Vista Display Won't Turn Off

[ulysseus123]

Hello Vista Experts –

For several weeks now, I’ve been running Vista Home Premium in a Dual Boot configuration with XP Professional on a brand new “Built-To-Order” desktop computer by Systemax. XP is installed on the C partition of my 320 GB Western Digital Hard Drive; Vista is installed on the D partition. Partitions E and F are reserved for data files. By having the option of running either XP or Vista on the same computer, I can test which programs perform better in XP or in Vista; sometimes I work in one environment, sometimes in the other.

Motherboard: Intel D975XBX2
Processors: Intel Core 2 Duo (2.40 GHz)
RAM: 2 GB
Vista Experience Index: 5.0
Monitor: SONY Flat Panel SDM-HS53
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT

My problem:
Vista Home Premium does not respond to the same settings for “Screensaver” & “Turn Off The Display” that work perfectly fine in the XP Pro environment.

In both version of Windows, I have Screensaver (personal photos slideshow) set to begin 2 minutes after computer inactivity. That works OK in both XP and Vista. The slideshow starts as expected.

However, whereas the Display shuts off after 15 minutes in XP, it does NOT shut off in Vista (even though 15 minutes is the “Turn Off The Display” setting). The screensaver slideshow continues even a half hour after inactivity in Vista. I’ve never seen Vista shut down the monitor as long as I’ve used this new computer (a few weeks); the screensaver slideshow is still on even a half an hour after I’ve left the computer idle.

I have no problems with these settings when running Windows XP Professional on the same computer. My SONY flat-panel monitor goes dark after 15 minutes of inactivity, and remains dark until I reactivate it with either the mouse, or keyboard. When running Vista, my screensaver slideshow starts up OK, 2 minutes after inactivity. However, the screensaver continues long after the monitor should have shut down (15 minutes setting). I come back into my room a half hour after I left (fully expecting the monitor to be dark by now), but the monitor is still active with the screensaver slideshow. It never goes dark (like it does in XP).

I’ve tried changing Power Plans several times, but nothing “takes” in Vista. The screensaver continues to keep the monitor busy, long after it should have shut down.

For this reason alone, I wind up using my XP Pro environment for many hours throughout the day, rather than entering my Vista environment - - because I know Vista is NOT going to shut down my monitor after I leave my computer inactive for a while. Vista wastes electricity, keeping my monitor lit when I expect it to go dark. At least until I find a solution to this problem, XP Pro is much more efficient at turning off the display when the computer is inactive. Since most of the programs I use throughout a typical day work OK in either XP Pro, or in Vista, I wind up using my XP Pro environment much more throughout the day than I do Vista, because at least I can depend on XP shutting down the monitor after 15 minutes of inactivity; I can NOT rely on Vista doing the same.

What else does one have to do inside Vista to force the operating system to turn off the monitor after 15 minutes of inactivity (like XP Pro is doing without any problems)?

I do NOT have a wireless mouse as part of the system. (I read several posts about a known issue concerning a wireless mouse - - MSFT Article 911895).

I also do NOT want to reinstall Vista from scratch, because I already invested many hours installing various programs in the Vista environment, and tweaking them. All those hours of work would go down the drain if I have to reinstall Vista from scratch.

Is there some other control that has to be activated in Vista for the settings in Power Plans to take effect? Why does the Screensaver function work OK, but NOT the “Turn Off The Display” function?

I am logged in as Administrator in Vista when adjusting all these settings.

Turning off the Display after 15 minutes of inactivity should be a very simple, basic process to perform, in ANY Windows environment. In every other version of Windows that I’ve used in the past (Win 95, Win 98SE, Win ME, and XP), this was one of the first settings I would tweak on a new computer, because it determines how the monitor behaves throughout every single day, especially when the computer is not being used. It should have been easy to set up in Vista also. But it’s not! Not like in XP Pro, where Windows accepts the settings, and does what you expect it to do. In Vista, no matter how much I try to alter the settings for “Turn Off The Display,” nothing works!

I’ve read all the related HELP files that came with Vista related to these functions, but so far I’ve found nothing that helps me solve this problem.

In Advanced Power Settings, I turned “Display / Adaptive Display” to OFF, but that didn’t do anything either. I shifted from Power Plan “Balanced” to Power Plan “Power Saver,” and that didn’t work. I have “Put the computer to sleep” set to NEVER. Is that relevant somehow?

Does anybody have any suggestions how to get Vista Home Premium to turn off the Display after 15 minutes of computer inactivity?

Many thanks!

ulysseus 123
ulysseus123@myway.com

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[Steve]

Hi ulysseus,

we have had this same problem here before...
power options in windows vista not working

regards

Steve

[ulysseus123]

Thanks, Steve, for pointing me to the power management thread. I tried the suggestion to "restore defaults" and then reselect a specific minutes option. Didn't work. The monitor still does not shut down after the specified time has elapsed (when running in Vista mode).

