Do screensavers save your screen anymore?

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Dario D.

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Dec 8, 2004
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Do screensavers save your screen from burn-in anymore? I just saw an article (written in the Windows 98 days) that said screensavers were needed on monochrome monitors back in the day, but only had a marginal influence on "today's" screens. (which are now the screens of 10 years ago)

Link: http://www.dansdata.com/sbs22.htm (go down to #4)
 
lolscreensavers

I just hit my monitors off button.

If I forget, my monitor is set to turn off after an hour.
 
Not on LCD's no.

Well you can still get image persistance I think but that is not permanent.

If you have a plasma or CRT then yes they do help.
 
I just have my monitor auto-shutoff after five minutes of inactivity or shut off the monitor.

Anything else and it's just wasting energy and monitor lifespan for the backlighting.
 
Screensavers were meant for those really old monochrome monitors. (The one that had the green or amber text.) It also helped for the older cga and ega monitors. DUring the age of vga monitors though they were more eyecandy than actual help.
 
im my experience screens savers are imperative, I had two Samsung 940-b LCD's (sold now)
my computer is ALWAYS on and I just used to say phuck it and leave the lcd's on all the time, my desktop icons were burnt into the screen after about 3-4 years of use.
 
Why not just have them shut off after a period of inactivity...? You can just as easily set that in Windows, and it uses no power.
 
Another vote for no screensaver and auto monitor off...

Who sits around the computer and watches the fancy screensavers?
 
criccio said:
Why not just have them shut off after a period of inactivity...? You can just as easily set that in Windows, and it uses no power.
Click to expand...
One possible reason for using a screensaver rather than setting an auto shut off maybe to minimize warm-up time for some LCD monitors. I think I read somewhere that mine takes about 20 minutes to reach optimal color accuracy.

In any case I set my monitor to shut off after 5 minutes of inactivity...
 
criccio said:
Why not just have them shut off after a period of inactivity...? You can just as easily set that in Windows, and it uses no power.
Click to expand...

I use an HDTV for a monitor that does not have a stand by mode that turns off the display like computer monitors do, so if anything, screensavers save me from possible image persistence. I could see how they are useless for the majority of pc users but they still do serve a purpose.

edit - missed necrophile's post
 
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They were cool in college I guess. Living on my own, I'm trying to keep my energy bills down. My displays go blank after five minutes, and turn off after fifteen.
 
necrophile said:
Not on LCD's no.

Well you can still get image persistance I think but that is not permanent.

If you have a plasma or CRT then yes they do help.
Click to expand...

Yes, LCD's can in fact experience a type of "burn in". It takes a long time but it can be done. I used to work at a college and all our Apple monitors had this problem after a very short period of time. It can still happen to "modern" CRT's and just about any LCD. The good thing is that on most displays, regardless of type it now takes a considerably long time for it to become permanent.
 
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I don't use screensavers. I simply set the monitor to turn off after 15 minutes of inactivity.
 
necrophile said:
LCD's do not experience burn in as it is known and it isn't permament.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_persistence

No phospur is used in displaying the LCD image so no burn in AFAIK.
Click to expand...

They do not experience "burn in" the way CRT's do (your are correct as there is no phosphor in an LCD monitor) but the image persistence can become perment. This is even stated in the link you provided.
 
I have seen image persistence in two separate LCDs. Coincidentally, the two monitors in question are both owned by my mother and grandmother. Go figure :\
 
There is a 'potential' downside to using a screensaver on an LCD.
Putting image persistence aside (most screens will never see this happen unless no power saving at all is used), an LCD panel suffers least wear when nothing is changing.
A screen saver by its older definition saves screens from burning in an image at any one spot by moving the image.
On LCDs, this is change which causes transistors to switch, increasing wear.
Some screensavers have a lot of activity / changes occuring, these increase the phenomenon.
So for LCDs, the less the image changes, the better.
However...
I havent seen an increase in sticking pixels on older LCDs or highly used LCDs so while transistors are switched more, it seems the lifetime of the panels is massive compared to the projected life of the monitor.
So I'm not sure this has to be considered, but worth keeping in mind in case panel quality takes a nose dive.

Setting a backlit LCD display to turn off after 5 minutes inactivity is likely to decrease the backlights life more than leaving it on for a longer period, unless the screen is not likely to be used for a long time.
ie if you use the PC say every 15 mins, its better not to give it a 5 minute power down.
This is due to the limited number of power on strikes the backlights can survive.
A balance between the number of power on strikes and how long it is left on will help get the longest life.
If the PC is left alone a lot, I recommend setting a power off time to help prevent image persistence :)
Note that higher operating temperatures increase the chance of seeing image persistence.
 
I have had a few LCD screens have "ghost" images. It was noticeable to me switching from windows to linux, and having the windows start button and task bar superimposed on my linux screen. Same thing for games that have mostly static HUD's (wow for example) can also cause ghosting if played enough.

Granted the LCD's were around 4-5 years old, but it still can happen.
 
no you dont need screen savers on an lcd. they actually use more power to run than if u just use a blank screen or power off your screen.
 
Recommended is to have the monitor turn off automatically after a few hours (3 hours for me). Screensavers help too, but you get the increased power usage from the monitor still being on, of course.

