"flashing" screensaver!?

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Level 1

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"flashing" screensaver!?

Hi all,

Been having some issues with my iMac where when the screensaver launches, it instantly goes back to the desktop and then launches again, making it look almost as if it's flashing on and off. I used to get this with my old iMac as well. Has anyone else had this problem and is there a fix for it? It happens on whatever screensaver I choose - I've only used apple ones as they are the only ones installed on my system.

Message was edited by: M3G4UK

Alu Intel iMac 2.4GHz 20", Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Apr 8, 2009 9:01 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 8, 2009 1:47 PM in response to M3G4

You might try resetting the Screen Saver preferences.

Go to the Macintosh HD/Users/yourusername/Library/Preferences/ByHost folder and remove the two screensaver files, named something like:

com.apple.screensaver.308C9E8F-8488-5C52-AAD8-6A251C00F984.plist
and
com.apple.screensaver.slideshow.308C9E8F-8488-5C52-AAD8-6A251C00F984.plist

the bunch of hexadecimal numbers before the .plist extension will be different on your system.

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Answer 2

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,031 points

Apr 8, 2009 2:07 PM in response to M3G4

I haven't seen a problem like this in a long time, but once upon a time I had an optical mouse (back when that was something cool and new), and sometimes it would make the mouse "bounce" back and forth slightly when the mouse was sitting still, and this would keep the screen saver from ever coming on. The behavior depended on the surface it was on, but I don't remember exactly what surface gave it the problem. Try different surfaces under your mouse.

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Answer 3

M3G4 Author

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Apr 19, 2009 3:19 PM in response to M3G4

Just an update - I've got a video clip of the problem on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vum4xMTJc

It's happening on the macbook (10.4.9) and my iMac (10.5.6)

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Answer 4

Apr 20, 2009 8:29 AM in response to M3G4

Did you try moving those files I previously mentioned to the desktop and restarting?

Your video is amazing! It’s almost like a strobe. Very strange.

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Answer 5

M3G4 Author

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Apr 20, 2009 11:39 AM in response to Bruce Etnyre

I can try - but there's no way of telling wether it's worked or not - it happens completely at random!

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Answer 6

Apr 20, 2009 12:50 PM in response to M3G4

There’s one way of telling - try it. It can’t make it worse.

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Answer 7

M3G4 Author

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May 9, 2009 5:20 PM in response to Bruce Etnyre

Just done that. Thanks for the help - I have no clue wether it will work or not though, as the problem hasn't yet presented itself again!

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Answer 8

May 11, 2009 9:32 AM in response to M3G4

If it hasn’t presented itself again, then apparently it helped. I’ve never seen that before. It’s pretty weird, but if one of those .plist files was corrupted, it could have gotten into that loop.

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Answer 9

duck501

Level 1

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May 14, 2009 9:25 AM in response to M3G4

The same thing happens to me.

It is frustrating because it doesn't happen all the time- randomly I'll walk by my desk and the screen will be flashing on and off just like the video you posted demonstrates. When I hit the keyboard or mouse to "wake" my computer, the iStat graphical activity monitor shows the CPU was running at or near 100% while the screen was flashing (unfortunately, I cannot identify the process name because after the computer "wakes" the processes return to normal usage). I've tried different screen savers & repaired permissions. Nothing seems to resolve this problem.

I will now try to move the two files as mentioned above. M3G4UK, please let me know if you experience this flashing again, or find a way to resolve the problem.

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