Screen saver not activating

The two programs I most often leave running are Avast On-Access Scanner and eMule P2P client. It’s a problem I’ve had for months after going through several updates for each program: I leave my PC for a few hours and come back to see that my screensaver, set for 5 minutes, never came on. If I modify the time, it somehow kicks it into gear and it start activating as it should, but after a while it will eventually stop working again. Avast and eMule are the only two programs I leave running on a regular basis, so it must be one of them. Does anyone else have this problem?

No… both programs run without problem in a computer of mine.
Did you already tested changing the screen saver (I mean, the one set into the avast! screen saver options).

I use Mystify Screensaver.

It should work without problems.
Maybe you should do a deeper research, maybe other program is due to this problem (like the firewall, startup monitor, other residents…, who knows?).
What I can say is that neither avast! nor eMule should avoid the screen saver to load…

I have the same problem.As I do not use e-Mule, it does not seem to be the cause. The screen saver seems to start as i see the screen flicker when it starts but it stops right away. I have this problem since recently but I can’t determine if it happens after an auto-update of avast or after I installed two programs namely Mayhcad and PowerDVD. I also installed a new DVD burner. The problem is specific to the avast screen saver as all other screen savers i tried work well.

Did you try to repair avast! installation? (Control Panel)
Are the other applications running while you get the problem? I mean, closing the new installed programs, will avast! screen saver work?

I deactivated 3 resident programs (PowerDVD remote control and 2 Adobe Acrobat programs that were in the startup menu) and it now seems to work well.

Maybe some of them are preventing avast! screen saver to lauch.
In fact, a DVD burner could be a huge resource application… 8)