Windows 8.1 not activating screen saver, turning off monitor, or sleep mode

Question

Any ideas on what would cause this? No applications that I actively run should be preventing this from happening: OneDrive, Steam, WhatPulse, puush, and f.lux. I have power options set to activate screen saver, turn off the monitor, and eventually sleep when idle. None of these trigger.

Answer 1

Make sure that there is a .scr file titled with your screensaver's name present in System32 folder (C:\WINDOWS\System32).

Answer 2

How to fix the Sleep Mode not working problem

If Windows 8.1 refuses to sleep or won’t go in sleep mode, then this post will show you how to fix the Sleep Mode not working problem

Recently, we have seen how to enable or disable password requirement at wake up. After upgrading one of my system running Windows 8 to Windows 8.1, I have found that the sleep functionality was no longer working on that system.

In order to fix this issue, we need to correctly configure Windows Power Plan settings. Here is the way to fix this problem.

Windows 8.1 Sleep Mode not working

1. Press Windows Key + W and type troubleshooting in the search box. Click on the Troubleshooting from the search results so obtained.

2. In the following window, from the left hand side listed options, click on View all.

3. Moving on, pick Power from the list so available, this would launch the Power Troubleshooter.

4. In the Power Troubleshooter, you have to click Next option. This will start the automatic detection and fixing of issues.

5. When the troubleshooting has been completed, you can click Close.

Now you can reboot the machine, after restart, you’ll find that the issue is already fixed.

Source Sleep Mode not working in Windows 8.1

The above link also includes screenshots for the instructions as well as some other links that also may help.