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Screen Saver/ On-line Video Problem



 
 
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  #1  
Old June 19th 19, 01:05 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
SC Tom[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,089
Default Screen Saver/ On-line Video Problem

Win10Pro x64 v.1809 Build 17763.557
Acer V3-731 laptop

I watch a lot of tennis on-line since a lot of the good matches aren't
televised on my cable channels. It used to be, if I had a video running full
screen (Firefox 67.0.3 (64-bit)), my screensaver would not start up and
interfere with it. Most of them use the Flash plug-in, and that also is the
latest and greatest version. Recently (within the last 3 or 4 days), the
screen saver starts up after the time set and continues to run until I move
my mouse or press a key, just as it should.

My desktop is one "update" behind (Build 17763.437), and the screen saver on
it
works as it should. Thinking the newer update (KB4503327) may be the problem
(considering some of the other problems that have been posted about it), I
uninstalled it. No change- screen saver still starts during videos.

I could disable it, but that's not really fixing the problem. I seem to
remember
having this problem years (maybe even Windows versions) ago, but cannot find
a fix for it. If anyone has had this problem and could provide a fix for
it, I would
be deeply appreciative. TIA!!
--

SC Tom


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  #2  
Old June 19th 19, 03:00 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Screen Saver/ On-line Video Problem

SC Tom wrote:
Win10Pro x64 v.1809 Build 17763.557
Acer V3-731 laptop

I watch a lot of tennis on-line since a lot of the good matches aren't
televised on my cable channels. It used to be, if I had a video running
full
screen (Firefox 67.0.3 (64-bit)), my screensaver would not start up and
interfere with it. Most of them use the Flash plug-in, and that also is the
latest and greatest version. Recently (within the last 3 or 4 days), the
screen saver starts up after the time set and continues to run until I move
my mouse or press a key, just as it should.

My desktop is one "update" behind (Build 17763.437), and the screen
saver on it
works as it should. Thinking the newer update (KB4503327) may be the
problem
(considering some of the other problems that have been posted about it), I
uninstalled it. No change- screen saver still starts during videos.

I could disable it, but that's not really fixing the problem. I seem to
remember
having this problem years (maybe even Windows versions) ago, but cannot
find
a fix for it. If anyone has had this problem and could provide a fix for
it, I would
be deeply appreciative. TIA!!


Do you have a password set for the screensaver ?

There is a claim in some MS documentation here, that the
behavior changed since Vista. If a password is set on the
screensaver, the screensaver can still switch on, even if
an application uses ES_CONTINUOUS = 0x80000000.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...-from-starting

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...-from-starting

A second factor that is claimed to affect the screensaver
cutting in, is whether the video being viewed is "full screen"
or not. If the activity is "just a regular window", that can
allow the screensaver (with password?) to run.

Another thread, claims there can be an interaction with
added software. But that's the opposite direction, of never
getting the screensaver to work (when RGB software is installed
to modulate the fancy motherboard LEDs).

*******

powercfg /getactivescheme @ this returns the GUID of the current power schema

Power Scheme GUID: 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e (Balanced)

powercfg /query 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e # query call uses GUID

But the on-screen setting doesn't mention the screensaver
as such, it can be set to avoid "idling to sleep" and
the machine going into sleep state.

https://i.postimg.cc/LXpx12f5/idling-to-sleep.gif

*******

Summary: Think about what you added recently to the machine.
Or some policy change that inadvertently had this
as a side effect.

Paul
  #3  
Old June 20th 19, 12:34 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,881
Default Screen Saver/ On-line Video Problem

SC Tom wrote:

Win10Pro x64 v.1809 Build 17763.557
Acer V3-731 laptop

I watch a lot of tennis on-line since a lot of the good matches aren't
televised on my cable channels. It used to be, if I had a video
running full screen (Firefox 67.0.3 (64-bit)), my screensaver would
not start up and interfere with it. Most of them use the Flash
plug-in, and that also is the latest and greatest version. Recently
(within the last 3 or 4 days), the screen saver starts up after the
time set and continues to run until I move my mouse or press a key,
just as it should.