As said, CRTs and LCDs (and plasma displays) suffer from burn-in. CRTs from the phosphor layer, LCDs from the crystals (mechanical system) getting twisted for so long that they won't return to their previous form, retaining their new form indefinitely. This makes turning the monitor off when not in use or using a screensaver a necessity.
 
I wonder, though, if the "crystals getting twisted" is something that can happen in a short amount of time, or if the issue takes years to develop.

---
There aren't any really definitive answers here (certainly some good-sounding ones, but by no means scientific) so I dropped a line with the editors, suggesting they do an article (and/or experiments) on this, since most people out there have no idea what screensavers actually do (or if they're still needed).
 
The pixels do age causing them to fade a little over time. My HDTV has bars on each side of the screen from watching to much 4:3 format TV.
My tv has a feature where it will turn the side bars grey to prevent this but I didn't like the bars being gret so I turned it off. The bars are only noticable when the display is the same across the whole screen and it doesn't bother me, most the time I dont even notice it, but as I look over now while I am thinking about it I can see them.
 
Dario D. said:
I wonder, though, if the "crystals getting twisted" is something that can happen in a short amount of time, or if the issue takes years to develop.

---
There aren't any really definitive answers here (certainly some good-sounding ones, but by no means scientific) so I dropped a line with the editors, suggesting they do an article (and/or experiments) on this, since most people out there have no idea what screensavers actually do (or if they're still needed).
Click to expand...

As Diablo2K says, it can happen gradually when a section of the screen is forced into a certain colour a lot (black is maximum stress on the crystals for TN panels, which are most TVs). People have also reported leaving their monitor on for a few days while displaying the Windows desktop and coming back to nice imprints of icons and the taskbar.

Fact remains that LCDs are mechanical in nature, and mechanical parts eventually wear down due to stressed in the material(s) involved. Applying a lot of stress over an extended period of time is what tends to deform materials permanently, such as when bending (breaking) metal and plastics.
 
no, screensavers don't help in normal usage on an LCD, they just run up the power bill, on a CRT or PDP, its a good call before power cycling, although with an LCD a straight power cycle is just as good of an idea (you could do this with a CRT or PDP as well, but 15-30 minutes of a static image isn't a great idea (when you burn the taskbar in....))

even with the above in mind, I have one enabled to run for about 5 minutes on my LCD, mostly as a reminder "oh hey, guess whats about to turn off"
 
I use the coolest screensaver ever, Desktop Zombies, for 15 minutes before my LCD just goes to black.
 
Elledan said:
As said, CRTs and LCDs (and plasma displays) suffer from burn-in. CRTs from the phosphor layer, LCDs from the crystals (mechanical system) getting twisted for so long that they won't return to their previous form, retaining their new form indefinitely. This makes turning the monitor off when not in use or using a screensaver a necessity.
Click to expand...

Yup

Contrary to popular belief, you can burn in an LCD. It just takes longer. They're a bit more resistant. It's not a phosphor wear issue like plasma/CRT but the effect to your viewing is pretty much the same thing.

I actually noticed our living room daytime LCD is burned in a little - you can see the brightness difference and the line where it displays 4:3. Even from across the room you can see it. It has spent too many hours playing 4:3 Baby Einstein, Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer, Oprah, etc during the day since we bought it like 3 years ago.

The only display I believe that is almost completely burn-in proof is DLP. Even then they can get some sort of micro mirror fatigue that can cause a kind of burn-in effect (even rarer than LCD burn in).
 
i still use a crt so warm-up time is about 45 minutes.... i just use a blank screen saver set to come on after 20 minutes. i turn my monitor off at night during sleep and during the day while im at work. if i leave the house for more than 3-4 hours i usually turn it off also.
 
Wow.... the back-lights have limited amounts of lifespan... so shut it off when not using; unless you own and have in your possession backup bulbs.
 
screen savers that use a lot of black end up using more power.
 
Mine goes off after 5 minutes of no use automatically or I just hit the power button. Less energy usage and wear.
 
Jordan1 said:
Mine goes off after 5 minutes of no use automatically or I just hit the power button. Less energy usage and wear.
Click to expand...

you are probably wearing out your monitor faster if you let it shut off after 5 minutes very often.
 
Druneau said:
Another vote for no screensaver and auto monitor off...

Who sits around the computer and watches the fancy screensavers?
Click to expand...

I remember getting my father a Star Trek TOS one for his 486 back in the day.

And I still have my Ranma 1/2, Bubblegum Crisis 2032, and La Blue Girl ones. :)
 
Zepher said:
you are probably wearing out your monitor faster if you let it shut off after 5 minutes very often.
Click to expand...

If it goes off after my 5 minute set time I'm probably not going to be using it for at least a half hour.
 
Personally I think most wear and tear is caused by heating and cooling down the electronics(on/off), which goes for pretty much anything. I think finding the right balance is key to prolonging its life. For example if you're just going to drop a spike or something and are coming back to it soon (10-15m) you really shouldn't turn it off. Also using a ss is not really a bad idea as long as it's lightweight. I find the windows logo one to be very light and wont heat up your video card and such.
I set my ss to kick in after five minutes and have the monitor go to sleep after 30m and I only have that set in case I pass out or rush out and forget to turn it off manually. I still have a Dell 2405 lcd going strong and it has to have seen a solid five years of daily abuse by now.
 
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