After I posted my initial message (where I state that I have NEVER seen Vista shut down my monitor), I actually have witnessed Vista shut down the monitor on two different occasions! But it's very unpredictable. When I try to repeat the "experiment," I don't get the same results. The monitor continues to remain ON after 5, or 15 minutes have elapsed (I changed the wait-time interval several times). So the shutdowns that DID occur seem to be "flukes," rather than consistent behavior on the part of Vista and the monitor.

I'm reluctant to load any new motherboard BIOS updates, because I have two different operating systems installed on the same computer - XP Pro SP2 & Vista Home Premium. XP Pro seems to work fine with the current motherboard settings. I wouldn't want to tamper with something that already works OK (XP), to possibly fix something that may or may not react better in Vista. For all I know, a later BIOS may actually make my XP system function worse. Since the same motherboard is being used to react to XP, and to Vista, I'd rather not tamper with the XP configuration that currently works fine on my new computer.

Since I've already seen Vista turn off the monitor twice, I'm beginning to suspect that the problem may be related to the 4-year old SONY Monitor. I looked it up on the SONY website, and it is not listed as being recommended for Vista. The last operating system on its list is XP. I bought it 4 years ago, when Vista was not around. There are no newer drivers for this monitor, specific to Vista.

Also, I've noticed that sometimes the mechanical On/Off switch on this monitor doesn't always shut down the monitor, like it's supposed to. I click on the switch, the monitor shuts down, but then a few seconds later, it lights up again, WITHOUT my having hit the physical switch again. This happens once in a blue moon. Maybe some of the circuitry associated with turning the monitor on and off with the physical switch is also related to the signals the monitor is not processing correctly from Vista ???

The SONY monitor DOES shut down consistently when XP Pro SP2 is the operating system I'm using. Somehow the monitor "understands" and responds correctly to the "shut down" signals it receives from XP Pro. It does NOT seem to "understand" or react to the shutdown signals it receives from Vista (assuming Vista IS sending a valid shutdown signal). Maybe Vista is NOT sending a shutdown signal, because it thinks the computer is still being used by the user (even though I haven't touched the mouse or the keyboard for more than 5 minutes) ???

Maybe the only thing that will fix this problem is me buying a new monitor, that is "Vista compatible." I was hoping I wouldn't have to do that. My current SONY monitor displays photos and videos perfectly fine, just like it does in XP Pro. It's just having problems shutting down automatically when Vista is running.

Thanks for your help.

ulysseus123
ulysseus123@myway.com


**

[ulysseus123]

Throughout this last week (since my last post), I’ve been testing various variations of the personal Photos slideshow screensaver feature in Vista Home Premium. This feature is important to me because I take a lot of photos with my digital camera, and I routinely select the best shots of any given day and add them to my screensaver slideshow folder. As a result, the number of photos in this personal photos folder continues to increase every week.

In my XP laptop, I have a folder called “Screensaver Pics” which contains over 800 personal photos. The screensaver in XP is set to turn on 2 minutes after mouse/keyboard inactivity, and the monitor is set up to go dark 10 minutes later. This is what routinely happens whenever I use my XP Pro SP2 laptop, and whenever I run XP Pro SP2 on my new computer.

When I began setting up my new Vista Home Premium environment on the new computer, I thought I would be able to do the same thing in Vista that I’m already doing in XP Pro SP2, namely, use 800+ personal photos as my screensaver slideshow, AND have the monitor turn off 10 minutes after the screensaver starts.

I created a new folder off the Vista D drive called “Screensaver Pics” and copied all my 800+ personal photos from XP into this folder. The path is D:\Screensaver Pics. I pointed the Vista Photos screensaver Settings to this folder.

To my great surprise, after much trial and error, I discovered that in Vista Home Premium, the personal photos screensaver feature shuts off the monitor at the specified time ONLY if the number of JPG photos in this folder is 50 or less! What a bizarre condition!

If there are more than 50 JPG photos in this folder, the monitor does NOT go dark at the specified time. The screensaver slideshow seems to continue indefinitely.

I began my experiments by selecting several of the built-in screensavers that come with Vista, namely “Aurora,” “Mystify,” and “Windows Energy.” When I select any of these as my screensaver, the monitor shuts off on schedule, 10 minutes after the screensaver begins.

Then I decided to test the Sample Photos that are contained in the default Photos slideshow screensaver folder in Vista:
D:\Users\admin\Pictures
The slideshow starts on time, 2 minutes after mouse/keyboard inactivity; and the monitor shuts off on time, 10 minutes later.

I noticed that there were only a few Sample Photos in this folder - - 15 , to be exact. So I decided to create a new folder off the D drive called “My Screensaver Pics” and included only 15 of my personal photos (JPGs) in this folder. This personalized screensaver started on time, and the monitor shut down on schedule, 10 minutes later!

I tested 20 JPG photos in the folder; the monitor shuts down OK, on time.

