Monitor power saving in Win XP

abailey152 · 26-05-2004, 11:09

Since updating my mouse drivers, my monitor will not power-down when my screensaver is running. It works okay when no screensaver is used. I run the screensaver as I like the automatic lock-out option which requires a valid username/password in order to continue using the machine. I also like to power the monitor down after 30 minutes.

As a work-around I've now set the monitor to power-down and the screensaver to cut in at the same time (10 minutes). This works, but I'm a little worried about the monitor powering-down and back up so frequently.

Does anyone know if there is any third party utility which will force the monitor to power down after a preset time of no mouse or keyboard activity irrespective of what is running? Something that will work better than the built-in features of Windows XP.

Many thanks.

abailey152 · 26-05-2004, 15:26

Anyone???

Bifta · 26-05-2004, 15:29

When my machine powers down, it takes me back to the login screen for XP, requiring a valid password to get back in, could you not do that instead?

abailey152 · 26-05-2004, 16:45

Do you mean that you log off each time you leave the PC? I just power the monitor down and leave the machine, hard drives etc. running, so I don't think I have the option to password protect the power-up of just the monitor.

As I said, my work-around does work okay. It's just that it means the monitor powers down and back up several times a day and I'm worried this may shorten the life of the monitor. Basically, I'd like to use the screensaver to lock-out access after a few minutes of inactivity but have the monitor power-down after a much longer period. This is how it used to work before the new mouse drivers. These have improved my mouse control so I'd rather live with this problem than remove the new drivers.

As a side issue, do you know if powering down the monitor so many times will cause problems? Or are they meant to be used this way?

Bifta · 26-05-2004, 17:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by abailey152

Do you mean that you log off each time you leave the PC? I just power the monitor down and leave the machine, hard drives etc. running, so I don't think I have the option to password protect the power-up of just the monitor.

Well, sort of, it automatically logs me off and powers down the monitor.

Paul · 26-05-2004, 18:13

Which mouse drivers were they and what screensaver are you using? Might be a registry corruption or setting error stopping the monitor from powering down. I take it you have checked all your power saving settings in the display control panel etc??

abailey152 · 26-05-2004, 20:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bifta

Well, sort of, it automatically logs me off and powers down the monitor.

I'm not sure how you've got it to do this. I take it you're not running any utility and it's Win XP's built in capabilities? How do you get it to log you off automatically? This might be what I'm looking for.

abailey152 · 26-05-2004, 20:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul

Which mouse drivers were they and what screensaver are you using? Might be a registry corruption or setting error stopping the monitor from powering down. I take it you have checked all your power saving settings in the display control panel etc??

It happens on all the screensavers, even the blank screen one!

The mouse drivers are MS Intellipoint V5.0. I've upgraded from V4.0 as my wireless mouse was jumping about when the machine was particularly busy. Microsofts support site said the new drivers would reduce this, and yes they do seem a lot better.

The settings are all correct in the bios and in Windows. In fact everything was working okay until I installed the new drivers. It appears that the combination of the screensaver running and the drivers mean the system doesn't see that it is in rest. As I say, I'm guessing it's the mouse drivers as this is the last change made, and there are references on the net to the mouse drivers causing this problem.

*EDIT* - Just to confirm, the monitor will power-down if no screensaver is running. Also, if I start the screensaver just after the monitor has powered down, it stays powered-down. This is what I'm doing now. However, I used to have the screensaver cut in after 5 mins, but the monitor power down after 30 mins. This option no longer works, the monitor stays on.

ntl customer · 26-05-2004, 22:29

Quote:

As I said, my work-around does work okay. It's just that it means the monitor powers down and back up several times a day and I'm worried this may shorten the life of the monitor. Basically, I'd like to use the screensaver to lock-out access after a few minutes of inactivity but have the monitor power-down after a much longer period. This is how it used to work before the new mouse drivers. These have improved my mouse control so I'd rather live with this problem than remove the new drivers.

I seem to get this problem as well. I have set the monitor to switch off after 15 minutes and the screensaver usually kicks in after 10 minutes but the monitor then switches off as asked.

Then at random the monitor switches on without any intervention - nobody presses buttons on the keyboard and nobody moves the mouse. It then sometimes switches off for a bit and then comes back on again and does this. Or more recently, it has just stayed on with the screensaver on and nothing else.

Now I just switch it off manually!

abailey152 · 26-05-2004, 22:54

I would do that, except I usually forget!!

abailey152 · 27-05-2004, 07:10

I've found a possible solution!

I've found a little utility called "Wizmo" on http://grc.com which amongst other things can be used to turn the monitor off. So I've got it scheduled to run every hour and if the machine has been idle for at least 5 minutes. This seems okay so far, I've got the screensaver back on its 5 minute setting and the monitor will shut down on the hour.

Many thanks to you guys for trying to help, though. It is appreciated.