My malfunctioning screensaver

[curioucity]

Hi all.

I'm made confused by my XP again. I set my screen saver to start popping after 3 minute idleness, but sometimes, the screen saver doesn't appear even though I've waited for longer than 3 minutes (oh, I choose 'My Pics Slideshow' screen saver). As far as I can say, running WMP will stop this screen saver from working, but this case also happens when I'm just letting a Winamp (and sometimes another program) idle. Any help?

 

[A4Ever]

search for the screensaver executables in the system, system32, windows or whatever it's called dir.

They're not ".exe", but you can doubleclick them. They have their own distinct icon. Test them.

If they work, than the idle programs are the problem. WMP disables the screensaver, this I know.

Winamp: possibly. Check options/preferences.

Anyway, you can always make a shortcut to that my pictures screensaver application in the system dir, and put in on your desktop. Then give it a shortkey like "ctrl + F12"

You can than manualy start the screensaver when you leave your computer.

 

[curioucity]

I'm not sure if this is what you mean:
I just checked my Windows\system32 directory and I found some files which show screen savers, and they all work, but some of them share the same icon, so I'm confused here......
More help please?

 

[A4Ever]

It's normal that they have the same icons. All Word docs have the same icon too.

So if they work, then something would be very wrong with your windows if the screen properties prog (right click on desktop, properties) would not be able to open them by itself.

So it is probably the idle programs.

If not, and you do not wish to reinstall and no smarter person answers to your thread, than create a shortcut to the my pictures screensaver and make a shortkey for it. Then you can start the screensaver manualy.