xp media centre screen saver issues

I'd be steamed if my goldfish vanished from my desktop, especially the soothing aerator bubbles.

1) Try to restore your computer to a prior working configuration. If there is a restore point in System Restore when the goldfish were alive and well, execute a restore operation.

2) If System Restore doesn't work, open Explorer:

C:\Windows\System32\wpgldfsh.scr

Right click the file and select [b]test[/b]. If your goldfish look OK, there is a broken shortcut to the [i]display[/i] menu. I don't know how to fix this.

3) Alas, you may need to do a repair OS installation. I'm not prepared to blame the glitch upon Dell, although I've never encountered it with my Sony.

Good luck.

Rick/Portland, OR

Please read the Full post and do a printout for further reference. Only choose the solution that relates to your problem(s). If not listed then re-post your problem(s) in more detail.

Problems about running screen savers.

Control panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager . See if the graphic card device has a yellow or red tag, right click on it and select ?update driver > browse computer for drivers? or get driver from disk, put in your old driver CD, This will most probably get your screensavers working.

Aquarium Screen saver problems?
Go Display > Themes > Aquarium, go to Screensaver ?Settings? , then at bottom of window is the ?display Settings?. That shows the monitor, and there might be a check mark in the box "Display Blank Screen" . uncheck this box to see if you have a fish tank that moves. If so problem solved.

XP Media Center closes screen saver and power control.
WARNING!! Make a backup of your registry before you make any adjustments to the registry. Anything you do in the REGISTRY could make your computer unusable or unstable. WARNING!!

1.Click Start > Run, type regedit and hit [ENTER].

This will open the registry editor.

2) In the left-hand pane, click on the plus symbol - "+" - to the left of the HKEY_CURRENT_USER key (this is the "HKCU" referred to in the above quote).

Then look for Software and click the plus again, then Microsoft, etc, until you reach down to the following:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility

Be certain that you are here and not in another part of the registry!

3) In the Application folder, locate the application...

Note the GUID associated with it.

4) In the Categories folder, look for the subfolder which references the GUID you found in the previous step.

Note the full name of this folder.

5) In the Entrypoint folder, look for the subfolder which bears the same name as the full name of the subfolder you found in the previous step.

Create a string value called "Enabled" with a value of "False".

6) Repeat the exact same process for the same add-in in the other key...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility

7) Having changed the setting for ONE ADD-IN, save the registry and reboot.

The screen saver does not work on XP MCE (Media Center Edition).

Turns out, ehtray.exe is the culprit. It's the part of Media Center that downloads the guide information. When it's
running, screensaver will not kick in. When you manually disable it via the
task manager, your screensaver(s) should work.

You can also disable it by running the ?msconfig/startup..untick ehtray?.

More info on ?ehtray?. Here:
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/ehtray/

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

Peconet Tietokoneet's suggestion about disabling ehtray.exe is excellent. However, XP MCE does not recognize msconfig.exe.

Someday PT will post a Registry fix for disabling ehtray.exe in XP MCE, but until then, try this:

1) Download and install Spybot Search & Destroy:

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

2) Run Spybot. In [i]Tools[/i], open the [i]Startup[/i] folder and remove the checkmark from ehtray.exe

3) While you're at it, disable services that you don't need at startup. For a list of those services:

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services

Sort by clicking the [i]auto/disable/manual[/i] column. Determine which services have started. Those services set to [i]auto[/i] that have not started can be safely reset to [i]manual[/i].

For those services set to [i]auto[/i] that have started, be cautious about disabling them. To determine their function, check:

http://www.processlibrary.com/

Before you commence disabling services, it is wise to create a Restore Point, so that you can restore your computer to a working configuration if you get too trigger happy.

Also, check out the excellent TR post below:

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tr/downloads/home/windows_xp_services_that_can_be_disabled.pdf

Rick/Portland, OR

We would all be walking around with papers and pencils and working everything out with our big brains. LOL :) :)

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.