Screensaver not starting automatically.

[townsbg]

Sometimes, and I'm not sure why, but my screensaver doesn't start automatically. This has happened with both the photos screensaver built into windows and one that I've installed. The only resolution is to log out of my profile. Today this happened just after booting up my computer. Any ideas? I have screensaver set to start after 5 minutes.

 

[wither 2]

Hi Townsbg-

Have you tried doing a clean boot to see if there's some program running in the background which prevents the screensaver from starting?

 

[townsbg]

No but I have very little running. I keep services trimmed down. VMWare doesn't start automatically so I know that it isn't that.

 

[iko22]

Is something starting up in the background while the computer is left idle? Or is there a process that is not closing down properly?

1. From an admin command prompt, type powercfg/requests
2. wait the time screensaver is supposed to kick-in (5 min)
3. if screensaver does not start, then press <return>

should do the trick, and tell you what is preventing screensaver from starting.

 

[wither 2]

Townsbg- Did you try it?

I like the response from iko22.

 

[townsbg]

I'll have to wait until it happens again.

 

[townsbg]

This afternoon I had the issue happen again. I ran your command and it didn't return anything. I changed the timeout to a minute to confirm that it wasn't working and then the screensaver started. It continued to work on 5 minutes throughout the rest of the day. So changing the timeout seemed to correct the issue.

FYI I've run the command every so often throughout the day and each time I had the following immediately after running a VMWare virtual machine. Do you know if there is a connection?

SYSTEM:
[DRIVER] \FileSystem\srvnet
An active remote client has recently sent requests to this machine.

 

[iko22]

Had you run VMWare since changing the screensaver timeout to a minute? Did the screensaver work on that occasion? What did powercfg report on that occasion?

 

[townsbg]

I didn't run VMWare. I changed the timeout to a minute and let it wait immediately. When it worked I changed it back to 5 minutes. I didn't run the command after changing it but prior to changing it the command returned nothing.

 

[iko22]

So changing the timeout has reset the timer. It would be interesting to see if this is a permanent fix, or not.

I had this exact same problem, on my Windows 7 but not on my Vista machine. On mine, VMWare is not installed but, like you, I had Steam Client, and I had the AMD External Events Utility (together with an older AMD graphics card).

On my machine, changing the timeout resets the timer - but it was not a permanent fix. Maybe you got lucky with a permanent fix, if not, then I have shared these things with you.​

 

[townsbg]

I have steam installed but I don't use it and the issue predates it. I couldn't even tell you for sure when this started but it's been going on for a while.

 

[townsbg]

I had this happen again this afternoon. I ran the command and nothing. I changed the timeout back to 1 minute and it worked. It was still working after 5 minutes but I'm getting tired of having to do that. Do you know what I can do to resolve this rather than change the timeout? That isn't a fix but a work around.

 

[wither 2]

You could run the clean boot, as I suggested earlier. I don't know what's in your Startup folder.

 

[townsbg]

I think that it's releated to Firefox. The last time this happened I had been using Firefox. Have you even heard of that? Perhaps a ad-on gone haywire?

 

[wither 2]

I don't use a screen saver so I can't verify if FireFox is causing the problem. However, I did find a blog where it mentions that if you're watching a video or anything similar in FireFox and using full screen mode, it can disable a screen saver. However, that was supposedly fixed. Maybe I'll try a screen saver and see if I can reproduce the issue but don't expect quick turnaround.

However, you said the problem occurred right after starting up hence the suggested clean boot.

 

[townsbg]

Well that time I had opened FF. But no vids full screen.

 

[wither 2]

I tried both the Photos and Aurora screen savers and messed around extensively in Firefox a couple of times but it had no effect.

 

[townsbg]

SAASPASS is security/login related so I can't disable that. Also the issue predates installing that. That only leave the AMD as a non-M$ service that starts automatically. Vmware, iTunes, Tweak, and steam are all manual or disabled.

 

[wither 2]

You just don't want to run a clean boot, do you?