Solved Dell Latitude goes to Blue Login Screen unexpectedly NOT BSOD

[jbgiraffx]

I have my power scheme set to the defaults when on battery power, but all power and screen settings to "Never" when plugged in and charging. The 9 cell oversized battery is in good working order. I have an administrator and user password set and I also have it set to flash the password screen upon waking from sleep mode. Yet, if I leave the running machine unattended for a time, I return to find it at the blue password login screen. It's not sleeping because all the processes are working in the background, even downloads are not interrupted. If I login, it goes right back to what it is doing in the background, so there's no delay or loss of data. It's just weird and disconcerting. Anybody know what I set to cause this? I've had many Dell's and Windows OS, but have never seen this behavior before.

Dell Latitude E6510
Windows 7 Pro 32 bit SP1
BIOS A16
New HDD Seagate Momentus 500GB 7200 rpm
Just Clean Installed new OS on new HDD, all updated no problems, runs perfectly

Chipset
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Northbridge Intel Havendale/Clarkdale Host Bridge rev. 02
Southbridge Intel QM57 rev. 05
Graphic Interface PCI-Express
PCI-E Link Width x16
PCI-E Max Link Width x16
Memory Type DDR3
Memory Size 4 GBytes
Channels Dual, (Symmetric)


Hardware monitor Battery
Voltage 0 12.56 Volts [0x3113] (Current Voltage)
Capacity 0 94500 mWh [0x17124] (Designed Capacity)
Capacity 1 73024 mWh [0x11D40] (Full Charge Capacity)
Capacity 2 68490 mWh [0x10B8A] (Current Capacity)
Level 0 23 pc [0x4D] (Wear Level)
Level 1 94 pc [0x5D] (Charge Level)

Number of adapters 1

Graphic APIs
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API NVIDIA I/O
API NVIDIA NVAPI

Display Adapters
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Display adapter 0
Name NVIDIA NVS 3100M
Board Manufacturer 0x1028 (0x040B)
Revision B1
Codename GT218
Technology 40 nm
Memory size 512 MB
Memory type DDR3
PCI device bus 1 (0x1), device 0 (0x0), function 0 (0x0)
Vendor ID 0x10DE (0x1028)
Model ID 0x0A6C (0x040B)
Performance Level Default
Core clock 135.0 MHz
Shader clock 270.0 MHz
Memory clock 135.0 MHz
Performance Level 2D Desktop
Core clock 405.0 MHz
Shader clock 810.0 MHz
Memory clock 405.0 MHz
Performance Level 3D Applications
Core clock 606.0 MHz
Shader clock 1468.0 MHz
Memory clock 790.0 MHz

Win32_VideoController AdapterRAM = 0x20000000 (536870912)
Win32_VideoController DriverVersion = 9.18.13.1193
Win32_VideoController DriverDate = 07/08/2013

Monitor 0
Model ()
ID LGD024B
Serial
Manufacturing Date Week 0, Year 2010
Size 15.3 inches
Max Resolution 1366 x 768 @ 59 Hz
Horizontal Freq. Range 0-0 kHz
Vertical Freq. Range 0-0 Hz
Max Pixel Clock 0 MHz
Gamma Factor 2.2


Software
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Windows Version Microsoft Windows 7 (6.1) Professional 32-bit Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
DirectX Version 11.0

 

[oscer1]

Hi my first thought that it went into hybernating. But you would have to move mouse or press a key to wake it so do not think it's that. But you could check anyways.

 

[UsernameIssues]

...if I leave the running machine unattended for a time, I return to find it at the blue password login screen.

Is there a screensaver set?

If so, uncheck this option:

 

[jbgiraffx]

OK, Your response likely found the problem. In the right click menu "Personalize", the screensaver option shows "None", but the screensaver dialogue box shws 60 minutes timeout and the login in screen box is checked. I will uncheck the box for the login screen, but how do I set the screensaver timeout for "Never". The pulldown only goes from zero to 9999 minutes? Is there a Never option anywhere? Or does that not matter?

 

[oscer1]

when the screensaver is set to none the drop down should be grayed out and cant change it. at least that is how mine is set

 

[UsernameIssues]

OK, Your response likely found the problem. In the right click menu "Personalize", the screensaver option shows "None", but the screensaver dialogue box shws 60 minutes timeout and the login in screen box is checked. I will uncheck the box for the login screen, but how do I set the screensaver timeout for "Never". The pulldown only goes from zero to 9999 minutes? Is there a Never option anywhere? Or does that not matter?

It should not matter what the wait time is set to if the screensaver selection = none.

However, you might want to get its attention by selecting a screensaver, setting the wait time to 1 minute, exit out of those screens - wait 1 minute to see if the screensaver works as expected - then change the screensaver selection back to none.

 

[jbgiraffx]

Solved

Thanks so much. That was a simple problem I am aware, but the effect was a bit irritating. When the screensaver is set to None (which I assumed overrode everything anyway) and the login screen box was previously unchecked, the defaults are greyed out and the screen stays on indefinitely - just as you explained. Thank you.

 

[UsernameIssues]

You are welcome. Let's hope that it holds.

I have seen those screensaver/lock/resume settings get messed up after Windows Updates.