Screensaver Awry

[facorsig]

My Windows XP screensaver is somehow corrupted and every five seconds or so the screensaver is activated. Originally, I had Google Photos for screensaver and I uninstalled, but the problem persists now with the WindowsXP screen. I used Control Panel to reset the interval to 30 minutes, but that had no effect. This is annoying!!! HELP!!!

Fred

[Dave Schwartz]

1. Empty Windows\PreFetch folder.
(It is amazing how many things choke based upon the stuff in that folder.)

2. Try turning screen saver off completely, rebooting a couple of times and then turning it on again with a different configuration.

[JustRalph]

My Windows XP screensaver is somehow corrupted and every five seconds or so the screensaver is activated. Originally, I had Google Photos for screensaver and I uninstalled, but the problem persists now with the WindowsXP screen. I used Control Panel to reset the interval to 30 minutes, but that had no effect. This is annoying!!! HELP!!!

Fred

which screensaver is it? that would help............

[gillenr]

Don't mean to hijack thread, but my prefetch folder has 92 items(4meg) including some dlls. Is any of this necessary?
Thanks.

[Dave Schwartz]

No, it is not "necessary." Some people suggest cleaning it out peridoically to speed performance, while other say the exact oppositie.

Don't
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000619.html

From the above link - What it does
The Prefetch folder is not a cache - at least not in the sense that you normally think of when you use that term. This folder contains trace files and layout files that Windows uses in specific circumstances. Trace files describe the exact order in which segments of programs (executable files and dynamic link libraries, including those that make up Windows itself) load. Windows uses this information to launch Windows and Windows programs in the most efficient way possible. Layout files provide a list of files and directories in the order that they are accessed when you start your computer or run a program. The Windows XP Defrag program uses the layout information to arrange these files in a contiguous region of the hard drive. The “prefetching” doesn’t mean that code is being loaded unnecessarily; it means that code is being loaded in the right way, and only when it’s needed.

What happens if you delete the files
Cleaning out the Prefetch folder will not improve performance. I have proved this with a stopwatch repeatedly on multiple test systems, and documented the results in Windows XP Inside Out Second Edition. In fact, emptying the Prefetch folder will actually reduce performance, because Windows has to re-create the trace files the next time you run the program. Windows cleans out old files here automatically, and it uses the current information simply as instructions to help load programs more efficiently. If you delete a program, its layout and trace files go unused and are deleted within weeks.


Do
http://lifehacker.com/software/windows/tweak-windows-prefetch-for-a-faster-startup-201453.php



Personally, I only empty the folder when I am having an issue. for example, once I had an XP patch reinstall every time I rebooted. When I delete the items in Prefetch the problem went away immediately.

So, I have just learned that it is a place to look for things that are performing "funny."

On a couple of occasions I once had a user who tried to start HSH and got an "HSH has performed an illegal operation and must close" message. No matter how many times, no matter how many reboots, the error persisted. When I killed the prefetch on his computer it went back to working fine.


Dave

[JustRalph]

I vote for cleaning it out periodically.

Sometimes crap is left behind, and actually runs all the time.

Uninstall or Install apps that populate the folder are supposed to clean it up when they terminate.......some fail or sometimes the folder can be populated, but not deleted from, due to 3rd party programs that protect windows.

I dump it manually every once in a while..........

[gillenr]

Thanks, I'll try it & see.