Monitor Woes

I need computer help and can't seem to find it anywhere online. For about 2 weeks now my monitor will not go to screensaver, NOR will my husbands! We are networked, but have not changed anything we know of to cause this. We have reset it etc and nothing. My monitor has since started to get a lighter colored line about a half inch deep on the top of the monitor. This line flickers and gets larger and sometimes will be so bad I can't see half my screen. It is like the old TV's when they would just go whacky and you would have to adjust something in the back of them. However, no adjustment is fixing this. If I shut it off manually and then turn it on it is so bad I can't see anything for the top half of my screen and then eventually will settle down to the flickering lines, but at least the window is visable. When I change pages online it gets worse and if I move my browser so it is not all the way to the top it is a little better, till I change pages and then it acts up,,, or somtimes stops for a bit. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

You are referring to the V-Hold on the old tv's. I had a pain in the a** tv like that years ago. This appears to be a failing monitor. You may just need a new one. As far as the screen saver part, I can help you there. I assume you are using Windows XP. If so go to- Control Panel> Appearance and Themes> Choose a Screen Saver. Make sure one is selected and make sure a time duration is entered. So, if you want it to come on after 5 minutes of no activity, set it to 5. Then click OK. That should solve the screen saver issue, but your monitor appears to be dying. There are shops that still fix that as I fairly recently had a tv with that issue fixed. It was a fairly inexpensive fix if you can find someone who does that. Best advice would be to get a new one as it may not be worth putting money into. Good luck.

 

I keep trying to set the screen saver and doing has you said. In the past just changing that number has helped if my SS ever acted up. This is something different. My husbands and mine both stopped at the same time and nothing we do will change it. We are networked, but have never had a problem before. Something has happened that is not letting them go to SS or shut off on their own. It is weird to me, I was hoping someone who was much smarter than the computer could help me. I am good at many things with the computer, but this has me stumped.

Thanks for your advice on the monitor, I was thinking that was what it was but was hoping something different!

 

What do you mean by 'networked'? Are you running ICS ?

On the screen saver tab of display properties
click to the power optionschoose advanced
Check if the screen is 'always on'

look at both the power schemes and the advanced tabs
Post the settings

Studio T

 

ok, yes it is always on and on the advanced it is power buttons: when I press power button shut down and when I press sleep stand buy. Nothing else is checked on advanced

What I meant by networked is we have a home network so we can share files on the computers.

 

Start>run>type
regedit
The registry Editor opens

Working in the left pane

Expand the folder called HKEY_CURRENT_USER by clicking on the plus in the square box to the left (DONOT CLICK ANYWHERE ELSE)
Similarly expand folder called control panel
CLICK on folder called desktop

Now working in the right pane

If the entry called ScreenSaveActive is zero RIGHT click on it
click on modify
enter 1 into the value data field
click OK
Make sure the entry ScreenSaveTimeOut is between 60 and 600
close regedit by clicking on cross in top right corner
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ALTER ANYTHING ELSE IN THE REGISTRY WITHOUT ADVICE
your screensaver should now be active

Studio T

 

I did as you said. The data was set at 1 already and the timeout was set at 720. I changed that to 600 and will see what happens and let you know.

The problem I was having with the monitor and the lines, flickering and distortion suddenly went away. Now I am really even more confused! Someone came with a tractor and was working on our yard and when he came the monitor stopped its distortion and all, so I guess if it acts up again I will call him back!

 

OK
ICS stand for Internet Connection Sharing which is one way Windows allows a second pc to access the internet. To have this set you have to have the host pc running all the time, which is why I asked about it. The other way is to have both pcs connected to your moden/router. How is your network connected?
The screensaver will kick in after 600 seconds are you waiting that long.
If you are, something in one of the pcs is not. Have you any rogue programs or updates trying to acces the internet?

Studio T

 

We have a router. We used to have it set up so they both used the internet through my computer, but we got broadband and they go through the router now. No, the Screen Saver never came on with either machine. His 2nd one is off (we have 3 computers into the router) I do not know of any programs on my machine with the exception of my email, but I have always had that accessing it and it worked before.

 

either some program (eg a virus or keylogger) is producing keyboard like activity by trying to aceess the internet. Have you any other symptoms like slowing down? screensavers are notorious carriues of viruses, what one are you using?
or perhaps yours is corrupt and will not start. Try setting a diferent screen saver.

Studio T

 

I do not notice any other problem. What is a keylogger and how do I know if there is something there? What puzzles me so much is both of out computers stopped at the same time. I have not put anything new on mine and I have changed the screensaver and it still will not work. The one I am using now is just one of the windows. I did have the picture parade going before and thought maybe that one was the problem so I tried another one.

Also, the weird flickering, lines ans distortion returned last night after being gone for a a few hours.

I want to thank you for all the help you are, somewhere along here we will figure it out, but it is frustrating now for sure.

What programs should I be looking for that may be keeping it going? I am also not really up on the having ours computers connected so we can share. I will explain what I did and tell me if you can advise any different. When we first put the togetner it was to use the same dialup connection and mine was host. Now we have broadband and it goes through the router. We still use the file sharing, but would anything he does cause anything with my computer? I am just trying to figure out why they both stopped working at the same time and neither responds to anything that would normally work to make the screensaver work again.
Thanks!

 

A keylogger is a rogue program that runs silently and logs every keystroke made on your keyboard. It then sends the signal back to a hacker who looks for patterns to extrapolate passwords and other sensitive information. It can also log screens and programs that are opened and closed. It would be highly bad to have one.

A place to start would be to update and run your antivirus software and then your anti-spyware/adware programs. They can pick some of those up.

 

ok, I have done those both, however I think I have found the problem, but need to test it out. I have spamilator installed. I think this is running and causing the problem. I am going to shut it off later when I am done with email and see if that fixes the SS not coming on problem.

 

YEAH!! It was my spamihilator. They must have done something with an update as it did not do this before. Both my husband and I have it on our computers and both started acting up at the same time. Thanks for all the direction.

 

Glad it worked out OK

Studio T logging off