I am running Xp Prof SP3 with Office 2003 on an HP laptop nx8220.
After screensaver(any version) kicks in, it soon starts moving in a slow jerking motion accross the screen and then sometimes freezes. It is then difficult to get it to come out of screensaver back to desktop which can take several minutes after touching the touchpad.

This computer has been fully cleaned of all viruses and CleanUp is run regularly to clear out unwanted files, etc.

Help required to resolve this please.

bar457

Dani AI

Generated

Good outcome from — reconfiguring the leftover Exchange account coincided with a permanent fix. That pattern (jerky motion across every screensaver, then freezing) points away from a single incompatible .scr and toward background resource contention or a background component (mail sync, add-in or AV hook) interfering with normal screen redraws. ’s Task Manager suggestion was on the right track; ’s compatibility thought is reasonable but less likely since every screensaver exhibited the same behaviour.

Why this can happen: screensavers run as normal user processes and rely on timely CPU, disk and graphics resources. Long-running Outlook/Exchange syncs, stuck RPCs, or third-party COM add-ins (including antivirus Outlook extensions) can generate sustained disk I/O, CPU spikes or global hooks that delay frame updates or block input events, producing jerky animation and delayed wake. Video driver or power-state transitions can magnify the effect.

Practical next steps (diagnosis and safe fixes):

  • Check Event Viewer (Application and System) for errors at freeze times to spot driver, disk or application faults.
  • Reproduce while Outlook and AV are temporarily stopped; if the saver is smooth, focus on Outlook/AV.
  • Perform a Clean Boot (msconfig) to isolate non-Microsoft services/startups.
  • Run Outlook in Safe Mode (disables COM add-ins) or disable suspicious add-ins; look for antivirus mail-scanning hooks.
  • Use Resource Monitor / Process Explorer to watch CPU, Disk and Network during the saver to find spikes.
  • Update display/chipset drivers from the laptop vendor and, if available, lower hardware acceleration in Display Properties.
  • If changes to profiles/accounts are needed, back up PST/OST files and create a Restore Point first.
  • Create a new Windows user profile to rule out per-user corruption.

Given ’s fix, the most likely root was background mail/sync activity. The steps above help confirm the exact culprit and prevent recurrence.

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Firstly you can do a disk clean up. Got to My Computer right click on the C:> drive, go to properties and click Disk Clean. Secondly do a defrag on your hard disk. Lastly you may want to consider downloading Advance System Card free or pay for advance version and let it do it for you.

I have done a disk clean and defrag using Windows and other programs.
I wondered if something was running in the background as if left alone, sometimes the screensaver returns to normal.

If you leave the internet on than it could be Window is doing the updating. If not you can press Ctrl+Alt+Del and check whether any unnecessarily software is running. If there is than you can end the process.

Windows update only searches the Microsoft site for available updates once a day, so that cannot be the problem.
I have looked in Task Manager and cannot see any programs running that should not be, but of course there are a lot of processes running as with all computers.

I am running Xp Prof SP3 with Office 2003 on an HP laptop nx8220.
After screensaver(any version) kicks in, it soon starts moving in a slow jerking motion accross the screen and then sometimes freezes. It is then difficult to get it to come out of screensaver back to desktop which can take several minutes after touching the touchpad.

This computer has been fully cleaned of all viruses and CleanUp is run regularly to clear out unwanted files, etc.

Help required to resolve this please.

bar457

Is it only happen with one screensaver? I think it is not compatible, means require some resources that your computer do not have.

Hi Hitech
It happens with all screensavers, I have tried different ones.

Hi Khakilang & Hitech
Have solved it, but not what you might think.

I have had hanging problems in Outlook to do with an old Exchange account that was left over from the previous business owner, but I did not need. I have been fiddling with the account settings today, but not really changing anything, just unsetting and re-setting configurations, but it has fixed the Outlook problems.

As soon as I did that my screensaver problems are cured completely, so I have no idea how that works, maybe you understand it?

Anyway, many thanks for your efforts.

best regards
bar457

That is good. But would you like to tell what you did to solve this problem? I never seen such a problem yet.

I do not know what actually fixed it as I did not actually change to any new settings, but I know that sometimes just re-setting configurations clears problems and so I just clicked to alternative settings or clicked them off and then clicked back on again, clicking OK each time to make sure the actions were applied.

I do not want to use the Exchange account but just use a POP3 account, so the settings I have made are as follows.

The settings I chose in Outlook are:-

Menu Bar > Tools
Exchange Account > Change > More settings

Make sure the following are selected:-
- General tab > Automatically detect connection state
- Advanced tab> tick use cached exchange mode
then Offline Folder File settings > not selected
- Connection tab >connect using my local area network

then 'apply/ finish'

In addition to this, as I do not want Outlook to keep trying to find mail on the Exchange account,I have disabled this in the following way:-

Outlook menu bar > send/receive > send/receive settings > define send/receive groups

>then remove the exchange account from the window showing accounts to be included in send/receive function.

The above resolved my hanging problems on all Outlook commands.
Somehow it also immediately resolved my screensaver freezing issues, even though screensaver still froze when Outlook program was closed.It makes no sense to me but it worked.

I hope this helps others with related problems.

thanks and regards
bar457

Outlook is downloading mail in the background? Anyway it is good to hear the problem is solved. So please mark the thread as solved.

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