Desktop picture only-- lasts for a couple of seconds after waking up

[Sooz]

Hi, Everyone,

I keep my computer on all the time so when I'm done for the day, I select Sleep.

For the past couple of weeks, I when I "wake" it in the morning by pressing a key on the keyboard, I get only the desktop picture, but none of the folders, documents, and other things I have on the desktop.   After a second or two, it "winks" on and everything is as it should be.

I don't recall if my Dock shows up on the monitor screen, but I'll have to watch next time.  

I have SuperDuper! scheduled for twice a week, but this doesn't seem to be related to when SuperDuper has been doing it's backups.

Any ideas?  Below is my desktop picture, just because it is sooooooo cute and I wanted to share with you!

Thanks!
Smiles,
Sooz
[attachment=3016:Puppies_...hesline_.jpg]

[gunug]

I've often thought about hanging my puppies out to dry; but wondered if they would "stay" dry!  
I usually shut all my computers down entirely; but on the rare times I've used sleep I don't believe I've seen the behavior you talked about!

[jcarter]

Thats the cutest picture!!!

There is another one Ive seen with 10 Yellow Lab puppies all in onzies on the clothesline too.

[Xairbusdriver]

I'm not sure you actually have a problem. It may just be that you've not noticed this behavior before. I suspect that when your computer goes to "sleep" there is nothing on the screen except your 'screen saver'. Check your "Desktop & Screen Saver" System Prefs and look in the "Screen Saver" tab. There is a "Start after:" setting in the lower, left-hand corner of the window (this may be differently located depending on your version of OS X). There is a pop-up/down menu list beside that text. I suspect that the setting there is for less time than what you have set to put the screen to 'sleep'. Therefore, when your Mac 'wakes up', it is simply showing what was on the screen when it first went to 'sleep'.

If you could, report back on what the "Start after:" setting and the "Display sleep:" setting in the "Energy Saver" Pref panel are. You can 'play' with those, of course, and see what happens.

BTW, thanks for posting a lot of info in your "Profile", however, the space is rather limited so we need to pick and choose what we include. One thing I do not see is the OS X version you're using. That is often a good clue as to where a problem may be and it helps with names of files/Pref Panels, etc.. The processor speed... not so much.

[Sooz]

Hi, XAirbee,

I included the OS X version in my Profile--thanks for the suggestion!

The "Start After" setting for my screen saver is 20 minutes.  When I wake up my computer (whatever time I get up, because I'm retired, y'know!), the dock IS showing, as is the desktop picture of the darling puppies, and then all the other stuff I had on my desktop magically appears.

The "Energy Saver" is set to turn off display after 15 minutes, put hard disks to sleep when possible, and wake for network access.

Jcarter, I've seen the yellow lab puppies, too. So cute!  
Gunug--you know puppies don't stay dry!  

Smiles,
Sooz

[Xairbusdriver]

OK, I'm a little confused... again. It appears that you are asking the screen saver to show something (20 minutes of no activity) after you have the display go to sleep (15 minutes of no activity). So, I misunderstood what you are seeing. You are simply seeing the Desktop image, not any screen saver image. At least I doubt the screen saver would try to show anything when the display is already 'asleep'.

Q1.Do you have a setting, other than "Never" for putting the Computer to sleep?

I didn't mention it earlier, but I don't see how Super Duper is in any way related to this. It will run as long as the computer is 'awake' whether the display is or not. I assume you have SD set to "Quit" after it runs?

Q2. I would be interested in knowing how many apps, icons and windows you have on your screen, normally. The more you have, the longer it takes to display them. The ".DS_Store" file you may see in all folders (assuming you have "Show file extensions" enabled) and the Desktop (which is actually just a folder that covers the entire screen), but that's where the info resides tell the OS exactly what icon to show and where to show it. The Dock has it's own display info and I don't think it uses a ".DS_Store" file, at all, so it should be visible as soon as the Desktop image. I'd rather look at my desktop image(s) than a bunch of icons, so I keep them to a minimum, as well as hiding the Dock. YMMV.