My desktop is one "update" behind (Build 17763.437), and the screen
saver on it works as it should. Thinking the newer update (KB4503327)
may be the problem (considering some of the other problems that have
been posted about it), I uninstalled it. No change- screen saver
still starts during videos.

I could disable it, but that's not really fixing the problem. I seem
to remember having this problem years (maybe even Windows versions)
ago, but cannot find a fix for it. If anyone has had this problem and
could provide a fix for it, I would be deeply appreciative. TIA!!


Does the screen saver show something, like the time or patterns? Or
does it just show a blank (black) screen? If the latter, how do you
know the screen saver activated (to blackout the screen) rather than a
power option to unpower your monitor after awhile (that also blacks out
the screen)? If the power plan is configured to turn off the monitor,
check under the advanced settings and under the Multimedia settings.
Configure the screen saver to have shorter expiration than for the
monitor's power option which should be shorter than the expiration for
sleep mode, if used.

From what I know of Firefox and checked only, Firefox has no hooks to
prevent triggering the screen saver. You said you are running Firefox
in fullscreen mode. That'is not the same as maximizing its window. You
sure you are using F11 to change Firefox into fullscreen mode instead of
maximizing its window? I'm not sure the screen saver is checking for
video traffic since that's between the video card and monitor. It does
check for inactivity of the keyboard and mouse.

Which screen saver are you using? One that came bundled in Windows or a
3rd party screen saver? I've read where users would report the screen
saver would trigger (misbehave) despite seeing activity on the screen
but the screen saver did not trigger (behave) when they switched to a
different screen saver. Screen savers contain executable code. That's
why malware can be distributed via .scr files.

Same problem happen when you disable all extensions in Firefox, unload
Firefox (to ensure all extensions are also unloaded from memory), reload
Firefox, and retest?

When Firefox is running fullscreened (not maximized) and playing a video
stream, check the Event Viewer logs the next time the screen saver
triggers during that test. You should see a 4802 event saying "The
screen saver was invoked" and check who was the source of the invoke.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...ing/event-4802

Is the screen saver configured to require a password to unlock? Without
it, the screen saver does not lock the Windows session. You could, for
example, press run "%windir%\system32\mystify.scr" to immediately load
that screen saver, but hitting any key will immediately unload it
(unless you enabled the password option in the screen saver settings).
Because .scr files are executable code, they can be called by anything
to run. Have you check Task Scheduler to make sure no event was defined
that runs the .scr program after some idle period, like using the "on
idle" trigger for the event? Alas, Task Scheduler's GUI does have a
nice search function to look for any event that has the specified string
in the Actions definition (what to run) for the events. That's where
SysInternals' AutoRuns and its filter can come in handy.

I don't see Firefox controlling or blocking the screen saver. Maybe you
started watching longer videos that play longer than the screen saver's
idle timeout interval.
  #4  
Old June 20th 19, 04:38 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
SC Tom[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,089
Default Screen Saver/ On-line Video Problem

**** replies in-line

"Paul" wrote in message
...
SC Tom wrote:
Win10Pro x64 v.1809 Build 17763.557
Acer V3-731 laptop

I watch a lot of tennis on-line since a lot of the good matches aren't
televised on my cable channels. It used to be, if I had a video running
full
screen (Firefox 67.0.3 (64-bit)), my screensaver would not start up and
interfere with it. Most of them use the Flash plug-in, and that also is
the
latest and greatest version. Recently (within the last 3 or 4 days), the
screen saver starts up after the time set and continues to run until I
move
my mouse or press a key, just as it should.

My desktop is one "update" behind (Build 17763.437), and the screen saver
on it
works as it should. Thinking the newer update (KB4503327) may be the
problem
(considering some of the other problems that have been posted about it),
I
uninstalled it. No change- screen saver still starts during videos.

I could disable it, but that's not really fixing the problem. I seem to
remember
having this problem years (maybe even Windows versions) ago, but cannot
find
a fix for it. If anyone has had this problem and could provide a fix for
it, I would
be deeply appreciative. TIA!!


