Screensavers

[Sherry]

Can someone please help...My screensavers don't work.I
have checked all the settings, and they are ok. The only
way I can get them to work is to download a new
screensaver. However, once the new screensaver is
stopped, it won't work again.. Help Please..

 

[Jack]

Hi,
Don't get excited, I can't help but I posted a similar
problem and nobody has answered.What is it with
screensavers? I think mine is working "in the background"
because the hourglass revolves at the rate chosen for "My
Pictures slideshow".Like you I have gone through all the
settings but this saveer will not work. Let's hope
somebody can help us both.
Good luck, Jack

 

[JB]

Just wanted to add my name to this as well. I spent almost 3 hours of
(fruitless) time with Microsoft Tech Support on this very issue last
night (3/9/04). I'm running a Windows XP Professional, 1.3Ghz AMD
Computer, 384MB RAM.

My problem is the same. The screensaver will not start. I can set
the delay time to 1 minute, 2 minutes, 10 minutes, etc. It never
starts. I can manually start the screensaver, but some process
(anti-virus or Windows update) wakes it in the middle of the night, so
when I wake up the screensaver is deactivated.

Thought you might like to know what we tried, and maybe it will give
you a clue on how to resolve it. Or at least keep you from trying
things that didn't work:

1. We rebooted in Safe Mode - no change.

2. We used "msconfig" to disable all background processes and
rebooted - no change.

3. We created a new User Account and rebooted using the new account -
no change.

4. We rebooted using the "Last Known Good Configuration" option - no
change.

5. We ran the "DOS" command "sfc /scannow" to check if all Windows
system files were correctly installed (they were) - no change.

At this point, Microsoft had nothing new to offer other than (a) run
the Windows XP repair option or (b) "reinstall Windows". I will try
the former tonight, but the latter is my very very very last option.

I also need to try disabling my McAfee Anti-Virus and see if it coule
be the culprit. I haven't heard anything that points me in that
direction, but McAfee historically has done a very poor job of letting
their customers know about problems in their software. I will try
that tonight.

BTW - This morning, I ran "Ad-Aware" and did find some background
Adware that I got rid of. After rebooting I tried the screensaver
again - no change.

If anyone else has any bright ideas, I'd love to hear them. I'm at a
loss as to what is causing this.

 

[Guest]

JB (and anyone else that might be interested)

My story is similar to yours. Spent a couple hours with Remote Assistance with Microsoft. Same results as yours, nothing found that will fix the problem. I'm certainly no expert but what I wonder is why my screensaver will work if I manually initiate it with a hotkey. I think if there's some program running that is preventing it from starting automatically, then the hotkey method would fail too (if not immediately, then soon after). But if I initiate mine with a hotkey, the screensaver will run all night. It just doesn't start automatically after the time specified in the control panel.

Not sure if there's much hope to figuring this out if the Microsoft support people can't. But I'll keep checking back here and in the other newsgroups to see if anyone has figured it out

B