Screen Saver Doesn't Work

My screensaver will not work. It doesn't matter which type of ss I use, it just won't work. Hibernate will not work either. All of my settings seem correct. I know enough about computers to know that with the current configuration, it should work (Granted, it is XP and I am not the most familiar). I have Norton System Works, and it shows no problems; scan disk shows no errors. What can I try?

 

Is the problem new or has it been with you since day one /w XP?

If you try to turn screen savers off and then fire em back up is there anything interesting in the event logs? Can you even do a screen saver preview?

Is your BIOS version recent?

 

Screen saver

Yeah, the preview does work, and it can sustain all night long, so it doesn't seem like something is running in the background that might keep it off, but I'm not a pro. So it appears to have the capability, and it has worked up until a couple of weeks ago, and I didn't change anything at the time (not knowingly) that might have caused it.

I am pretty sure my bios is recent, but I can check. I did turn the screensaver to NONE, and applied, then back on and applied, and it still didn't work. Is there another way to turn it off besides setting it to none? Is there a way to uninstall it and reinstall?

Thanks for your assistance,
Jamf75

 

AFAIK there is no way to remove the screen saver feature. Maybe but nothing I'm familiar with.

Did you do a check of your event logs for unusual/interesting happenings around the time you were playing with screensaver/hibernate? Often there will be an error in there that is diagnostic and may lead to the root of the problem and a solution. Check all three logs (application, security, system).

 

Error Log?

I meant to ask you before.... How do I check the error logs? Where are they, are they easily readable? Do you know the exact path to the logs?

Thanks,
Jamf75

 

Follow the instructions Daizy Posted here:

Where does Win Xp store its error log?


Buzz

 

Good catch BuzzB2K.

jamf75 - they are actually "significant event logs" that trap and describe all sorts of happenings on your system.

You will have one for applications, one for security, and one for system happenings. One line entries but a double click will open them up for more detail.

You can normally jot down the event ID and source and go to the Microsoft Online help to find an article that deals with the specifics. For an example, here is one from today on a SQL server/Web Server in my server farm:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSSQLServer
Event Category: Server
Event ID: 17052
Date: 6/28/2002
Time: 07:14:41
User: N/A
Computer: CABAPPS1
Description:
Severity: 9 Error:10004, OS: 11001 Unable to connect: SQL Server is unavailable or does not exist. General network error. Check your documentation.ConnectionOpen (gethostbyname()()).

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 0a 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 ........
0008: 09 00 00 00 43 41 42 41 ....CABA
0010: 50 50 53 31 00 07 00 00 PPS1....
0018: 00 6d 61 73 74 65 72 00 .master.


The link to events.asp may have information but I usually have to go to the online help site and search for event id 17052 (in this case) and look at some articles.

 

Go to Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services. Right-click on the Task Scheduler service and select Properties. Set "Start Type" to "Automatic" and click "Apply ".

If that doesn't work, update your video drivers.

As a last resort, try this patch.