Screensaver not working in Windows 8.1

Hi KhoSan,

Thank you for the reply.

Were you able to resolve the issue? If you need any further assistance or information on this issue, reply back to this post. I will be glad to help you.

Are you able to help others that are having trouble as well.  I haven't been able to get screensaver to work at about the same time as my computer won't go to sleep on it own.  That goes back to when everything was updated from windows 8.0 to 8.1.  Hopefully sooner or later this is going to get fixed.

Hi Heasma,

Try the steps listed here and check if it helps.

Method 1:

Let’s run the power troubleshooter and check if that helps. 

a. Press ‘Windows + W’ key on the keyboard.

b. In the search box, type ‘Troubleshooting’ and press Enter.

c. Click on ‘System and Security’ and click on ‘Power’ click on next to run the troubleshooter.

**Method 2:**If the issue persists, I would suggest you to restore the power plans to default and check if it helps.

Step 1: Reset and restore the power plans to default:

1. Right-click on Start buttonand click on Command Prompt (Admin).
2. In the command prompt, type powercfg –restoredefaultschemesand hit Enter.
3. Exit command prompt.

Note: This would reset the power plan settings to default. Any customized power plans are would be removed.

Step 2: Once the power plan is reset to default, you may create a new power plan and customize the same according to your needs.

Refer to the link:Power plans: Frequently asked questions ****

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

Geethu, thanks for the response.  I did as you had asked and under step 1 Power, it showed a response of "Issues found.  Screen saver is enabled - not fixed with an x in the red circle.

I then went on to item 2 and followed that as well, but it did not change anything. 

Thanks so far

Gary

I have been a party to this thread for a long time and am still interested in solving the problem of not having the screen saver working in Windows 8.0 or 8.1.  Apparently this is not a universal problem because others have not reported it, so it has to be that the configuration set in the registry has been corrupted by some means and the only real solution could be uninstalling Windows 8.0 or 8.1 and reinstalling a new download.  But that takes extreme measures that are not usually accepted by the average user and therefore is not the solution.  If the expert programmers at Microsoft cannot or are unwilling to give this problem priority, then I think we are stuck with it.  It is not really a major problem and everyone can get by without using the screen saver.   However, when Microsoft issues a new version and advertises all its virtues so they can sell lots of programs, the buyer should expect to receive what they think they are buying. 

So, since there does not seem to be a workable solution available, I think it is time to move on and avoid the screen saver issue and perhaps change over to an operating system other than Microsoft.

Hi,

In a nutshell: try checking if there are any background processes running which stops your computer from going into idle mode.

I had the same problem on my laptop and thought it was a bug in Windows 8.1. After having a good think about the problem I finally sorted it out myself. On my computer it turned out that there was a background process running all the time, the process should have stopped when not in use but it didn't. I had bought a new OKI printer and installed the OKI PrintSuperVision (PSVEngine.exe) printer software that came with it. Unfortunately for me PSVEngine.exe was buggy and was not compatible with Windows 8.1, but I didn't know that at the time. I uninstalled the OKI PrintSuperVision software and rebooted the computer, et voilà, problem fixed! The Windows screen saver and all the power options are now running perfectly. The OKI PrintSuperVision software has since been updated and is supposed to be compatible with Windows 8 (x64), but I haven't tested it yet.

I found the running process by going to: Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Administrative Tools > Resource Monitor > CPU Tab. It showed that the OKI PrintSuperVision software was still running and consuming about 3% CPU usage, even though it had been terminated? It was stopping my computer from going into idle mode, therefore the screen saver and the power options just wouldn't kick in.

I've tested it and my computer is now working perfectly even after a number of Windows updates.

Hope it helps.

UPDATE:

Based on my experience, I personally think this issue is related to a hardware/driver/software problem rather than a Windows 8.1 OS bug, although some people disagree.

SYSINTERNALS

Microsoft provides a bunch of troubleshooting utilities called Sysinternals which may help trace the problem, the information is here: Windows Sysinternals Suite