Synergy Windows 7 Screen Saver issue

Question

I have synergy server running on a Windows 7 laptop, I have another laptop running windows XP as the Client. When synergy is first started the Screen Saver will start after the 5 mins of inactivity no problem but after mouse/keyboard input then waiting another 5 minutes + the screen saver will not come back on. The mouse is on the server NOT the client. I have tried unchecking "sync screen savers" I have tried right clicking and running the synergy server as administrator. I have tried versions 1.3.4, 1.3.6, 1.4.2 both 32 bit and 64 bit. I have tried running in XP compatibility mode. I have tried disconnecting the client.

It feels like I've tried everything. The setup is as follows: The server is below the Client, the client is above the server. The server has a secondary monitor attached to it and yes I've tried running without the secondary monitor.

the sever is an acer 5552G-5828.

Any help would be awesome! I love synergy but without the screensavers it is annoying.

Thanks!

Answer 1

This is an issue reported around 2010. In the old issue tracker it was http://synergy-foss.org/tracker/issues/407.

Answer 2

A workaround posted in the bug report that Greg Miller mentioned, is to have the Windows Power Management ignore Synergy's requests.

On the server (keyboard/mouse attached):

• powercfg -requestsoverride PROCESS synergys.exe Display System

On the client (uses remote keyboard/mouse):

• powercfg -requestsoverride PROCESS synergyc.exe Display System

If you alternate any single computer (for example, a laptop) between server and client, simply run both commands on it.

Answer 3

A workaround I use is simply locking the screen (Win+L) when I leave my computer. My power settings then work as expected.

Answer 4

I have the same problem. You can try going into Network and Sharing, navigate to your LAN Card or Wireless card, right click, select Properties.

Click on the Power Management tab, and deselect the setting allowing the device to be awoken on LAN.

Answer 5

This is definitely a bug in the Synergy server. I also tried v1.3.7 and v1.4.4 beta in 32 and 64 bit variations on my Windows 7 Home Premium system and have the same problem -- the screen saver kicks in one time after a reboot but will not fire up again unless I kill the synergy process and restart it. Then I get one more timeout to screen saver and it won't work again until I kill Synergy and restart it. For some reason, exiting out of the screen saver with Synergy running disables the screen saver (and power management features as well -- my monitor will not turn off after the specified time once it does it once).

I have used Synergy for years on Windows XP and Windows Vista and never had this problem until I recently upgraded to a Windows 7 system. Any chance of getting a fix for this?

Answer 6

I think this might be related to another problem, whereby a PC running Synergy does not go into standby/hibernate.

Try setting a power-off timeout for the client monitor instead. In my Synergy environment the client screensaver won't activate while the server is in use, but after 10 minutes the screen will go into powersave mode regardless.