Windows XP forum: screensaver and power saving settings will not work

One is an HP zd8000 laptop running Windows Media Center OS. I tried the msconfig recommendation in the thread, and also searched for the DVDLauncher int he registry as well.

The msconfig did not help and there is no registry entry for DVDLauncher.

There is a wireless mouse on this machine and I have found that unplugging it sometimes helps, but does not always work..

The other machine is a couple of year old Dell desktop running XP home edition. This one runs Windows media player, with the audio output going into a cable TV modulator for whole house audio. I want the feed the video output into the same modulator for picture slideshow, but need the screensaver to make this happen..

Any other ideas on how to fix this??

TIA,

Bryan

I got my one machine straightened out my removing keyboard and mouse and disabling the DVD drive . Yeah I know it sounds weird, but I use this machie for a very specific purpose.

The other one is a HP zd8000 laptop. The only programs I see that could play a DVD include Windows Media player, InterVideo WinDVD and maybe Windows Movie Maker..

Not sure where to go next with this one. Just can't seem to get it to consistently roll to screensaver.

TIA,

Bryan

I have a Belkin Wireless keyboard and mouse that don't affect the screen savers, but I've heard this before with other wireless keyboard's and mouses, (mice?).

As far as I can remember, no real solution was found, except to change to a normal keyboard and mouse, or a different make of wireless keyboard and mouse.

Sorry.

Mark

This problem seems to occur only with Microsoft wireless desktop sets, and not consistently. I use two machines, with the identical wireless keyboard and mouse; on one (the newer one as it happens, dual core Pentium and all the bells and whistles) the screensaver does not work, on the other (5 years old) it does.

Moving the wireless transceiver off USB and plugging into the PS2 keyboard/mouse ports (the Microsoft manual that came with the desktop set explains how)eliminates the problem. As far as I can see there is no down-side to using these two ports, and as a bonus it frees up a USB port.

On my machine this also seems to have fixed some other flaky behaviour; my back-up program (Iomega Backup Pro which backs up to a USB connected drive) no longer hangs on boot-up, and USB thumbdrives that are plugged in at boot-up are recognized, rather than having to be disconnected/reconnected.

Given all that, the only question remaining is; does Microsoft ever test their stuff on real equipment?

I hope by now you have solved your problem. I just got a new computer made by a computer shop with Windows XP Pro SP-2 and had the same problem, as do many people. I had been searching the web for solutions and finally came up with two. For me it had to do with my Microsoft Wireless Desktop set, and more specifically I think it's primarily the USB connection for the mouse. Do not connect the the desktop set/mouse to the USB port. Instead, use the PS/2 connections. I will quote the Getting Started pamphlet for Microsoft Wireless Desktop Sets. Your mouse should have come with an USB-to-PS/2 adapter as described below. Be sure to follow their directions:
"1. Shut down and turn off the computer. 2. Plug the purple PS/2 connector into the computer's round PS/2 keyboard port. 3. Plug the USB connector into the green USB-to-PS/2 adapter, and then plug the adapter into the computer's round PS/2 mouse port." Bingo! My screensaver started working. I did have some problems later after loading a DVD. I saw the solutions that disabled the DVDlauncher, but didn't see the same terminology in the startup selections for my computer. I suspect it has something to do with the video card but will have to research more. Right now, I just have to restart the screen saver as though it's the first time, and it starts working again. The other solution which others have eluded to, involves disabling the DVDlauncher. Here is the link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/911895/en-us, that describes how to do that. Perhaps this posting will help others, because it is extremely frustrating not to have the screen saver going after having it in earlier Windows operating systems.

From what you've explained, and in accordance with the article ''How to perform a clean boot in Windows XP (Q310353)'', all you've done is started the system in a ''clean boot'' status but have not followed up to find the cause.

1. Dell did not write this OS. With all the spyware out there, the damage is not Dell's fault. Or their responsibility to fix. They may help you reload the OS.

2. You didn't dismiss the solution here so I suggest you read the discussion and try them.

Bob

I was experiencing the same problem and was starting to get really frustrated. I went on-line and had a chat session with Dell, and although the tech was very helpful and polite he was not able to help. The tech did give me a direct number to XPS support and this tech WAS able to walk me through a fix.

We went through the clean boot process and then confirmed that it was not a system process that was causing the problem. We then turned off all startup programs and started them three at a time until the problem came back. Once we hit on three it was easy to find the one program that was creating the conflict. It was "DVDLauncher." I turned this one off and turned all the other programs back on and the problem did not come back.

I hope this helps.

Dell Latitude D620 computer, MX XP Operating System - cannot get screen saver to work nor will the screen turn off after the time set for it to do so. I hope someone can supply an answer.

I tried the suggestions I understood. I do not know what else will be affected if one disables the DVDLauncher in the registry so I did not try that. I was hoping for a solution that lay folks could do a little easier than that.

Hmmm... there is no DVDLauncher REG_SZ C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI Control Panel\atiptaxx.exe.

In the Registry, I successfully browsed all the way to "\Run" in the path below, but do not see the DVDLauncher.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and the entry was DVDLauncher REG_SZ C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI Control Panel\atiptaxx.exe.

I boot into safe mode after i have set the screensaver and power
in safe mode I set them the same settings
reboot and most times it works