This is not just a problem with Windows 7 – I know I've been experiencing this same issue all the way back through XP. Basically, you set your screen to turn off after 5 or 10 minutes, you walk away, the screen turns off after 5 or 10 minutes. Then 2 or 3 days later, for some reason, the screen stays on at all times despite this setting.
I went back and checked my power settings and they still say the screen should go off after 5 minutes, but that is not what's happening. After I set it to 5 minutes again (even though that's what it already says), and click OK, then the feature works…well for a few days anyway until we go back to step 1.
Anyone having this issue constantly?
Best Answer
Could be a lot of possible reasons, here are my guesses:
It could depend on your mouse, I've had mice that even while completely still on a table send a very minor cursor movement signal back to the PC. Try unplugging the mouse to see if that's the cause.
There are applications that actively prevent windows from turning the screen off, full screen video is the obvious one, there may be something else you have running, check your background applications.