I tested 30 JPG photos in the folder; the monitor shuts down OK, on time.

I tested 50 JPG photos in the folder; the monitor shuts down OK, on time.

When I tested 55 JPG photos in the folder, the monitor did NOT shut down after 10 minutes (it was still on half an hour later).

So I went back to just having 50 photos in the folder, and the monitor again shut down after 10 minutes of inactivity. I repeated the experiment many times, and the monitor shuts down consistently, on time, as long as there are 50 JPG photos or less in the folder!

After observing all these variations, I concluded there’s nothing seriously wrong with my 4-year old Sony monitor. If the monitor is capable of shutting down consistently when many other built-into Windows Vista screensavers are selected, clearly it is capable of processing “shutdown” signals from Vista.

The only time problems of shutting down the monitor after 10 minutes of inactivity occur is when the personal Photos slideshow feature is selected. Then, IF the personal photos folder contains 50 JPG photos or LESS, the monitor shuts down on time. If the folder contains MORE than 50 JPG photos, the monitor does NOT shut down after 10 minutes of inactivity.

To me, this seems like a step back, not an improvement on the same personal photos slideshow feature in XP Pro SP2. A new operating system should be capable of doing everything the previous operating system can do, and then some. NOT do less / worse than the previous operating system!

What kind of an improvement is it to have the capability of using only 50 photos in a personal slideshow in Vista, when the previous operating system, XP, allowed virtually an unlimited number of personal photos to be used in its screensaver slideshow?

Please alert Vista programmers to this defect. Maybe they can fix it in a future “windows update” that can be downloaded and installed automatically during the Windows Update process. Certainly the next service pack for Vista should have a fix for this feature, allowing the User to include an ever-expanding universe of personal photos in the screensaver slideshow folder. Why should I be limited to only 50 personal photos in the Vista screensaver slideshow, when XP allows me to include hundreds of personal photos in this same feature?

Thanks for listening!

ulysseus123
ulysseus123@myway.com

**

[Steve]

Hi ulysseus,

that is some great investigation you did, well done.

I will try and get the info over to someone at MS.

Thanks very much for getting back to us and letting us know,

regards

Steve

[DLS]

Sorry, I don't have a solution, but just FYI when we installed a wireless keyboard & mouse on our new hp (VISTA) desktop, the screensaver & sleep mode began failing. After numerous attempts at "fixes", we uninstalled the wireless & reinstalled the hardwired keyboard & trackball. Screensaver & sleep mode began working again. Then we installed the wireless keyboard & mouse on our 4 1/2 yr old Dell (XP) laptop & all works well. Interesting & frustrating!

[ulysseus123]

A solution for the "wireless pointing device" problem is discussed in Microsoft Article 911895. (I mentioned it in the post which started this thread).

Click on this link to go to the article:

The screen saver does not work when you use a Microsoft wireless pointing device on a Windows Vista-based computer



ulysseus123
ulysseus123@myway.com

**

[jksmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ulysseus123

To my great surprise, after much trial and error, I discovered that in Vista Home Premium, the personal photos screensaver feature shuts off the monitor at the specified time ONLY if the number of JPG photos in this folder is 50 or less! What a bizarre condition!

ulysseus, your patience is to be lauded! I have searched for months for the solution to this, and while I have not tried reducing photo numbers myself,

I too get the same symptoms you describe. Unbelievable. Only in my case I put the PC to sleep after 20 mins and it goes to sleep and hangs with a very faint screen saver photo (the last photo, just visible). Only it doesn't hang per se, but mouse/kb won't wake it; the ONLY thing to wake it up is a ctrl-alt-delete stroke combo (whoich wakes it). That's why when you MANUALLY shut it down, everything power-saving wise seems to work. Becasue the screen saver isn't doint its thing.

Can't wait to try.

k.

[dannymxc]

Such a long story about the shuting down monitor function.
Shuting down function never work when screensaver is actived on vista.

[melicca]

Ulysseus...

Finding this forum is quite a relief... we just purchased a new desktop and laptop. We were having trouble with the screen saver and display shut off feature. We have spent many hours recently on the phone with Dell thinking it was an issue with Dell's and their compatibility with Vista. We thought this in part because the display would turn off while using the photo screen saver on the laptop.

I recently found another forum discussing the issue where the guy determined it was the number of photos that the screen saver is pulling from. I tested this theory and the desktop shut off the display after the designated time.

It is weird though because if we set the screen saver to go on after 1 minute and then the display to shut off after 2 or 3 minutes everything worked fine even when it was pulling from all of our photos.

I hope this is something Microsoft is able to fix because we love using the photo screen saver to view all of our photos. This glitch with Vista has cost us many hours on the phone with Dell blaming them for this feature not working correctly.

I don't suppose you have found any solutions to this problem, short of Windows putting out an update for the problem.

We used this feature all of the time with ALL of our photos when our computers ran on XP.