Frozen screen saver

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Level 1

10 points

Frozen screen saver

My screensaver is set for 3 minutes
My display sleep is set for 5 minutes

After two hours I come back to the computer and try to wake up the display. It is around 10:30 and all I can get on the screen is the screensaver clock showing 8:52 The display is no longer asleep, but the screen saver is frozen.

What can be done short of cycling power? This is not a good option since files may get corrupter.

I did cycle power and things look normal again, but I am afraid this may repeat again. It has already happened twice in the last three days.

Here is what the system log files say:

Jan 2 20:52:27 Porro ScreenSaverEngine[21991]: CGSResolveShmemReference : reference offset (33712) exceeds bounds (32768) on shmem obj 0x8ada
Jan 2 20:52:27 Porro ScreenSaverEngine[21991]: Error (1000) creating CGSWindow
Jan 2 20:52:27 Porro ScreenSaverEngine[21991]: * -[NSLock lock]: deadlock (<NSLock: 0x199060> '(null)')
Jan 2 20:52:27 Porro ScreenSaverEngine[21991]: * Break on _NSLockError() to debug.
Jan 2 20:52:27 Porro [0x0-0x136c36b].com.apple.ScreenSaver.Engine[21991]: Fri Jan 2 20:52:27 Porro.local ScreenSaverEngine[21991] <Warning>: CGSResolveShmemReference : reference offset (33712) exceeds bounds (32768) on shmem obj 0x8ada

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Jan 3, 2009 7:49 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 3, 2009 11:41 AM in response to fguzman07

Hello,

Try resetting the System Management Controller:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1543

Also, if you have installed any 3rd party screen savers, (non-Apple), delete them and see if the problem persists.

Carolyn 🙂

Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

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Answer 2

Jan 3, 2009 11:54 AM in response to fguzman07

I had a similar problem with my screensaver, and ended up telling it to always use a very simple picture folder and only display on one monitor. Before I had it randomly select from about a dozen different screensavers and display on both monitors. Since making the change I haven't had a problem. I never figured out what was going wrong, and neither has anyone else that I have seen. Personally, I suspect a problem with older QuartzComposer savers and some recent updates from Apple, but don't know which update would be the cause (I ran a batch of them at the same time). Unlike you, I did not find anything in my log files indicating a problem with anything. The computer simply froze when it attempted to exit the screensaver, either by manual intervention (moving the mouse) or to go from the saver to screen sleep. If you have one particular saver you've been using, try changing it to something else and see if you still have a problem.
Francine

Francine
Schwieder

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Answer 3

Jan 3, 2009 12:03 PM in response to fguzman07

You might try going to the Users/yourusername/Library/Preferences/ByHost folder and moving all Screen Saver .plist files to the desktop, including: screensaver; screensaver.slideshow; and iphotomosaic.

That cleared up some problems I was having with the Screen Saver.

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Answer 4

fguzman07 Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 3, 2009 2:49 PM in response to Francine Schwieder

Francine,
Thanks for you comment/suggestion. I have been running random screen saver, and that may be the reason the problems has occurred only a couple of times. I have now switched to a single screen saver and it works fine, for the time being. I would like to know which screen saver is the culprit, so it can be removed, and keep my preference for a random screensaver.

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