Screensaver not working in Windows 8.1

I had this issue as well. After doing some research I used the "powercfg" command to troubleshoot it successfully.

You'll need to run the command prompt as administrator and type "powercfg -requests" to see what processes might be active. In my case, under "DISPLAY" my web browser chrome.exe showed up as the culprit.

To override that executable from keeping the system awake, I entered the command "powercfg -requestsoverride PROCESS chrome.exe DISPLAY" (replace chrome.exe with whatever the application happens to be in your case). To check that the override rule was entered successfully you can type "powercfg -requestsoverride" and in my case chrome.exe showed up under the "[process]" section.

I also had a related problem where my computer would wake back up right after I manually set it to sleep. Using "powercfg -devicequery wake_armed" I saw that my network adapter was one of the devices that could wake my computer (in addition to my mouse and keyboard) so I disabled that in the Power Management tab under device name in Device Manager.

Hope this helps others,

Tai

I have been following the issue with the screen savers and windows 8.1 I too, have problems.  The screen saver comes on, but there is no display.  The screen just goes blank,  I spent several hours on the phone with HP and they could not help me.  I can set up the screen saver and I get a Preview, but when  the screen saver comes on all I get is a blank screen.

Any help will be appreciated.

Dietmar

******@bellsouth.net

Hi Scott,

For a better understanding of the Screen Saver issue, let me know what is the Knowledge Base Article number of the Windows Update that was installed recently?

This issue could have occurred due to these reasons.

1. Damaged Screen Saver settings.
2. Due to conflict between third party applications.

Try the steps listed here and check if it helps.

Method 1:

I would suggest you to set a different Screen Saver and check if it works.

How to use screen savers

Method 2:

If the issue persists, I would suggest you to set the computer in a clean boot state and check if it helps.  Setting the system in a clean boot state will help to identify if any third party applications or startup items are causing the issue.

How to perform a clean boot to troubleshoot a problem in Windows 

Note: After clean boot troubleshooting steps, refer to the section "How to reset the computer to start as usual after troubleshooting with clean boot" in the provided link to return your computer to Normal startup mode.

Hope this information helps. Reply to the post with updated status of the issue to assist you further.

Hello,

I have a 'Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 13' computer with Windows 8.  Windows automatically updated on me a few days ago and my screen saver hasn't turned on since.  I have gone into the "turn screensaver on and off" function in the control panel and the screen saver is set to come on after one minute.  It never comes on!  Before Windows 8 updated it worked just find.  I will admit, I have loved Windows 8 up until this last update; now I am not too sure.

Help!!

JoJo:   To my knowledge, the problem that you are experiencing which is very similar to the problem I reported on several months ago has not been satisfactorily solved.    At least I have been unable to successfully use any of the suggested solutions given nor some that I have tried by myself.   Nor have I been able to get any assistance from Microsoft so called experts.   I suspect that the problem is unique to many isolated instances which seem not to have any similarities as to what may be the cause.  If you check back on the history of this thread you will see what I mean.  I have taken the position that when I upgraded to Windows 8.1 I should have gotten something that worked in all instances so why is not Microsoft not solving the problem?    I realize using the ScreenSaver is not critical to any other operations, but since it is supposed to be there, it should be working.   

 I have stopped wasting my time trying to solve this problem, but it does not make me happy.  I started out with a new computer which came with Windows 8.0 installed, but even that did not work.  Reinstallation of the operating system also did not work as it was supposed to.  After a long time I had to exchange my new computer for yet another new one with Windows 8.0 installed.  The good news is that this one worked well until I ran into this problem with the ScreenSaver   I have keep it updated completely, but the problem has not been solved.   I guess we can only hope that the new version which is supposed to be released in April will solve this problem.  But I have my doubts.

Dean