Why does my screensaver delay keep resetting, and how do I stop it?

windows-7 windows-xp screensaver delay

5,803

Open ProcMon and watch for any Registry operation where Path contains ScreenSaveTimeOut.

You can exclude read operations such as RegOpenKey or RegQueryValue, and only look for writes.

(Edit: fixed value name)

5,803

Author by

Mr.Wizard

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Mr.Wizard almost 2 years
I ran without a screensaver for a long time, but recently I enabled one. I set the delay to 10 minutes, but this setting will not hold. It keeps changing to 1 minute.

I am able to apply the 10 minute setting, and I can close and open the Properties dialog and see that the setting is 10 minutes. However, every day at some point I notice that the screensaver comes on after only a minute of inactivity, and when I check the setting it is back to "Wait 1 minutes."
- I have done a virus and malware scan, and found nothing.
- I tried a different display driver revision, just in case it might help.
What could be causing this?

Can the screensaver itself change this setting?

Is it possible to "lock" the setting so that programs cannot change it?

I used Process Monitor as recommended, and I found an instance of the setting being changed from 600 to 60 (seconds). The process command was:
```
"C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe" /d C:\WINDOWS\system32\shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl
```
The only thing I did with desk.cpl during the monitored time was was to turn on and off a second display. This apparently does not happen every time I do this, or it would have happened sooner.

Again, what's causing this, and how do I stop it?

Heptite is also experiencing this problem. He is using Windows 7 (Ultimate, 64-bit) on a laptop.

"Mine was resetting from a value higher than 10 to exactly 10 minutes for a while, but now it's resetting to 1 minute like you're experiencing."
- ChrisF about 13 years
  
  Are you on a domain with a group policy?
- Mr.Wizard about 13 years
  
  @ChrisF this is on my personal machine. I don't recall setting up something like this but anything is possible. How do I check for what you're thinking of?
- ChrisF about 13 years
  
  I think you'd remember if you'd set up a domain ;) I'm not on XP at the moment so I can't double check the option you need.
- Heptite about 13 years
  
  I'm seeing mine reset to 10 minutes from any value greater than 10 minutes. Have you been able to discover what's happening?
- Mr.Wizard about 13 years
  
  I monitored it for a while and saw several more instances of the change as recorded above, but I have not found a way to stop it from happening. Please let me know if you do!
- Heptite about 13 years
  
  Now mine is randomly resetting to 1 minute. This is exceedingly frustrating.
- Mr.Wizard about 13 years
  
  @Heptite, quite. :-S
- Mr.Wizard about 13 years
  
  @Heptite please consider starting a bounty for this question. I am just getting going here and I don't want to lose my rep/privileges, or I would do it myself. Of course I understand if you don't want to lose yours either.
- Heptite about 13 years
  
  Bounty started.
- Mr.Wizard about 13 years
  
  @Heptite thanks :-) Please edit the question to include your information, or comment here, and I'll add what you want.
- Heptite about 13 years
  
  I don't really have any more information, except that mine was resetting from a value higher than 10 to exactly 10 minutes for a while, but now it's resetting to 1 minute like you're experiencing. I also believe you experience it with more frequency than I do--I can go for a day or two before it resets.
- Heptite about 13 years
  
  Oh, I should mention I'm on Windows 7 (Ultimate, 64bit) rather than XP, and my machine is a laptop.
- Mokubai about 13 years
  
  Is it Intel, nVidia or AMD graphics in either/both systems?
- Mr.Wizard about 13 years
  
  @Mokubai nVidia 7950GT and driver version 266.58 here. I updated drivers (to this) and the problem remains.
- Heptite about 13 years
  
  AMD Turion 64x2, nVidia on my machine. (And I didn't see this question until this morning because there was no notification.)
- Heptite about 13 years
  
  Bounty expired. Oh well.
- Mr.Wizard about 13 years
  
  @Heptite I am sorry it did not solve your problem (an mine), but thank you for giving it. I will continue to seek an explanation and/or solution, and I will update this (and @notify you) with anything useful I find.
- Heptite over 10 years
  
  @Mr.Wizard - Are you still experiencing this problem? For me the issue sortof went away on me at some point and I totally forgot about this question here on SU.
- Mr.Wizard over 10 years
  
  @Heptite I stopped using Windows XP two years ago, partly for this reason. I never did figure out what the problem was. I haven't had it happen in Windows 7.
Mr.Wizard about 13 years

I wasn't getting the right stuff at first, but it appears the key name is ScreenSaveTimeOut. I shall monitor that and see if I learn anything.
Heptite about 13 years

I have been trying to trace this, but I'm having two problems. First is that I have not been able to properly set up procmon to show me the registry operations for ScreenSaveTimeOut for some reason (probably PEBKAC), which I need to do to verify that my system is getting the setting changed in the same way that @Mr.Wizard's is. The second is that lately I have not been able to reproduce the problem, at all.
DavidPostill over 8 years

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