[Don_S]

My screen saver freezes.  I have tried changing settings but nothing helps. My Win-XP is acting up in a couple of small ways but nothing worth the agony of a do over yet.

I have a new HP w2207h monitor.  Should I worry about damage to it or is that issue a thing of the past?

Thank you for any help.  Don

[mike j]

Don,
Do you use a good spyware utility along with a good anti-virus utility and do you keep them updated?
You could also re-install or update the driver for the monitor.
Mike

Here are a couple of links for free downloads that work pretty well:

CCleaner is pretty good for a free application. It helps keep your computer "clean." http://www.ccleaner.com/download

Ad-aware is also pretty good. I update it and run it almost everyday.  http://www.lavasoft.com/single/trialpay.php

[Rashiki]

Screen savers were created to prevent burn-in of CRT screens where the phosphor in certain areas would fade, leaving ghost images on the screen. LCDs screens don't suffer from burn-in in the same way as CRT screens, so a screen saver isn't really necessary. The main advantage is a power savings when your computer shuts off the video signal and lets the monitor enter standby mode, but you may be able to set that up independent of a screen saver. Letting the monitor enter standby mode will turn off the backlight, which could allow it to last longer.

It is possible for an LCD screen to develop a state often called "image persistence", but setting the video signal to turn off after a reasonable amount of time should prevent it, and it is easier to correct image persistence with an LCD than it was to undo CRT burn-in.

 -Rob

[satfrat]

Have you tried setting up the screensaver to "blank" and see if it'll come out of that state? This is what I use for maximum power savings from both the monitor and the video card.


Cheers,
Robin

[Don_S]

Thanks guys.  I appreciate your help.

Mike, I do have good (and up to date) anti-spyware and virus protection.  The software for my monitor would not load properly.  I kept getting error messages.  HP tech support was useless.  They kept telling me where to go to download the software.  I kept telling them I had both been there and done that multiple times---and it doesn't work.  I even copied the error message and sent it to them.  Huge waste of time.

Rashiki, nice to know I do not have to worry.

Robin, I took your tip and set the screensaver to blank.  That works.

Problem not solved but "worked around."  Eventually I will have to have an XP "do over".

Could you suggest settings for the following:

Turn off monitor
Turn off hard disks
System Standby
System Hibernate

I am confused on the difference between turning off the HDs and standby and hibernate and how I should set the times relative to each other.

[Rashiki]

Hibernate means save all of your memory to a file on the hard drive and shut down. All of your open programs will be restored on powerup, but it takes a minute or so to come back up.

Standby means going to a low power state, but the computer is still on, so it's quite fast to resume.

Hard drive turn-off means the hard drives stop spinning and go to low power mode, but the rest of the computer stays active. It saves a little bit of power, but not as much as standby. This is more important for laptops than desktops, although it can also save a bit of power with a desktop. It takes a second or so for the drive to spin back up, so it's quite fast to resume from this mode.

If you're using a desktop and aren't concerned about power consumption, turn off hibernate mode and standby modes, and set your drive powerdown time to 15 minutes or an hour.

 -Rob

[Don_S]

Rob,  Thank you.  I will adjust my settings.

[jqp]

Also maybe I missed this but what is your screen saver? In the past 15 years there have been some screensavers that are less than perfect. Is it a standard sceensaver than comes with Windows or did you download and install one? You may have a video card/driver issue. Or it may just be a flaky screensaver.

Just keep in mind you don't want to change everything at once if you are trying to troubleshoot

[satfrat]

Also maybe I missed this but what is your screen saver? In the past 15 years there have been some screensavers that are less than perfect. Is it a standard sceensaver than comes with Windows or did you download and install one?

Go to My Computer,,, Display Properies and click onto Screen Saver. You simply choose a screen saver,chose your choice of settings and hit apply. I just go with blank and save my video card the hassle.

Edit,,,, whoops I thought you were asking a question on Windows screen savers. Well I'll leave the post for whomever.


Cheers,
Robin

[Don_S]

Thanks guys,  I was using a standard Windows screen saver. Now I have switched to blank. 

Yes it is a video card driver issue.  See my post above.  The software for my new HP monitor had "issues" with my drivers.  The program from HP would not load and HP tech support was worse than useless.  They wasted a lot of my time, increased my frustration level, and, in the end, did not solve the problem.

I gave up on the issue because most things work just fine and other things can be worked around--e.g. selecting a blank screen saver.