Screenlock causes black screen

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rich Raffenetti
  • Start date Start date
R

Rich Raffenetti

I have the problem both on my HP home computer and my office Dell computer.
Both are Vista 32-bit. Both are up-to-date with patches. It happens two
ways which are a little different. I prefer to use the screen lock instead
of logging out and logging back in. This holds for cases when I expect to
be away from the computer for hours or minutes.

Typically I use CTRL-ALT-DEL and expect a list to come up from which I would
choose to lock the screen. However, the screen goes black. Sometimes if I
move the cursor (which is visible) over a button or other sensitive area of
the display, the button will appear and may be used. Sometimes nothing
appears.

I tried instead going to the start...lock menu item and the behavior is the
same.

Normally waiting will cause the screen to become normal again. That is, I
go away from the computer and come back later and find that everything is
normal. I believe that some process is "spinning its wheels" and not
finishing what was started. I have no measurement of the time it takes to
get back to normal. It seems to take only minutes.

If I restart the machine or merely log out and back on, the behavior
disappears for awhile until it comes back. I have been able to clear some
other slowness issues by merely logging out and on. The implication of that
is that the slowness problem is due to something in my own session and not a
system process. Perhaps it is the same problem causing the screen lock
issue.

I have seen some postings via Google on similar issues but no conclusive
solution. Anyone seen a solution for this?
 
Rich Raffenetti said:
I have the problem both on my HP home computer and my office Dell
computer. Both are Vista 32-bit. Both are up-to-date with patches. It
happens two ways which are a little different. I prefer to use the screen
lock instead of logging out and logging back in. This holds for cases
when I expect to be away from the computer for hours or minutes.

Typically I use CTRL-ALT-DEL and expect a list to come up from which I
would choose to lock the screen. However, the screen goes black.
Sometimes if I move the cursor (which is visible) over a button or other
sensitive area of the display, the button will appear and may be used.
Sometimes nothing appears.

I tried instead going to the start...lock menu item and the behavior is
the same.

Normally waiting will cause the screen to become normal again. That is, I
go away from the computer and come back later and find that everything is
normal. I believe that some process is "spinning its wheels" and not
finishing what was started. I have no measurement of the time it takes to
get back to normal. It seems to take only minutes.

If I restart the machine or merely log out and back on, the behavior
disappears for awhile until it comes back. I have been able to clear some
other slowness issues by merely logging out and on. The implication of
that is that the slowness problem is due to something in my own session
and not a system process. Perhaps it is the same problem causing the
screen lock issue.

I have seen some postings via Google on similar issues but no conclusive
solution. Anyone seen a solution for this?
Click to expand...

Does the same thing happen if you press the Windows key and tap the L key?
This is also supposed to lock the screen. Works well on all my computers,
either XP or Vista. The screen does go black for a few seconds but then
shows as locked.
 
Hi, Koala.

In spite of the pretty face that some forums put on it, this is actually a
Usenet newsgroup. Your "forum" simply relayed your post, via the "vBulletin
USENET gateway", to the Microsoft public news server, where it went into the
microsoft.public.windows.vista.general newsgroup for all the world to see,
not just those in your exclusive(?) password-protected forum.

In this particular case, we newsgroup readers DID see Rich's original post,
since it was posted to the MS server, not to your forum. But in far too
many cases, we see only the Reply forwarded from the "forum" without seeing
the OP or the rest of the thread. We very much appreciate the copying of
the relevant parts of the thread so that we are not getting into the middle
of the story.

If you'd like to see what I mean, just click here:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.vista.general

Unless blocked by something like a corporate firewall, that one click will
start your default newsreader (OE or WM or WLM - or other); create a News
Account for you on the Microsoft public news server, which is free and does
not require you to log on; connect you to THIS Vista newsgroup; download the
300 latest posts here; and display the newest message for you to read in the
Reading Pane. You should see your own post, as well as Rich's OP and the
replies by LVTravel and me.

After a little familiarization with the UI, you can click View or Tools |
Options and customize the newsreader in many ways to fit the way YOU use it.

Try it. I think you'll like it better than the "forum" interface. If not,
you can keep using what you are familiar with.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100
 
R. C. White said:
Hi, Koala.

In spite of the pretty face that some forums put on it, this is actually
a Usenet newsgroup. Your "forum" simply relayed your post, via the
"vBulletin USENET gateway", to the Microsoft public news server, where
it went into the microsoft.public.windows.vista.general newsgroup for
all the world to see, not just those in your exclusive(?)
password-protected forum.

In this particular case, we newsgroup readers DID see Rich's original
post, since it was posted to the MS server, not to your forum. But in
far too many cases, we see only the Reply forwarded from the "forum"
without seeing the OP or the rest of the thread. We very much
appreciate the copying of the relevant parts of the thread so that we
are not getting into the middle of the story.

If you'd like to see what I mean, just click here:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.vista.general

Unless blocked by something like a corporate firewall, that one click
will start your default newsreader (OE or WM or WLM - or other); create
a News Account for you on the Microsoft public news server, which is
free and does not require you to log on; connect you to THIS Vista
newsgroup; download the 300 latest posts here; and display the newest
message for you to read in the Reading Pane. You should see your own
post, as well as Rich's OP and the replies by LVTravel and me.

After a little familiarization with the UI, you can click View or Tools
| Options and customize the newsreader in many ways to fit the way YOU
use it.

Try it. I think you'll like it better than the "forum" interface. If
not, you can keep using what you are familiar with.

RC
Click to expand...

Of course, you're top posting with a sig so a newsreader like T-Bird
will nuke everything under your sig's delimiter. That would not happen
if you would properly bottom post.

Alias
 
Of course, you're top posting with a sig so a newsreader like T-Bird
will nuke everything under your sig's delimiter. That would not happen
if you would properly bottom post.

Alias
Click to expand...

OTOH, lots of people bottom post under the sig delimiter. And lots of
others bottom post with ">" or other quoting characters in column 1.

I imagine that there are other ways to screw up posts as well, but I...
don't... want... to... think... about... them... (poster screams, pulling
hair).

Ya just can't win :-)
 
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