After installing a new Microsoft USB wireless keyboard and mouse the screensaver no longer works. All the settings seem correct, but the screensaver never activates. Also, could you also advise which power setting, in the screensaver properties, is the best to use?

There are numerous reported causes of this problem and we will work through each to check whether they are causing your instance of the problem. First, you should try downloading and installing the latest drivers for the keyboard and mouse. While this may seem like a generic suggestion, in many cases this can resolve the issue. Visit www.microsoft.com/downloads and you should be able to search for the model of your keyboard and mouse and download the relevant drivers.

Should installing the latest drivers not fix the problem, the next most common cause of the problem is the keyboard and/or mouse conflicting with some other software on the computer. As an example, many users have reported the devices can conflict with DVD software on the computer. Such software runs background processes on the computer (which are always running) and this could conflict with the devices. I don’t know why the keyboard and mouse would conflict with such software, but other users have reported that closing the background processes, or uninstalling the software, can fix the problem.

So, we first need to check whether any such background processes are conflicting with the devices. As a starting point, we will close all the background non-essential processes to see whether the problem stops. Should the problem stop, we at least know that one of those processes is causing the problem and we can proceed to find out which particular process is the culprit. Before embarking on this procedure, make sure your computer is disconnected from the internet and any networks, as the procedure may close security software running on the computer, making the computer vulnerable to attack. To close the background non-essential processes, press CTRL-ALT-DEL and the Windows Task Manager should appear. Click the ‘Processes’ tab. Check whether the User Name column is displayed. If not, go to the ‘View’ menu > ‘Select Columns’ and tick ‘User Name’ then click OK. Click the ‘User Name’ column to sort the processes by the user name. Close all the non-essential processes running under your user name (do not close any processes running under other user names, such as LOCAL SERVICE, NETWORK SERVICE, SYSTEM, as these are all essential Windows services). You should be able to close all processes except ‘taskmgr.exe’ (Task Manager, which you are using to close the processes) and ‘explorer.exe’ (the Windows graphical user interface, which you don’t want to close). Once all the processes have been closed, check whether the problem persists. Most likely, the problem will be resolved but we still need to determine which particular process caused the problem.

Restart the computer to re-load all the processes. Once the computer has finished booting, press CTRL-ALT-DEL and using the Task Manager, close one (non-essential) process running under your user name and check whether the problem persists. If the problem continues, repeat this selective closing procedure until the problem stops, at which time the most recently closed process is the one causing the problem. It is probably worthwhile writing down each process you close, so you know which one is the most recently closed process when the problem stops. You may also like to set the screen saver delay to something small (e.g. 1 min) so you don’t have to wait a long time for the screen saver to attempt to activate, to check whether the problem has been fixed.

Once the problem process has been identified, you need to find which program is responsible for this process. If the so-called ‘parent’ program is not obvious from the process name, probably the best method is to search for the process at: www.processlibrary.com. Should the process not be found at ProcessLibrary.com, you could also try searching at: www.google.com. Once you know the parent program, there are a few options available. First, if you don’t use that particular program you could uninstall the program, which should also remove the process causing the conflict. Second, if you want to keep the program installed you could check whether any updates are available, which may fix the problem. Finally, should no updates be available, you could disable the process from loading on startup. To do this, go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Run’ and type ‘msconfig’ (without the quotes) and click OK. In the window that appears, click the ‘Startup’ tab. Find the entry for the process and disable (untick) the process from loading on startup. Click OK and restart the computer (you may receive a message saying the computer is running in Selective Startup mode - this is fine, just click OK). The process should no longer load on startup, and the screen saver should work. Be aware, if you open the parent program it is likely the process will be started for the rest of that computer session, and the screen saver will not work. However, if you do not frequently use the software this should not cause too much grief.

Regarding the power saving settings, the default settings for the Home/Office Desk is normally sufficient. These settings are turn off monitor after 20 minutes, and never turn off hard disks. I would recommend you stay with these default settings.