensaver fails to start spontaneously

[srd]

This has become a stubborn trivial problem. I can start the screensaver
using Preview on why doubleclicking an a scr file. To try to get it to
work, I tried all of Kelly's patches that were remotely relevant. I did a
search in the registry for all entries containing screensaver (with
variants) to see if there was anything that looked wrong. Tried playing
with turning Service on or off to see if that had any relevance; seeing if
the screensaver worked when everything inessential was turned off.
Searched the knowledge base and the forums high and low.

Since the problem isn't widely reported, the 'driver problem' diagnosis
seemed the most promising. I think I partly checked that by turning
everything off. Any opinions on whether that's the most likely cause, and
if so, how I might obsessively pursue it. A chronological list of drivers
that have been installed on my sytem would probably help. Can Windows XP
(SP2) be made to do that?

 

[Bob I]

The screen saver does not work on a Windows XP-based computer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916256/en-us

 

[srd]

Tried that, Bob I. The Screensaver still fails to come on. Actually, the
article isn't completely clear, but my take was that it applied a complete
failure to start, not when it won't start spontaneously on its timer.

 

[Bob I]

the timer issue is caused by something preventing "idle time" from
happening. Software/malware running in the background, hardware drivers
for mouse keyboard or video being incorrect. The best thing you can do
to help yourself is review what happened about the time it stopped working.