Member Avatar for normanallen

I've just upgraded to Windows 7 (Ultimate 32 bit) from XP Home SP3, and I've found that my nice clock screen saver doesn't work at all. I've tried a variety of other clock screen savers and none of them do either. I've downloaded other screen savers and they behave correctly.
Why should this be?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by avadhraj12

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Brief summary: reported clock-style .scr screensavers misbehaving after an upgrade to Windows 7 (behaviour varied between a laptop with a GeForce 8400 and a desktop). The thread shows the problem cleared itself later, but when a saver fails or renders incompletely it is usually reproducible and diagnosable. Below is a concise, practical checklist to use if the issue returns.

  • Verify the saver runs in Preview and by launching the .scr directly (double-click the file in the Windows folder). On 32-bit Windows look in C:\Windows\System32; on 64-bit Windows 32-bit savers may need C:\Windows\SysWOW64.
  • Confirm runtime requirements (DirectX/OpenGL, .NET, Visual C++ redistributables) listed by the saver author; missing runtimes commonly cause partial or blank rendering.
  • Update the graphics driver (use OEM drivers for laptops when available). For a quick isolation test, temporarily select the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter from Device Manager and re-run the saver to see if the issue follows the driver.
  • Check power settings so the monitor does not turn off or the system does not sleep before the saver starts (as suggested). Set the saver to 1 minute for testing.
  • Inspect Event Viewer for errors at the time the saver starts: run eventvwr.msc and look under Windows Logs -> Application and System. Capture dxdiag output to show DirectX/driver details.

Useful quick commands:

dxdiag
eventvwr.msc
sfc /scannow

Security note and final context: .scr files are executables. Only use trusted sources and scan downloaded savers. The intermittent resolution reported in this thread is consistent with transient driver or runtime initialization issues that self-correct after an update or reboot. For recurring problems, the most helpful diagnostics are: Windows architecture (x86/x64), GPU model and driver version, exact saver filename, dxdiag output, and any Event Viewer error entries — these will point clearly to missing runtimes or driver faults.

Recommended Answers

All 14 Replies

Member Avatar for techsheaven

How interesting! Could you list your power, sleep, and hibernate profiles (and the time before screen saver starts)? Also, when you preview the time screen saver, does it work? Is this a MS screen saver, or third party ( by whom?)

Member Avatar for caperjack

wow ,glad i didn't have the problem you are having when i upgraded to win7,lol just a little tong and cheek ,personally i don't see the problem as i stopped using a screen saver back with win98, i just set it to turn off the monitor , works for me .

Member Avatar for normanallen

Well, I think I might have solved the problem, my initial test was on my laptop that has GeForce 8400 onboard graphics. My desktop had GeForce 6150 onboard graphics that I upgraded to a 9800GT card. It worked for both of these before W7, so I assumed that as it failed on the laptop it wouldn't work here. Mind you, I downloaded a couple of others that didn't work on this machine, but I don't think I care about them, now.

Member Avatar for Bob_180_Bob

Hi,
I got lost somewhere there, is it working on both or one or none of your machines and you just don't care any more?
What is the use of a screen saver anyway? If your computer is left long enough that it goes to screen saver you are not watching your screen any way, so it makes no difference what it looks like. Just have your machine turn off your monitor (as caperjack said) after a short period of time (that suits your use) and save a little bit of power.
Screen savers were designed for cathode ray tubes (the older screen with a long back part) so that the screen would not burn. I know that this is much less a problem with LCD or Plasma screens.

Member Avatar for normanallen

There's message in this madness. My computer is in our living area. The screensaver is a BIG clock(full screen), so everyone has no excuse for not knowing the time to be ready for school, etc.
All I was trying to do was find an alternative while I was thinking that my chosen one didn't work on W7. I can't think of any obvious reason why a clock shouldn't work on W7, so I was surprised that some of the one I tried behaved in strange ways. I even found one that showed the clock face, but there were no hands on the display. A digital display doesn't seem to have the same effect!
So there we are.

Member Avatar for techsheaven

Reguardless of whether or not you use it, if it doesn't work, I would like to know why. My computers are a bit borring since they work nearly all the time (tounge-in-cheek). I like to hear even low-priority issues; you never know when they will relater to something more important!

I was thinking that the screensaver may be startin at the same time as some othe power management process (thus the line of clarifying questions).

Member Avatar for Bob_180_Bob

Wall clocks are very cheap!

If you are happy please mark this thread as closed

Member Avatar for normanallen

We have a wall clock, no-one is energetic enough to look up, and in any case the screen is bigger!
Will post the offending screen savers shortly, might have to be tomorrow as I think I'm going to be busy for the rest of today and at least some of tomorrow.

Member Avatar for normanallen

We have a wall clock, no-one is energetic enough to look up, and in any case the screen is bigger!
Will post the offending screen savers shortly, might have to be tomorrow as I think I'm going to be busy for the rest of today and at least some of tomorrow.

Member Avatar for normanallen

This is very, very strange. I've just checked all the screensaver clocks that didn't work, and they are all behaving correctly now!
I wonder why? Ah,well, such is life!!

Member Avatar for caperjack

This is very, very strange. I've just checked all the screensaver clocks that didn't work, and they are all behaving correctly now!
I wonder why? Ah,well, such is life!!

sometime a restart of computer once or twice is all it takes to correct some software

Member Avatar for denis13

Does anybody know what to use to convert .AVI to .SCR(screensaver extension)? Thank you!!

Member Avatar for Stella Richards

are you getting any error ? tell me what is the actually error you r getting there. tell me briefly.

Member Avatar for avadhraj12

Right click and check all the features it's working on my windows 7 what i can tell there is lots of interesting graphic.

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