Screen saver can't be disabled

[brianus]

I have a weird problem with my screen saver. I had to shut down my Mac mini manually via the power button a few days ago, and ever since then, the system refuses to obey the "Start screen saver:" time delay preference in System Preferences. I'd always had it set to "Never", but now it always starts after the standard time interval. I've since discovered that even if I set it to 3 minutes, it still waits a half hour or so to start.

I've checked for corrupt preferences in my home and main Library directories files using plutil, but they're all good; I booted with the restore disc to repair any startup disk HDD errors in Disk Utility (all good); I've even trashed and re-set my screen saver .plist file (~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.screensaver.SOMEHASH.plist) a few times. From the looks of things, the Screen Saver preferences pane *is* recording the correct idle time and screen saver in the .plist file, it's just not honoring the idle time. It does, however, allow me to change the screen saver itself.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I have a weird problem with my screen saver. I had to shut down my Mac mini manually via the power button a few days ago, and ever since then, the system refuses to obey the "Start screen saver:" time delay preference in System Preferences. I'd always had it set to "Never", but now it always starts after the standard time interval. I've since discovered that even if I set it to 3 minutes, it still waits a half hour or so to start.

I've checked for corrupt preferences in my home and main Library directories files using plutil, but they're all good; I booted with the restore disc to repair any startup disk HDD errors in Disk Utility (all good); I've even trashed and re-set my screen saver .plist file (~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.screensaver.SOMEHASH.plist) a few times. From the looks of things, the Screen Saver preferences pane *is* recording the correct idle time and screen saver in the .plist file, it's just not honoring the idle time. It does, however, allow me to change the screen saver itself.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Could be a corrupt ~/Library/Preferences/.global.plist, perhaps. That file (which is hidden for some strange reason) stores a whole bunch of settings that you wouldn't otherwise find, like mouse acceleration. I bet some of the stuff in there also acts as a sort of controller for the settings in other plist files.

If that doesn't reveal anything funky, I'm not quite sure what's going on. I'd have to do some more testing first.

 

[brianus]

Could be a corrupt ~/Library/Preferences/.global.plist, perhaps. That file (which is hidden for some strange reason) stores a whole bunch of settings that you wouldn't otherwise find, like mouse acceleration. I bet some of the stuff in there also acts as a sort of controller for the settings in other plist files.

I couldn't find a .global.plist file. Are you referring to .GlobalPreferences.plist? I found three of those, one in Preferences and two in ByHost (one with a hash appended to the name; the other, my local computer name) but none had anything apparently screen saver related.

I'd have to do some more testing first.

And that's the trouble with a problem like this; to test even one tip, you have to leave the computer untouched for at least a half an hour... argh

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I couldn't find a .global.plist file. Are you referring to .GlobalPreferences.plist? I found three of those, one in Preferences and two in ByHost (one with a hash appended to the name; the other, my local computer name) but none had anything apparently screen saver related.



And that's the trouble with a problem like this; to test even one tip, you have to leave the computer untouched for at least a half an hour... argh

Yes, I did.. I wasn't at my Mac when I posted that, so I just took a guess at the name of the plist file.

 

[krestfallen]

i have the SAME problem! it's my powerbook and i have had to hold down the powerbutton for a while to shut it down. since then i ever have to do this (even apple-shutdown doesn't work).

now i also noticed that my system preferences are partially broken like "brianus" said before but not only with the screensaver one (dashboard & exposé, too).

i also noticed various problems (some crashes here and there, quicktime doesn't really work like it should)...

totally strange. i installed ubuntu beside my osx but i don't think that this could be a problem since osx has it's own hfs+ partition.

my warrenty is no more so i hope that anybody can help brianus and me...


btw: i repaired permissions, checked the partition, ran various maintenance scripts... nothing worked.

 

[krestfallen]

i don't find any *global* or *preferences* files in either the /library/preferences nor in /users/XXXXXX/library/preferences...

 

[brianus]

i have the SAME problem! it's my powerbook and i have had to hold down the powerbutton for a while to shut it down. since then i ever have to do this (even apple-shutdown doesn't work).

now i also noticed that my system preferences are partially broken like "brianus" said before but not only with the screensaver one (dashboard & exposé, too).

i also noticed various problems (some crashes here and there, quicktime doesn't really work like it should)...

totally strange. i installed ubuntu beside my osx but i don't think that this could be a problem since osx has it's own hfs+ partition.

my warrenty is no more so i hope that anybody can help brianus and me...

btw: i repaired permissions, checked the partition, ran various maintenance scripts... nothing worked.

Did you verify the volume in DiskUtility? It sounds like your problems are a little more serious than mine, and may require an OS reinstall or update. Yes, I said update -- my problem was solved magically when I installed the last OS X security update. I've found this happens from time to time on Macs; if a problem is caused by seemingly unsolvable and undetectable errors or corruption in system files, sometimes an OS update will overwrite those errors.