My desktop background slideshow is stuck

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I have “Slideshow” selected and pointed to a folder with about 10 pictures in it. I have not changed anything about the folder’s properties lately, but the slideshow has stopped rotating. I selected and saved another theme and changed back, but it still stays on one picture. If I right click on the desktop and click “Next Desktop Background,” it will change. Any Idea how to get the slideshow going again?

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I’m going to make some assumptions as suggestions. Is this a desktop or laptop? These are all on the Personalize/Desktop Background window. On laptops there is a checkbox to pause the slideshow when on battery power. Have you selected a Change Picture every how many minutes. (This can be set up to 1 day) You would not see a change if the time frame were set too long. Do you have shuffle checkedd? If you look at the pictures are all the pictures you want to rotate through check marked? These are all things that are easy to check. I have seen instances where either things are set back to default by the system or unintentionally by a user.

Have you made any changes to your system recently? Applied any updates? Sometimes updates have unexpected results depending on your system. If so, perhaps a restore to an earlier restore point (before this problem started) would be helpful.

I hope one of these easy to check suggestions will help. Sorry if this seems to simplistic but your post does not indicate your level of PC experience and these suggestions might help a person less inclined to play with there system settings.

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It’s a desktop computer. Right now I have it set to 10 seconds, so I’ll know if it starts working again. Shuffle is checked, but I tried it both ways. 12 of 14 pictures in the folder are selected, which is the way it’s always been. I haven’t moved or renamed anything affecting that picture folder, and I can manually select any picture in it using the desktop’s context menu “Next desktop background” selection. I hoped applying another theme and then going back might help, but no such luck. As with any problem, I tried rebooting first.

The last updates installed were on May 1: KB975496 and KB980408 for Windows 7, and the malicious software tool. Before that was AL1916W for Acer display – now there’s a suspect. But that was on April 18 along with 10 Windows and Office updates, and I don’t think this has been a problem for that long. However I will uninstall the Acer update and see what happens. I can try a restore back to that time. Luckily, I haven’t been tinkering too much since then.

Thanks,
Rusty

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The Acer updates are not listed in Installed Updates (they show up in the history). They do not show up in Add/Remove or Revo either. I’ll get to the other things later.

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Was the Acer update from MS or from Acer? If it came from MS you might go to Control Panel/Programs and Features/View Installed Updates (Just above the Turn Windows features on or off), find the update and select Uninstall the program. I would check here even if it was from Acer. Win 7 does not list installed updates in the right side Apps section.

I have a rule that if something seems to be working fine, (graphics/Monitor) then I do not necessarily need updated drivers for these items. Right noe for example there is an update for my ATI graphics card available. Since my graphics card seems to be working very well, I chose to hide the update rather than installing it. If it aint broke, don’t fix it!

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It was from Acer and is not listed in control panel. I opened the Acer monitor properties in the device manager and clicked Roll Back, but nothing changed with the desktop slideshow.

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It was from Acer and is not listed in control panel. I opened the Acer monitor properties in the device manager and clicked Roll Back, but nothing changed with the desktop slideshow.

I’m out of ideas at this time. Perhaps something will come to me tomorrow. Sorry.

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It was from Acer and is not listed in control panel. I opened the Acer monitor properties in the device manager and clicked Roll Back, but nothing changed with the desktop slideshow.

Have you tried selecting a different screensaver, re-booting the system, reselect the pictures screen saver, reboot again?

Have tried running sfc /scannow?

Joe

--Joe

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I don’t use a screensaver. I did pick a different theme which used a static desktop background. But when I went back to my theme, it still didn’t rotate background pictures.
I am going to change themes again, rebooting each time. I’ll get back here later. Thanks.

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I don’t use a screensaver. I did pick a different theme which used a static desktop background. But when I went back to my theme, it still didn’t rotate background pictures.
I am going to change themes again, rebooting each time. I’ll get back here later. Thanks.

I’m sorry. I was thinking background and typed screensaver (several times).

Joe

--Joe

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Rusty,

It sounds as though all your slide show settings are appropriate. Mine are set similarly to yours with no problems.

I’m now wondering if a Windows repair install would be warranted. This should leave all else alone while fixing any damaged system files. Control Panel/Back Up Restore. Near the bottom of the window is Recover System settings or your computer. If you have not Created a System Repair Disk yet, you should do this first in that same window. You may also use your Win 7 original installation disk for this, but a System Repair disk is still a good idea.

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I feel I have wasted everyone’s time. Sorry about that. I have no idea how it happened since I’m the only user on this machine, and have not even thought about the power settings in months. Here’s the problem and the fix:

Thanks to all of you.

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It is not a waste of time because we all learned something we did not know before this thread started. Thanks for sharing the fix. Have a great rest of the weekend.

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