User gets locked out of machine when screensaver kicks in

[GVN]

I have a user that gets locked out of machine when screensaver kicks in. It takes an administrator account to log her off, then she is able to log back in again and work. However, if her computer is idle past the 15 minute duration the screensaver kicks back in and the whole process starts again of having to log her off with an admin account. She doesn't have the ability to disable the screensaver, as all those settings are controlled by our Active Directory Group Policies. Why would this occur on just one machine and not any of the others under these policies?

GVN

 

[alidabiri]

have you checked "password on resume" box on screen saver?

 

[austd]

Check power options in Control Panel. Is the system going into Standby or Hibernation mode?

 

[linney]

WinXp automatically locking the screen after some idle time
thread779-773347

"ScreenSaveActive" appears in these locations when the Group Policy is not configured. The last two keys may vary depending on users etc.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop

HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-18\Control Panel\Desktop

HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-507921405-839522115-725345543-1008\Control Panel\Desktop




If you enable it in Group Policy "ScreenSaveActive" appears in these keys. Again the last 3 keys may be slightly different depending on users.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop

HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-18\Control Panel\Desktop

HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-507921405-839522115-725345543-1008\Control Panel\Desktop

HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-507921405-839522115-725345543-1008\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop

In all cases the valuedata is 1 for active or 0 for disabled (Reg_SZ)

 

[needcoffee]

There are 2 screensaver behaviors in XP, Win2k, NT, ME, 98 & 95. Upon activity from the keyboard or mouse the desktop will resume as it was left or will show as Computer Locked. If the user is able to log into this machine she should be able to resume her session in either case.

If the desktop does not resume or the Computer Locked box does not show then check the power settings per austd's suggestion.

needcoffee