Screensaver hides under black screen

[terrie frye]

Hi,

New user iMac OS X 10.3 Panther. I've selected a great screensaver, but it seems to stay hidden under a black screen. When the screen is black and I hit a key, when the black disappears the screensaver is there for just a split second until the page I left reappears. Help? Thanks.

[kc0arf]

Hello,

I think your monitor is going to sleep before the screensaver engages. Check the control panels to see when you have the timings set for what mode.

Christian

[terrie frye]

Thanks for talking to me as if I know what I'm doing! Anyway, I checked the help menu for screensavers before I wrote to the forum, and I followed what it said to do until it got to where it said to click on "Configuration" and I did not have that choice. I followed it all the way through 2x more to make sure, and same thing. I set the screensaver to start after 3 minutes inactivity, but I can't find any other control panel. Remember, I'm new at this. I was new at having a PC at home before it crashed and I decided to go Mac. I'm also a great grandmother and didn't have computers around me for most of my life. Also, I bought this iMac used with Panther OS X 10.3 already installed. Thanks.

[yellow]

Make sure the screensavers that came with your Mac work first, before troubleshooting a third party screensaver. E.g., "Computer Name". Is this "great screensaver" a 3rd party screensaver (3rd party meaning, non-Apple-included)?

kc0arf means for you to look in the Energy Saver prefpane and ensure that the "Put the display to sleep blah blah" isn't set for a time lower than (or close to) that of the screensaver. Meaning the screensaver might come on, but then the screen goes black because it's going to low-power mode.

[terrie frye]

The scrensaver came with Panther. I should have thought of the energy saver mode myself, but I was still learning PC's when I switched to Mac, and I will also use the excuse that I've had the flu all week. Thanks again!!