Screensaver not working in Windows 8.1

In response to Tai"s reply, could you tell us more of the detail of what you did to eliminate the problem?  I think we are on to something in general - that some program or process is running which prevents the Screen saver from activating - but I have yet to pin down which one or ones are doing it.  And I have had a small success with the process but it still is not consistent, which probably means that one or more program or process is to blame at any one time.  It present I have over 22 separate programs or processes running in the background at any one time.  There are usually only one or two that are using up CPU time at any one time but because any of them can be activated at any time I would have to disable every one of them to get my Screen Saver to work consistently.  Some programs like my virus protection cannot not be disabled or I would be in big trouble, so if that is the culprit I cannot fix it.  And there are other suspicious functions running behind the scene when they need to run, so turning them off seems to be counterproductive.

I would like some thoughts on this. 

Dean V. Dannewitz

Dean,

Essentially what is happening is that when you run the command:

powercfg -requests

whatever shows up in the [DISPLAY] section of that output is the culprit.

What Tai is suggesting is that you take whatever that process is and override it with the following:

powercfg -requestsoverride PROCESS <insert offending process> DISPLAY

This should release whatever lock that process has on the display and will allow the screensaver and whatever screen-based system actions to take place.

majorlinux:   Just a minute!    Where in all the threads on this subject has there been a mention of running the command: powercfg -requestsoverride PROCESS and inserting the offending process DISPLAY????   And how do I know which is the offending process when there are usually several running?  Sending out advice like this is not really answering the question and solving the problem.  Not everyone is spending most of their active lives working on the computer.  Assuming that everyone knows exactly what you are talking about is a real reach.   Since the Screen Saver problem is not an essential function I think too much has been assumed about how it functions and what could affect the operation.  Each computer is used differently and the user is very much a different person than others.  So an abundance of over-explaining something is in order.

Dean V. Dannewitz

majorlinux:   Just a minute!    Where in all the threads on this subject has there been a mention of running the command: powercfg -requestsoverride PROCESS and inserting the offending process DISPLAY????   And how do I know which is the offending process when there are usually several running?

I do apologize for the assumptions made in my previous post.  I had assumed you had clicked the blue box above my original post that would show the post I was replying to initially and had therefore simplified that post to give my thoughts as to what was being explained.

I had not spent the time fully researching the issue but had merely applied the steps laid out from the post I was responding to.

Again, I do apologize for the assumptions that I had made and I hope this post clears up the matter.

P.S.: The original posting is the second post at the link below:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8\_1-desktop/screensaver-not-working-in-windows-81/8d9d0418-cef3-4e7f-bdc5-ee00da502515?page=2

Majorlinus:   Thank you for your reply and no apology is necessary.  After reading the links you provided which contains the information I had not had access to for some reason,  I can fill in the blanks on what you were talking about.  I think we all need the big picture and all the comments before we jump to conclusions.  I have been on this thread since the beginning and thought I was linked in to receive responses from everywhere, but I guess that is not the case.  

As I have said, I have tried the suggestions offered.  However, it is not consistent in what causes it.  I have disabled certain processes and tested it only to find it apparently did not work.  But when I come back to the computer later - at least in a couple of cases - the screen saver was operating !!  However later that same day I could not get it to open.  Therefore I think it is not one process but maybe several at different times that is the problem.  Are all these processes supposed to turn off when you are not actively using them??  That is, is there something in Windows that is supposed to know when to turn these active processes off???

Anyway - thanks for your reply.   This is just not the most important problem in the world.

Dean V. Dannewitz