Do you have a password set for the screensaver ?


No password is set, and never has been.


There is a claim in some MS documentation here, that the
behavior changed since Vista. If a password is set on the
screensaver, the screensaver can still switch on, even if
an application uses ES_CONTINUOUS = 0x80000000.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...-from-starting

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...-from-starting

A second factor that is claimed to affect the screensaver
cutting in, is whether the video being viewed is "full screen"
or not. If the activity is "just a regular window", that can
allow the screensaver (with password?) to run.


The videos are being viewed full screen.


Another thread, claims there can be an interaction with
added software. But that's the opposite direction, of never
getting the screensaver to work (when RGB software is installed
to modulate the fancy motherboard LEDs).

*******

powercfg /getactivescheme @ this returns the GUID of the current
power schema

Power Scheme GUID: 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e (Balanced)

powercfg /query 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e # query call
uses GUID

But the on-screen setting doesn't mention the screensaver
as such, it can be set to avoid "idling to sleep" and
the machine going into sleep state.

https://i.postimg.cc/LXpx12f5/idling-to-sleep.gif

*******

Summary: Think about what you added recently to the machine.
Or some policy change that inadvertently had this
as a side effect.


The only thing added recently were the Windows' updates. Uninstalling it
didn't change anything, and allowing to re-install itself didn't either :-(
Thanks for your help, Paul. It's always appreciated!
--

SC Tom


  #5  
Old June 20th 19, 05:21 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Screen Saver/ On-line Video Problem

SC Tom wrote:


The only thing added recently were the Windows' updates. Uninstalling it
didn't change anything, and allowing to re-install itself didn't either :-(
Thanks for your help, Paul. It's always appreciated!


OK, is there any way to figure out the history of your
video card driver ? Do you have driver updates
turned on ?

When I do NVidia drivers here, I try to do just the
driver part, and not the extras, and it still pulls
in a ton of stuff it promised not to install.

And installing the driver, always resets the time
for the screensaver to cut in. So the driver install
can be "slightly" intrusive.

*******

You could compile your own copy of Firefox, in debug mode.
Or compile under Visual Studio, so you could use Windbg.
But the experience is not like the old days, in that
the code paths are much too large and circuitous to make
any sense. I tried that once for two hours and gave up.
Single stepping just wasn't going to work. Setting breakpoints
wasn't getting the job done any faster really.

In Debug mode, it's supposed to do printf statements
to a "console" that gets launched. Unfortunately, the
quality of what is in the printf statements, is not
sufficient to conclude much of anything. I was debugging
printing at the time, and I might have got around
five lines printed in the console.

If you want an experiment to try, see if you can
temporarily disable Electrolysis E10S, which turns
a one task copy of Firefox, into five tasks. It
does that, so that the "Flash" container or maybe
even an HTML5 container, if it crashes, it doesn't
take out the whole browser. But, you're supposed to
be able to disable that, and go back to one task.
The thing is, if you have five tasks, at some point
if you have 200 tabs, the 200 tabs might be
spread over 3 tasks. Having Flash in a container to
play a movie, should use the same logic regardless,
in terms of requesting continuous usage of the
graphics display. Splitting Firefox into pieces
like that, isn't supposed to change the characteristics.

Paul
  #6  
Old June 21st 19, 12:30 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
SC Tom[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,089
Default Screen Saver/ On-line Video Problem



"Paul" wrote in message
...
SC Tom wrote:


The only thing added recently were the Windows' updates. Uninstalling it
didn't change anything, and allowing to re-install itself didn't either
:-(
Thanks for your help, Paul. It's always appreciated!


OK, is there any way to figure out the history of your
video card driver ? Do you have driver updates
turned on ?

When I do NVidia drivers here, I try to do just the
driver part, and not the extras, and it still pulls
in a ton of stuff it promised not to install.

And installing the driver, always resets the time
for the screensaver to cut in. So the driver install
can be "slightly" intrusive.

