Hello to anyone who can help me!

For the past few months I haven't been able to get my screen saver nor my computer's sleep mode to work.

I've tried the following:

system restore
updated drivers
updated motherboard
tried a different mouse
stopped all programs running in the background

Does anyone have any suggestions on what might work? I had a computer tech come into my home to try to fix it, and he couldn't figure out what was wrong either.

Thanks!

Sorry to ask but have you uninstalled and reinstalled the screensaver?

What operating system are you using? Are you using a wireless mouse? If not, is it USB? Are you using a wireless keyboard? If it's a laptop, are you using a mouse at all? Computer model?

These are things that might help investigate the issue.

Guess I forgot to mention the most important things, sorry! I'm using Windows 7 on a desktop (2 years old) with a wireless mouse and a USB keyboard. I have tried changing the mouse back to a USB, but it made no difference.

Ren, I didn't know you could uninstall and reinstall a screensaver. I'll look into that.

Thanks.

Try following the steps here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976877

You've checked the drivers and I'm sure checked out the power options, so check out the third section titled, "Disable the device(s) from waking the computer"

Give that a try first...

I know close to nothing about computers but I had the same problem. I worked out that a game I have stopped the screen saver and sleep mode kicking in. I emailed the company I bought the game from and they confirmed that the old design of the game meant it wouldn't allow the screen saver to work. I have the issue with another game now but I know what the problem is so I close the game and everyone's happy

Are you able to preview the Windows screen savers?

* Right-click anywhere on the Desktop.
* Choose 'Personalize' from the menu.
* Click the 'Screen Saver' icon at the bottom of the Window (this icon should say the name of the selected screen saver).
* Click the small arrow in the 'Screen Saver' drop-down box.
* Select a Screen Saver.
* Click 'Preview'

Thanks for the advice pyonir, but disabling various devices did not work. Even manually disconnecting the keyboard, mouse and printer did nothing.

I'm not computer saavy either, but I did type in msconfig at the Start and shut everything off that was running in the background. That still did nothing.

Believe it or not, the screen saver preview does work, it just doesn't ever activate after the computer sits idle (I have it set at 1 min.).

The computer tech told me it would be like finding a needle in a haystack...

Just to confirm some things that you have probably have set correctly anyway;

The screen saver icon in the 'Personalize' window says a name of one of the available screen savers?

Going into the screen saver settings, the 'Wait' time is set to 10 minutes or thereabouts?

When you click on the 'Change power settings' link (below the screen saver drop-down box) is the 'Balanced (recommended)' option selected?

From there, click the 'Change plan settings' link. Is the 'Turn off display' set to 20 minutes or thereabouts. Is the Sleep setting set to about 30 minutes?

Are you able to put the computer to sleep manually? 'Start button > Click the small arrow to the right of the Shut-down button > Choose 'Sleep'.

Yes, the settings are all pretty much as you mentioned. I can also force the computer to sleep manually just as you mentioned. It just frustrates me that the computer won't automatically generate the screen saver or sleep mode.

Thanks for all of your suggestions everyone. There's got to be some strange reason for this though...

Have you installed any programs recently? Or could there be any programs running in the background that might prevent the screen saver and sleep settings from kicking in? Do you know about 'msconfig'?

TW, see the 9:48 posting re: msconfig.
The older versions of Windows would show what you'd selected as options no matter how many times you went away and came back to the settings screens but would remain factory defaults in the background until you hit the 'Apply' button. Does 7 still require 'Apply' to activate choices in fact and not just show?

tellywellies, yes I used msconfig to turn off all nonessential progams. But, guess what!? This is so embarrassing...

Yesterday the computer tech forced the machine into sleep mode, but nothing happened afterwards. However... after you mentioned it a couple of posts ago, I forced it into sleep mode again and left it there for a few minutes, before reviving it. Now all of a sudden the screensaver works! Whut in tarnation?! I have no idea why except that maybe it reactivated everything. Can you believe I've had this problem for months?

Sorry for your troubles, but I have to thank you for mentioning to put the computer into sleep mode manually because it seems to have "cured" the problem. Maybe the tech did something yesterday too, who knows? Now I'll just have to see if it goes into sleep mode by itself.

Thank you!

Ah yes, thanks. I missed that.

Oh good. Maybe the computer got tired and just needed a bit more sleep than it got yesterday.

Hard to say what really put it to rights. Could have been a Registry value that just needed a nudge or something.

The other day, I manually put the computer to sleep. Then I remembered something I hadn't done and pressed the 'Enter' button to wake it up again. However, it hadn't quite finished putting itself to bed. Pressing the Enter button before this was done, completely upset the computer. It took a few reboots to sort it out. Computers can be touchy things.