Screen saver problem - only running for a few seconds

[m1cr0ch1p]

Pretty much what the title says =\
My screen savers (any of them) only run for a couple of seconds before returning me to the desktop or any applications running before I turn it on.

I've set the top right corner of my screen (expose') to be the Hot Corner for turning on the screen saver.
That works normally, but it just keeps on turning off shortly after =[

Testing the screen savers in System Preferences make it work but I really don't want to go all the way in there every time to turn it on...

I don't know what's wrong.
Can you guys help?

##UPDATE## I've found the answer to my problem. It lies in an app called Caffeine. I can either click it so it shows an empty cup or update the app to a more friendly version to my OSX and quit it.
I hope this can help anyone in trouble because this is a really understated issue (at least with Snow Leopard! since it has compatibility problems with the old Caffeine app).

 

[Kuski]

I've been having this same problem with my iMac. The screen saver goes off after a little bit, as well as waking up from having the screen on sleep, and the computer on sleep. It wakes up from everything except for being turned completely turned off.

I don't know how to fix it, but I have the same problem

 

[Kuski]

I made a quick video showing the problem. Sorry for the terrible quality, I did it on my cell phone.

Video

 

[m1cr0ch1p]

I made a quick video showing the problem. Sorry for the terrible quality, I did it on my cell phone.

Video

Wow that's a good and obviously direct way to show your problem =]
AND that's EXACTLY my problem =[[
The screen saver goes right off after 1-5 seconds.
I haven't tried having a Hot Corner for SLEEP yet since I don't really need it but at least from this, it seems like your problem (and may as well be mine) is with the hot corners!

Now we just have to find out how to fix things...

 

[Kuski]

Wow that's a good and obviously direct way to show your problem =]
AND that's EXACTLY my problem =[[
The screen saver goes right off after 1-5 seconds.
I haven't tried having a Hot Corner for SLEEP yet since I don't really need it but at least from this, it seems like your problem (and may as well be mine) is with the hot corners!

Now we just have to find out how to fix things...

Will your computer stay sleeping if you hit the power button? Sometimes mine will stay alseep, other times it wakes up just like it does with the screen saver.

 

[m1cr0ch1p]

Will your computer stay sleeping if you hit the power button? Sometimes mine will stay alseep, other times it wakes up just like it does with the screen saver.

HEY!! I believe I've found the answer!!!
It worked for me!!

What happens to your screen savers/sleep being interrupted is an app called CAFFEINE! Provided that you may have this app, you should either QUIT it or click on the icon and make sure it shows an EMPTY cup of coffee (which means your Mac can now sleep/put up screen saver!).

If you're not able to quit it, go here: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/caffeine.html
Download the new update.
NOTE the left side where it says "What's New in this Version" and guess what? It's OUR PROBLEM!

A fix =]

Hope you can use this for your computer and fix that nasty bug!

 

[TMRaven]

So let me get this straight: you had to download the app to fix the problem, or already had the app installed and just updated it to fix the problem?

I hope it was the app itself and not the system that caused the problem.

 

[Kuski]

HEY!! I believe I've found the answer!!!
It worked for me!!

What happens to your screen savers/sleep being interrupted is an app called CAFFEINE! Provided that you may have this app, you should either QUIT it or click on the icon and make sure it shows an EMPTY cup of coffee (which means your Mac can now sleep/put up screen saver!).

If you're not able to quit it, go here: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/caffeine.html
Download the new update.
NOTE the left side where it says "What's New in this Version" and guess what? It's OUR PROBLEM!

A fix =]

Hope you can use this for your computer and fix that nasty bug!

This didn't work for me, I've never downloaded that program before. I downloaded it just to see what would happen, and it did not help

Still looking for a fix for me.

 

[Kuski]

Has anyone thought up a fix for this yet?

I'm going to call Apple tomorrow, hopefully they will have something for me.

 

[m1cr0ch1p]

wah sorry I didn't get back to you in time!

and to the other commenter, I HAD the app already. It's not the system that had a problem. The app named CAFFEINE is supposed to KEEP your computer in an "awake" state - meaning no sleeping/ no screen saver. I only knew about the no sleeping part so didn't think it would affect screen saver but apparently it did. So all I had to do was deactivate the application.

But if you had a certain version of it, it was hard to deactivate (or something, says the developers?) with Snow Leopard; so then you would have had to update it and then deactivate it... ya i know it's weird =\

and if you didn't have the app to begin with, you don't need to download it. haha~ if you did because you misunderstood me (sorry >.<), just make sure it's off (or the icon for it in the menu bar on top of your screen to the right is an empty mug of coffee [click on it to change]).

To be CLEAR: The app DOESN'T fix your screen saver issue! It only CAUSED mine. And I fixed my problem by deactivating the application.

 

[designeq]

I had a similar problem but I am not running Caffine. I did trace the problem down to a process called OctoShape, which is a plugin that CNN uses to stream live video (like for the BP oil spill). Apparently, it causes an interrupt every few seconds, enough to kill the screensaver.

So it appears that if you are having symptoms like this, you have some process running somewhere that is causing an interrupt. The trick is to figure out which one is doing it.

I was able to get a handle on it by using Little Snitch's network monitor. This may not work for you if your process is non-network related.

 

[Jerry Critter]

I had the same problem and solved it by quitting an app called Movie Effects. Close apps that you see in the bar at the bottom of your screen. Do it one at at time to see which one is causing the problem.

 

[OldCur]

Screensaver Problem

I have always set a hot spot to activate my screensaver whenever I am going take a break from using my iMac (a late 2013 27” with increased CPU and graphics speed running OS 10.10.2). When I did this yesterday, the screensaver stayed on for only a few seconds and then the desktop reappeared. This happened repeatedly even after changing the screensaver and the hot spot location. I have not made any changes to hardware or software recently.

I wondered if the problem might be the result of an error in where the OS thinks the curser is located. I switched off my Magic Mouse for a couple of seconds and then back on. The problem has disappeared. Maybe this is a problem with Bluetooth or mouse software/hardware. Give it a try.