[Sooz]

Ok, I got confused too   --  I did a Restore Default on the energy saver.  Screen saver to start after 20 mins.  I'll see what that does.

I have Sleep, Restart, and Shut Down that I use when I'm done for the night, so I never do put the computer to sleep.  Should I let it actually sleep sometimes?

Yes, SD is set to Quit after it runs.

My screen usually has the following icons:  external HD, SuperDuper!, and my HD.  My dock has the App Store, dashboard, Safari, iPhoto, iTunes, MSWord, PhotoBooth, Preview, Adobe Reader, calculator, and a calendar.  I have some folders w/documents in them, and some screen shots on the desktop too.

It's tooooooo darned HOT today for me to do much more than post this.

Smiles,
Sooz (feeling like I have the capacity to melt, and not in a good way!)

[Xairbusdriver]

OK. As Joe Friday supposedly said, "Just the facts, ma'am".*

1. What are your Energy Saver settings:
 A. Computer sleep: ?
 B. Display sleep: ?
 C. Put hard disks to sleep when possible checked or unchecked? (important)
 D. Start up or wake settings and checked or unchecked?
 E. Sleep/Restart/Shutdown (which one?) settings and checked or unchecked?

2. Screen Saver "Start after:" setting?

Your Desktop sounds pretty clean and empty, but how many "folders w/documents in them, and some screen shots" are we talking about? Are any of those folders usually open?

* <Joe Friday, Dragnet TV show, staring Jack Webb> (probably before your time, of course!)

Edit: Found the "facts" were not linked correctly!!!

[Sooz]

I remember my parents watching Joe Friday, but I really think I was on the cusp as being almost old enough to watch such *crime drama* --but really, I probably had too much homework to do.

My Energy Saver settings are in the screen shot attached--those are all my choices, with two items checked. Maybe I'm not looking at the correct thingy?

Put hard disks to sleep when possible checked or unchecked? This is checked

Start up or wake settings and checked or unchecked?  Start or Wake Up is Every Day at 11:00 AM, and I do not have Sleep checked.

Sleep/Restart/Shutdown (which one?) settings and checked or unchecked?  Did I miss where this is located???

Screen Saver "Start after:" setting?   Start after 20 minutes.

Your Desktop sounds pretty clean and empty, but how many "folders w/documents in them, and some screen shots" are we talking about? Are any of those folders usually open?  My folders are always closed--I have 5 folders with docs inside them, and I have about 12 documents just hanging out --not in folders.  I don't have any more than 2 or 3 screen shots on my desktop, although I do have maybe 6 inside a folder that's on the desktop--and I have a pdf manual on the desktop too.

Thanks for trying to puzzle this out with me!!!!

Smiles,
Sooz

[Xairbusdriver]

Thanks!

Although I'm now confused by the differences between your Energy Saver window and mine.

Yours


Mine!

EDIT: I just noticed that the Spel Chequer in PSE doezn't seam too wurke! Eye plann on sendding a bugg reporte!

While this screen shot was taken while I had Parental Controls on, it is exactly the same (except for the 'lock' icon) when I'm logged in as Admin or simply as a normal user without Parental Controls. I'm now using OS X 10.9.4 and I have no idea if this Pref Panel was different just a couple of versions back.

Q: Can you check your "About This Mac" option to confirm you are booted into 10.9.2?

Even if you are, I suspect the real cause for the delay of the display of all your icons on awakening the computer are from letting your hard drive(s) 'sleep'. If I remember correctly, the OS stores a lot of info about your currently displayed windows/screens/etc. on the drive just before it enters 'sleep'. But if the drive then also goes to 'sleep' it will take a small amount of time for it to find and read all that info. It shouldn't be much time but depending on the speed of the drive (start up speed, rotation speed, head access speed, etc.) it will likely be enough for you to notice. The OS seems to be quite good at keeping drives from getting fragmented. But drive speeds can also be affected by not having much free space available and especially having what space is available being non-contiguous (widely scattered on the drive).

