Getting a controller to interrupt a screensaver

[Evelyn]

Hey guys, I've got a xbox 360 wired controller with XBCD Drivers updated completely on my XP-based PC. Now as I play FFXI, if I don't type or use my mouse, but am using the controller, my screen saver will still pop up. Kinda annoying if I'm in the middle of a fight. So is there any way to get the comp to recognize controller inputs as being active? I know I can increase the idle time to activate the screensaver, but I'd like a real solution, not a work-around.

[darkhero168]

disable your screen saver.

[Evelyn]

disable your screen saver.

Thank you. Now can someone with the intelligence of a peanut respond with a reasonable solution?

[Kaisha]

Only thing I can really think of as a work-around is using a joy2key program (like xPadder) and just assign one of your oft-used buttons to something useless on the keyboard (like scroll lock) so it'll reset the counter on the screensaver while not interrupting anything in the game while not messing with your actual controller input for the game.

[Norellicus]

No, really; disable your screensaver. Be in the habit of turning your monitor off when you leave your PC, rather than relying on the screensaver; it'll save you power costs and solve this problem all in one.

[The Stig]

I hate to be kinda unhelpful as well but I really have to agree, screensavers are utterly pointless. Who are you showing them to anyway? I can understand if you're at work but otherwise it's one of them placebo things to have on your PC. You're not really looking at it for yourself.



.... otherwise, if you insist, I don't remember the exact name of the application but we used it at work to stop one of these display screens from going to screen saver mode. The application shakes the mouse around every now and then and makes it appear to your system that you have moved your mouse.

Like you, they ignored/rejected my suggestion of turning off the screensaver. They gave me no reason . . .

[Evelyn]

the entire point of not disabling my screensaver is because I run BOINC when I'm idle, and if I disable the screensaver I mess BOINC up. Also, I've set BOINC to only compute when I'm idle. So I'd rather just make it know I'm not idle if I'm using the controller. The monitor is set to sleep at the same time the screensaver is supposed to appear, so its not like I want to watch the screensaver or something.

I'll take a look at xPadder though.