Desktops forum: Fool's Question: Do LCD Monitors NEED Screen Saver???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screensaver

Not for burning in. As noted, however, it's better to turn it off to lenghten of the lifetime of the backlight.

Kees

Not the screen saver we used before but to power down the CCFL tubes and save their lifespan. These lamps dim in just a few years so you can extend this by using the power save feature and thus extend the screen's (the CCFLs) life.

CCFL life time is determined as the time at which brightness of lamp is 50%. But we'll start to complain at a time well before this 50% happens at 30 to 50 thousand hours.

http://www.wellypower.com.tw/english/qa_2.php?function_page=e has a nice graph showing this curve. And that's for long life bulbs. We are already hearing complaints about this as people compare their 2 year old laptop to a new one.

Bob

The power save feature in Windows (all versions I've tried.) The monitor powered off the lights on schedule.

Bob

another device on the USB wireless that hooks up the mouse and keyboard. With a slight behavior difference in the programming, or maybe not. Maybe it'd act just like a mouse. Move the mouse? The monitor turns on. Sit in the chair? The monitor turns on. Of course, the installation would likely disable the screen saver and make it a power saver instead.