*******

You could compile your own copy of Firefox, in debug mode.
Or compile under Visual Studio, so you could use Windbg.
But the experience is not like the old days, in that
the code paths are much too large and circuitous to make
any sense. I tried that once for two hours and gave up.
Single stepping just wasn't going to work. Setting breakpoints
wasn't getting the job done any faster really.

In Debug mode, it's supposed to do printf statements
to a "console" that gets launched. Unfortunately, the
quality of what is in the printf statements, is not
sufficient to conclude much of anything. I was debugging
printing at the time, and I might have got around
five lines printed in the console.

If you want an experiment to try, see if you can
temporarily disable Electrolysis E10S, which turns
a one task copy of Firefox, into five tasks. It
does that, so that the "Flash" container or maybe
even an HTML5 container, if it crashes, it doesn't
take out the whole browser. But, you're supposed to
be able to disable that, and go back to one task.
The thing is, if you have five tasks, at some point
if you have 200 tabs, the 200 tabs might be
spread over 3 tasks. Having Flash in a container to
play a movie, should use the same logic regardless,
in terms of requesting continuous usage of the
graphics display. Splitting Firefox into pieces
like that, isn't supposed to change the characteristics.


The graphics on this laptop is Intel® HD Graphics for 2nd Generation Intel®
Processors. The CPU is a Pentium B950, which I assume also handles the
graphics.
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/55627/intel-pentium-processor-b950-2m-cache-2-10-ghz.html
It hasn't been updated in quite some time; not even sure if there's anything
newer than what I have already.

Yeah, not too sure if it's worth all the trouble of compiling my own
Firefox, but thanks anyhow :-)
--

SC Tom


  #7  
Old June 21st 19, 01:19 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
SC Tom[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,089
Default Screen Saver/ On-line Video Problem



"VanguardLH" wrote in message
...
SC Tom wrote:

Win10Pro x64 v.1809 Build 17763.557
Acer V3-731 laptop

I watch a lot of tennis on-line since a lot of the good matches aren't
televised on my cable channels. It used to be, if I had a video
running full screen (Firefox 67.0.3 (64-bit)), my screensaver would
not start up and interfere with it. Most of them use the Flash
plug-in, and that also is the latest and greatest version. Recently
(within the last 3 or 4 days), the screen saver starts up after the
time set and continues to run until I move my mouse or press a key,
just as it should.

My desktop is one "update" behind (Build 17763.437), and the screen
saver on it works as it should. Thinking the newer update (KB4503327)
may be the problem (considering some of the other problems that have
been posted about it), I uninstalled it. No change- screen saver
still starts during videos.

I could disable it, but that's not really fixing the problem. I seem
to remember having this problem years (maybe even Windows versions)
ago, but cannot find a fix for it. If anyone has had this problem and
could provide a fix for it, I would be deeply appreciative. TIA!!


Does the screen saver show something, like the time or patterns? Or
does it just show a blank (black) screen? If the latter, how do you
know the screen saver activated (to blackout the screen) rather than a
power option to unpower your monitor after awhile (that also blacks out
the screen)? If the power plan is configured to turn off the monitor,
check under the advanced settings and under the Multimedia settings.
Configure the screen saver to have shorter expiration than for the
monitor's power option which should be shorter than the expiration for
sleep mode, if used.


*** I have Ribbons as my screen saver, and my monitor is set to never turn
off.


From what I know of Firefox and checked only, Firefox has no hooks to
prevent triggering the screen saver. You said you are running Firefox
in fullscreen mode. That'is not the same as maximizing its window. You
sure you are using F11 to change Firefox into fullscreen mode instead of
maximizing its window? I'm not sure the screen saver is checking for
video traffic since that's between the video card and monitor. It does
check for inactivity of the keyboard and mouse.


*** It's not that Firefox is full screen, it's that the video is full screen
within Firefox. I tried The "F11" method, but have the same results that
way, too.


Which screen saver are you using? One that came bundled in Windows or a
3rd party screen saver? I've read where users would report the screen
saver would trigger (misbehave) despite seeing activity on the screen
but the screen saver did not trigger (behave) when they switched to a
different screen saver. Screen savers contain executable code. That's
why malware can be distributed via .scr files.


