Screen Saver does not start

[Guest]

Desktop, 64-bit Win 7 Pro. No wireless keyboard or mouse.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

 

[Bob I]

Start Task Manager, Show processes for all users. see what's keeping it
awake.

 

[Char Jackson]

Start Task Manager, Show processes for all users. see what's keeping it
awake.

I'm curious... How would you be able to tell which process is the one
that's preventing the screen saver from starting?

 

[Joe Morris]

Desktop, 64-bit Win 7 Pro. No wireless keyboard or mouse.

Speculation: you are using a Microsoft-supplied desktop theme.

If you configure the system to set up a screensaver and later select a
Microsoft theme, the theme will quietly turn off the screensaver.

I ran into that when I was designing the Win7 configuration for my POE.

Joe

 

[Joe Morris]

I'm curious... How would you be able to tell which process is the one
that's preventing the screen saver from starting?

One way would be process of elimination. Start with nothing running but the
base system; if the screensaver pops start adding the other tasks until the
screensaver no longer comes up.

There is a defined API by which a process can suppress idle detection,
intended for situations where interruption would impact the user
experience - video and audio playback, for example. At one point (some time
back) I looked for but didn't find a way to turn off the suppression from an
external process, and at this instant I can't even recall the API name.

Joe

 

[Guest]

I had the same thought, but tried to see if I could tell anything.
Sure enough the only process that took any CPU time while I sat on
my hands was the Wacom Tablet. I had a wacom mouse sitting on the
tablet, and every 10-20 seconds there was a 1% CPU use from the Wacom
process. I put the mouse away from the pad, and the screen saver
is working again.

Thanks all!

 

[JD]

I had the same thought, but tried to see if I could tell anything.
Sure enough the only process that took any CPU time while I sat on
my hands was the Wacom Tablet. I had a wacom mouse sitting on the
tablet, and every 10-20 seconds there was a 1% CPU use from the Wacom
process. I put the mouse away from the pad, and the screen saver
is working again.

Thanks all!

Thanks for letting us know what fixed it!

 

[Bob I]

I thought that part was obvious, if the CPU is showing something running
up the usage that's the offender.

 

[Char Jackson]

I thought that part was obvious, if the CPU is showing something running
up the usage that's the offender.

I believe that's a bad assumption.

 

[Steven L.]

Desktop, 64-bit Win 7 Pro. No wireless keyboard or mouse.

Any ideas?

Others have already suggested looking for some application that is
preventing the screen saver. (Macro processors like Macro Express often
do this. What's the point of playing back keystrokes on a screen
displaying a screen saver?)

If that doesn't fix it, it could also be due to a corrupted user
profile.

http://beingpc.com/2011/02/how-to-repair-corrupt-user-profile-in-windows-7/




-- Steven L.