Are you using the WinXP Display Settings to enable/choose the screen saver?

You may also try using the Power Management settings to put the monitor in a "standby" mode after a certain period of time. Sometimes this can be used instead of a screen saver because the screen will just go blank.

Message Edited by Flytyer06076 on 02-11-2007 09:35 PM

I've had the same problem since the first day I booted up my Dell. Call to help desk wasn't very helpful, but today I found the cause. It is not a monitor issue, it's an Operating System issue.

Short and sweet, go to Start > Run and type in msconfig. Go to the Startup tab and deselect EHTRAY.EXE. Select Apply and Close and restart (be sure to have all applications saved and closed before restarting). When the MSCONFIG utility message pops up upon reboot, check the box that says not to run on start up, then click OK.

That's it. Problem goes away, at least it did for me. I had to put up with this for 7 months, but finally got around to finding the time to go one by one in MSCONFIG to find the culprit.

EHTRAY.EXE is for the Microsoft Media Center and is not required for start up. Whatever this program does in the background, it prevents the screensaver from activating. Kind of sad that a multi-billion dollar company such as Dell couldn't tell users what was causing this problem. I think it's more a contractual obligation with Microsoft not to tell users cause MS wants this program starting up and running in the background (conspiracy theory).

You can go back to your prior settings regarding standby and other power save options, as they were not the cause. I turn my monitor off after 45 mins and hard drive off after 1 hour. Standby does something completely different and doesn't solve the screensaver issue.

Hope this helps you and others with the same problem.

Message Edited by Flytyer06076 on 02-11-2007 09:34 PM

You are all quite welcome. Just trying to payback a little from all the times I visited forums looking for help. Glad I could be of assistance. Think anyone at Dell will read this fix? LOL.

Great catch, Mike!! Thanks for that.

I don't use Media Center much (hardly ever), and I never launched the program after disabling ehtray.exe from starting on boot up, so I was unaware of this.

You are corrrect in that ehtray.exe will launch when Media Center is opened and it must be stopped manually in Task Manager in order for the SS to activate again.

For those not too savvy, right click anywhere in your task bar then left click on Task Manager, go to the processes tab and find ehtray.exe (you can sort alphabetically by clicking on the Image Name column heading). Click on ehtray.exe then press the End Process tab. Say YES to the warning message that pops up.

Nice to see we're all looking out for each other.

I can't answer if MS changed the task name used by Media Center. The best way for you to troubleshoot what is causing the problem is to open msconfig and deselect anything that looks like it belongs with Media Center. My ehtray was in Windows\ehome directory listed under the Command column.
Each time you deselect something (only do one at a time), apply the changes, exit out then restart your computer. Be sure you set your Screen Saver to come on within 1 minute before restarting. Keep deselecting items in msconfig until the screen saver does activate, then you will know which file it is that is causing the issue. Be sure to go back and select the previous deselected items that were not causing the problem.

Do not deselect anything that looks like a system task, such as mouse, keyboard, etc., or anything in the C:\Windows\System32 directory. They are usually tasks needed to operate your system.

With some educated guessing, you should be able to discover the task quickly. It takes a while to have to keep re-booting, but the ends will justify the means.

Let me know how you make out.