*** Windows screen saver.

Same problem happen when you disable all extensions in Firefox, unload
Firefox (to ensure all extensions are also unloaded from memory), reload
Firefox, and retest?


*** Yes, it does.

When Firefox is running fullscreened (not maximized) and playing a video
stream, check the Event Viewer logs the next time the screen saver
triggers during that test. You should see a 4802 event saying "The
screen saver was invoked" and check who was the source of the invoke.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...ing/event-4802


*** I either don't have a 4802 anywhere, or I just don't know where to look
for it :-( Too bad there's not a search function in event viewer. I tried
sorting by event ID and still no 4802, even right after the SS has kicked
in.


Is the screen saver configured to require a password to unlock? Without
it, the screen saver does not lock the Windows session. You could, for
example, press run "%windir%\system32\mystify.scr" to immediately load
that screen saver, but hitting any key will immediately unload it
(unless you enabled the password option in the screen saver settings).
Because .scr files are executable code, they can be called by anything
to run. Have you check Task Scheduler to make sure no event was defined
that runs the .scr program after some idle period, like using the "on
idle" trigger for the event? Alas, Task Scheduler's GUI does have a
nice search function to look for any event that has the specified string
in the Actions definition (what to run) for the events. That's where
SysInternals' AutoRuns and its filter can come in handy.


*** I found nothing in Task Scheduler that invokes .scr.

I don't see Firefox controlling or blocking the screen saver. Maybe you
started watching longer videos that play longer than the screen saver's
idle timeout interval.


My screen saver is set to 30 minutes, and has been for eons. Almost all
tennis matches are longer than that :-)

Thanks for the tips!
--

SC Tom


  #8  
Old June 21st 19, 03:27 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Char Jackson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,449
Default Screen Saver/ On-line Video Problem

On Fri, 21 Jun 2019 08:19:49 -0400, "SC Tom" wrote:

*** I either don't have a 4802 anywhere, or I just don't know where to look
for it :-( Too bad there's not a search function in event viewer. I tried
sorting by event ID and still no 4802, even right after the SS has kicked
in.


In event viewer, look on the right side in the Actions pane. Click on Filter Current Log. In the
dialog that pops up, click in the field that says All Event IDs, which will clear that text. Enter
your desired Event ID and click OK.

To clear the search and start over, click the Clear button at the lower right corner of that dialog,
or in the Actions pane click on Clear Filter. (In the Actions pane, Clear Filter is only available
if you actually have a filter set.)

That's a basic search. To get more granular, you can adjust the "Any Time" field and/or the Event
level or any of the other things on that dialog. Everything you do will restrict the output that
much more.

To get started on your first search, enter an Event ID that you can actually see in the unfiltered
event list, just to get a feel for how it all works.

  #9  
Old June 21st 19, 07:53 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
SC Tom[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,089
Default Screen Saver/ On-line Video Problem



"Char Jackson" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 21 Jun 2019 08:19:49 -0400, "SC Tom" wrote:

*** I either don't have a 4802 anywhere, or I just don't know where to
look
for it :-( Too bad there's not a search function in event viewer. I tried
sorting by event ID and still no 4802, even right after the SS has kicked
in.


In event viewer, look on the right side in the Actions pane. Click on
Filter Current Log. In the
dialog that pops up, click in the field that says All Event IDs, which
will clear that text. Enter
your desired Event ID and click OK.

To clear the search and start over, click the Clear button at the lower
right corner of that dialog,
or in the Actions pane click on Clear Filter. (In the Actions pane, Clear
Filter is only available
if you actually have a filter set.)

That's a basic search. To get more granular, you can adjust the "Any Time"
field and/or the Event
level or any of the other things on that dialog. Everything you do will
restrict the output that
much more.

To get started on your first search, enter an Event ID that you can
actually see in the unfiltered
event list, just to get a feel for how it all works.

Too bad you have go to each of the 500 or so logs to search. I was kinda
hoping for a way to search all of them in one fell swoop :-)

Thanks for the info though; I'm sure it'll come in handy!
--

SC Tom


 




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