Windows Vista: screensaver not working

I'm running Vista Home Basic on a Dell Inspiron laptop. The screensaver stopped working several months ago, including the default ones. The preview only runs for a second and the screensaver never activates at all. It's happening to all user accounts; the screensavers did work at one time.

I searched through the forums as well as the web, and eliminated these possibilities:

• I scanned for malware: clean. I did have other problems -- Windows couldn't update. I ran malwarebytes, then installed Explorer 8 and all Windows updates, and ran Windows Defender as well as CCleaner. Everything's been fine except the screensaver problem.
• I don't have a wireless mouse or keyboard. Just using the ones on the laptop. I did have a micro-mouse hooked to the USB port, but this screensaver issue happened before that.
• I checked the Event Viewer. No errors or any other information about in the logs. I tested it five separate times, with both default screensavers and a couple downloaded ones.
• PowerDVD is not in startup and I don't have PCMService.exe at all. Plus, I used PowerDVD for months, ever since I got the laptop, and the screensaver had no problem.
• I deleted a couple downloaded ones, those installed since I remember this happening. Didn't make a difference.
• I had a problem with Data Prevention not letting me explore/view folders with AVI videos in them, even though the videos were clean. It gave me a "COM Surrogate has stopped working" error. I found out it was a CODEC thing, updated them and I'm fine with that now. I don't know if that could have screwed up the screensaver, but thought I should mention it.

I know it's just a screensaver; not a big deal. That's why I haven't posted before this. But I'm want to make a RSS screensaver for my animal shelter group, and I can't do anything until I fix this problem.

Thanks in advance!

 

Is there a background process which is preventing the screensaver from running?
You can have a look under process manager to see if there is anything constantly eating CPU cycles.

I have a similar issue with my Bluetooth software which stops my machine from going into standby

 

I did both of these, as well as some other solutions I found, but I finally found the solution on a Dell forum.

One person had the same problem, also with a USB mouse and also with a Dell Inspiron 1501. Someone suggested reinstalling Dell's mouse drivers because there was problems before with them being wiped out when the mouse is installed. Someone else suggested updating the BIOS. I found both updates for my laptop and installed them.

Everything's working fine now! I'm not sure which update really did the trick -- I lean towards the mouse -- but it doesn't hurt having both updates.

Thanks!

 

Awesome, its always satisfying to solve the problem yourself...

 

I disconnected the wireless mouse, then re-entered the screen saver settings. and the screen saver is now responding. TY.