hurricane51

OK, I think I've found the culprit. Kaspersky Internet Security (2010) was identifying Macro Express as a suspicious key-logger. It didn't prevent it from working but apparently it prevented the screensaver from running, which put a twist into troubleshooting it. I'll be checking to see how effective my fix was over the next couple of days, but in testing the screensaver seems ok.

From my initial inquiry... "The only macros in my mex file are keystrokes assigned to hot keys, but even if I disable the macros it won't help." So I don't have any scheduled macros and even if I disable all the macros the screensaver still refuses to run. The only thing that enables my screensavers to kick in is when I suspend or terminate Macro Express. I've since upgraded to the latest version but things remain the same.

I've searched though the threads about Macro Express and screensavers, and it seems the most common problem is screensavers preventing macros from executing. I have the opposite problem: if Macro Express is running my screensavers won't activate. Windows 7, Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3 motherboard, Intel i5-750 CPU. I have no problem on my older system, also running Windows 7. Macro Express version is 3.7.4.1 The only macros in my mex file are keystrokes assigned to hot keys, but even if I disable the macros it won't help. As soon as I terminate Macro Express everything works normally.

Hi John, I haven't responded because I think this is all moot now. I have had a continuing problem with Sirius' service, to the point where they can fix it and so I cancelled the service. Up 'til then I really never solved the macro activation, although I think it was centered around the Scope, as you pointed out. Regardless, thanks for your help. I'll probably use this in future macros.

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't aware of the bypass when running the macro manually. I have other macros that load with this file, but they are all manually activated. I assume that means they are not running? The Scope seems to be right. You're right about the program. What happens is I'm running Sirius, which starts a player inside an Internet Explorer window. Macros Express identifies this as a valid program, so that's set as the program the macro runs within. The name does not change, But I'll shorten it to SIRIUS and see if that has an effect. I do have "Play macro indefinitely" checked, and it has always been checked. The pop-up applies only to the player. As a comment, this is a stupid policy of Sirius to check every 90 minutes so its users "don't clog the Internet" (believe it or not, that's what one service tech said). The pop-up always comes to the front of other windows, but in any case I have arranged most of the other program windows so that they don't obscure the part of the window I am recording (the artist/title section). Oh, one more thing. Did you ever establish at what point the macro begins its countdown the 90-second point? Your comments seem to cast doubt over the use of running the macro manually. Would enabling the macro from a disabled state be the triggering action necessary? Thanks again. David

No, you misunderstood. I would be HAPPY if I got 6 in a row. The macro NEVER RUNS ON A SCHEDULE. So I don't think it has anything to do with drift. I just need a way to ensure that it starts 90 minutes from when I run it manually, or enable it, or both. It's not running on the schedule. It runs fine when I run it manually. It doesn't have any dependencies, it's simply designed to click the mouse button in a specified area every 90 minutes or so. The popup never moves and it is quite large in area. The popup always comes to the top of all the other windows. The mouse pointer could be off by 100 pixels in any direction and it would still work. I've sat and watched it and it simply doesn't activate. It ALWAYS works when I run it manually.

My problem is really much simpler than that. I have a simple macro that clicks in a very large "live" area that pops up every 90 minutes. That's all it does. I could be off by 100 pixels in any direction and would still be withing bounds of the active area. I would be happy if it worked as few as 6 times in a row. I have a time window of 5 minutes. The message pops up and waits for the single mouse click. It nevers comes. If I use "Run Macro Now", it macro runs and closes the pop up just like it's supposed to. But it never works on the schedule. I really don't have any way to test if this macro is not obeying the schedule or there is some other issue. I originally thought that I needed to zero out the start time, but if that's the case neither "Run Macro Now" nor Enabling the macro and then manually running it sets it up for the scheduled activation in 90 minutes.

No, I have a 5-minute window when it can run. What I want to do is "zero-out" the counter. So what you are saying is that if I manually "Run Macro Now" it will reset the counter to 0 and start from there?

Is there any way to reset the starting point for a scheduled macro that is set to run every x minutes? I have a macro that runs every 90 minutes, but the timing is important. I'd like to run it at the correct time, but I need to set the starting point correctly.