I have been running set@home on my work PC since 2001. I initiated a BOINC account a few months ago when seti was not working directly and I thought it was because I had to switch to BOINC. I used to be able to have the BOINC graphics as my screensaver, but when it stopped working right I found I could switch back to seti and it seti still worked. Now that seti is really going away, I have tried and tried to find info about how to get the BOINC screensaver to work but have had no luck. There are so many postings in this message board that I have spent hours looking at entries with promising subjects but have not had any luck getting answers. My PC is behind a firewall, of course, since it is at work. And we recently got "new" (meaning refurbished) PCs, but they went backwards and gave us CRTs, so I would definitely like to have the screensaver function. What happends now when I try to use BOINC as my screensaver is that I get the graphics for 1 or 2 seconds, then my screen goes black. Can anyone help me?

Wendy,

I am going to assume here for a moment that you are using Windows.

If so, right click on the desktop, select properties, click on the screen saver tab. Check the time in the "Wait" portion. Is it 1 minute? if it is, set it to something higher.

The other setting is in the monitor power section. They may also have set that to a low number.

These setting, since they are on a corportate PC may not be alterable. Also, be sure it is acceptable to run BOINC as a screen saver.

Let us know if this does not work out ...

---

Yes, I am using Windows XP. I have my scrensaver set to 5 minutes, and the monitor power setting is set to Never, so it should never turn off on its own. Also, this problem of the screen going black after just a second or two even happens when I am trying to "Preview" the screensaver from the Display Properties window.

One thing I have seen in my poking around is that I do not have any BOINC file with an .scr extension. Shouldn't I have one? I even reinstalled BOINC so I have the most recent version and I still don't have an .scr file.

I have seen other postings by people having trouble with screensavers and also having trouble with firewalls. If the company firewall is causing this problem, then I guess there is nothing I can do about it. But if I am just missing something, I would prefer to have my screensaver working.

Thanks for your help.

---

Yes, I am using Windows XP. I have my scrensaver set to 5 minutes, and the monitor power setting is set to Never, so it should never turn off on its own. Also, this problem of the screen going black after just a second or two even happens when I am trying to "Preview" the screensaver from the Display Properties window.

One thing I have seen in my poking around is that I do not have any BOINC file with an .scr extension. Shouldn't I have one? I even reinstalled BOINC so I have the most recent version and I still don't have an .scr file.

I have seen other postings by people having trouble with screensavers and also having trouble with firewalls. If the company firewall is causing this problem, then I guess there is nothing I can do about it. But if I am just missing something, I would prefer to have my screensaver working.

Thanks for your help.

Wendy,

The .scr file isn't located in the Boinc folder. If you're running a Windows OS, the .scr file is/should be in the Windows/System32 folder.

Whatever secondary screensaver you have depends upon which project(s) you've attached, some have none.

For a start at fixing a balky screensaver, is that is the problem, I'd first make sure that the videocard/display adapter drivers are up-to-date. If you want details for that, please post back.

Regards,

Nichael

---

"The arc of history is long, but it bends toward Justice"

The .scr file isn't located in the Boinc folder. If you're running a Windows OS, the .scr file is/should be in the Windows/System32 folder.

It's called Boinc.scr and on my Windows box it has always lived in the Windows directory (C:\\WINNT).

Make a search for it. It could be a hidden file.

---

I found boinc.scr in my C:\\Windows directory. Just for the heck of it, I moved it to my C:\\Windows\\system32 folder, but it still only shows up for a second or two and then goes away. The search also found a "Prefetch" file that starts with BOINC.SCR-, then seems to have an encrypted code or address after it, ending with a .pf extension.

I think there must be something going on with the company firewall. Since BOINC still runs in the background regardless of the screensaver, I will just use some other screensaver and drop this issue, I guess. If this is my biggest problem with converting to BOINC, I am doing better than a lot of people. It was just sort of cool to have the graphic running on my screen, and sometimes it got other people interested in what it was doing.

Thanks for the help.

---