Looking for a Nice 2-D Screen Saver

TMTGTR

TMTGTR

Hi,
I'm looking for a 2-D screensaver for my home theater PC. 3-D doesn't seem to play nice with my vid card since I get occasional BSOD in the middle of my movies. :mad:

I wonder what anyone has used. I presume something which uses the same amount of resources as the default XP 2-D screensaver.
 
To tell you the truth, I don't trust any of the screen savers online and only use 2d Flower Box with my own variations to it - please let me know if you don't already have it. :)
 
Borg said:
The best ever screen saver is blank screen. I never understood the need for those fancy screen savers at all.. Because they are CPU/GFX burners ;)
If its BSOD, check if its not overheating?
Click to expand...

Thank You. I never have the problem with the 2-d I'm using (The one bundled with CleanMEM) and having the screen saver let's me know if the TV is not in standby yet)

ClippyBeer said:
Beziers or Mystify are 2D - I use Mystify on my Home Theater PC running Kodi with no conflicts.
Click to expand...

Kodi looks interesting, does it run on XP SP4?
I thnk I'm going to take your tip on mystify and beziers. I'll also see what's in my WinME 'puter, maybe I can emigrate something there too.

Borg said:
The best ever screen saver is blank screen. I never understood the need for those fancy screen savers at all.. Because they are CPU/GFX burners ;)
If its BSOD, check if its not overheating?
Click to expand...

Thank You. I never have the problem with the 2-d I'm using

xperceniol said:
To tell you the truth, I don't trust any of the screen savers online and only use 2d Flower Box with my own variations to it - please let me know if you don't already have it. :)
Click to expand...

I do have it. Thanks! And agreed, the online stuff is not for me either.
 
Borg said:
The best ever screen saver is blank screen. I never understood the need for those fancy screen savers at all.. Because they are CPU/GFX burners ;)
Click to expand...

Agreed, same here. I only use a blank screen.
But I also have CPU monitoring "graphs" that run in the background.
Even a blank screen bumps my CPU to 5% when "idle" is 3% or under.
Never been able to figure that one out.
 
TMTGTR said:
Kodi looks interesting, does it run on XP SP4?
I thnk I'm going to take your tip on mystify and beziers. I'll also see what's in my WinME 'puter, maybe I can emigrate something there too.
Click to expand...
Kodi is a must for any HTPC. I've been using it for 4 years, love the plugins. I currently run it on a mini PC with Windows 10. Unfortunately the latest version that will run on XP is 12.3 which is no longer available on Kodi's download repo. I found it on various third party download sites. Additionally, as is the case with any software, there is no official support provided for legacy versions but their forums are active and you can usually get support from other Kodi users.

Mystify/Beziers are included with XP.
 
Borg said:
The best ever screen saver is blank screen. I never understood the need for those fancy screen savers at all.. Because they are CPU/GFX burners ;)

If its BSOD, check if its not overheating?
Click to expand...
I decided to take your advice and go with black for the first time ever and I still see the cpu running, is this normal?
 
ArcticFoxie said:
Agreed, same here. I only use a blank screen.
But I also have CPU monitoring "graphs" that run in the background.
Even a blank screen bumps my CPU to 5% when "idle" is 3% or under.
Never been able to figure that one out.
Click to expand...
Depends what background processes are running - task scheduler has a lot of processes that run when the PC is idle. I see my CPU throttle between 1% and 15% while idle, and this is with no Anti-Virus installed. Other apps like Macrium which I have installed have their own background processes/services that run in the background.

I find Sysinternals Process Explorer to be invaluable when hunting CPU hogs.

Proc-Exp-XP.png


Unfortunately the latest version won't run in XP. Archive.org to the rescue once again with the Sysinternals suite for XP.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140907034802/http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062
 
Task Scheduler is DISABLED on all of my systems.
This is my computer being woken up from NO SCREEN SAVER, just a BLACK SCREEN.
No background processes that I am aware of.
Will give Sysinternals Suite a try (I've used it in the past but not recently).
idle.png
 
Thank you, I do need to reduce background processes on my system, not so much this computer (Dell Optiplex 745) but on my (Dell Dimension 3000) which I only have 1.5 GB of RAM.
 
xperceniol said:
I decided to take your advice and go with black for the first time ever and I still see the cpu running, is this normal?
Click to expand...
It is NOT normal, check Sysinternals Process Explorer.
Its good tool to check with process eats your CPU, now how it eats it.
I use default Win2003 screensaver here and I see no issues at all. CPU is 0%
Today out of curiosity I will check how CPU usage looks when screen saver kicks in :)
 
Borg said:
Just checked and absolutly nothing happens, CPU is at 0% when screen saver kicks in.
Even Context Switches still stay low.
Click to expand...
Cool. I haven't done the Sysinternals thing yet. ALL of my XP installs have a higher CPU% during "blank screen".
But I guess technically, all of my XP installs are basically all set up very similarly.
Should be able to get to the Sysinternals thing over the weekend.
 
Does WinXP have Windows XP screen saver? The one with logo displayed on black screen? I dont remember this. Also, I use Win2003 exclusivly. So I checked this type of screen saver.
 
Finally tracked down why my CPU% increases when my monitors turn off.
I don't actually use the "screen saver" settings, but rather the POWER SCHEME SETTINGS to turn the monitors off at a preset time.
When I use the screen saver, a "black" screen isn't really "black", the "lights" are still on!
Whereas using the POWER SCHEME instead, the monitor is truly OFF, no "lights" are on at all.

Unsure why CPU% increases when the POWER SCHEME turns off the monitors.
 
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