My only suggestion is to un-check the "Put hard disks to sleep..." settings and see if you notice any changes. It might be useful if you can determine just how long the delay is. Do you have a stop watch? How fast can you count?!

Also, I believe you still have the screen saver start up at 20 minutes. But you have the display set to turn off in less than 15 minutes. Theoretically, you should never even see the screen saver.

QUOTE

Sleep/Restart/Shutdown (which one?) settings and checked or unchecked? Did I miss where this is located???

Those are the choices in the other check box in the "Schedule" area of Energy Saver Pref Panel. You haven't enabled/checked that box, so it's not relevant.

[Paddy]

QUOTE(Sooz @ Jul 7 2014, 02:16 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi, Everyone,

I keep my computer on all the time so when I'm done for the day, I select Sleep.

For the past couple of weeks, I when I "wake" it in the morning by pressing a key on the keyboard,  I get only the desktop picture, but none of the folders, documents, and other things I have on the desktop.  After a second or two, it "winks" on and everything is as it should be.

Returning to the original question, um...I don't think this is actually unusual. I've seen this on startup (and I have a boatload of stuff on my desktop - it takes more than a second or two for all my desktop stuff to appear) and it could very well happen on waking as well. I just never have my computer go to sleep with no apps open!!

Frankly, I wouldn't worry about it. I suspect it's just reading stuff out of a file on the HD during that little delay...a kind of "now where was I?" exercise. It loads the desktop pic first and then may do something else before it loads the desktop icons, for all I know. (I'm sure someone, somewhere, has documented this, but darned if I can find it in a quick Google).

I'm on my MBP for the summer - the Mac Pro is at home, as is the one iMac in the family, so I can't tell you why you're seeing different energy saver prefs, as mine are different again.

[krissel]

I agree with Paddy. Have seen this quite frequently, especially when I did not have the box for needing password on wake checked. Most of the time I have to sign in and I believe during this time the Finder has a chance to get its act together and have the icons ready. But think about when the Mac boots up, quite often you will see the desktop picture first, then a pause and boom, all the icons load. That is the purpose of the much beleaguered .ds_store file that is everywhere, though usually invisible. I notice a difference among all my Macs as to how much time each takes to load the icons. I wouldn't worry about it.

BTW, in doing a little browsing I came across this recently for those who have a messy desktop and want to quickly "clean house", at least to the casual observer.

http://blog.websecurify.com/2013/01/hide-d...n-mac-os-x.html

I know there are others like Hiddenme (below) and paid apps, but Hide Desktop runs on Snow Leopard. Yea.

 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hiddenme/id467040476?mt=12

[Sooz]

Thanks Paddy and Krissel for the extra input.  Maybe I just never noticed it before...

XAirbee, here's my About This Mac.  
ha ha aboot da spel chukker --Ah em uh fayn uv da fone-eticks spulleen *funn* mieshelf

Smiles,
Sooz

[Paddy]

QUOTE(krissel @ Jul 10 2014, 11:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree with Paddy. Have seen this quite frequently, especially when I did not have the box for needing password on wake checked. Most of the time I have to sign in and I believe during this time the Finder has a chance to get its act together and have the icons ready. But think about when the Mac boots up, quite often you will see the desktop picture first, then a pause and boom, all the icons load. That is the purpose of the much beleaguered .ds_store file that is everywhere, though usually invisible. I notice a difference among all my Macs as to how much time each takes to load the icons. I wouldn't worry about it.

BTW, in doing a little browsing I came across this recently for those who have a messy desktop and want to quickly "clean house", at least to the casual observer.

http://blog.websecurify.com/2013/01/hide-d...n-mac-os-x.html

I know there are others like Hiddenme (below) and paid apps, but Hide Desktop runs on Snow Leopard. Yea.

 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hiddenme/id467040476?mt=12

Or then there's the technique when you're about to do a presentation and realize that everyone may *see* that big mess on your desktop, and you just select it all and shove it in a folder. Which you then proceed to ignore. After a while, it gets like the clothes you haven't worn for a year or more; if you haven't needed anything in that folder for a year or more, why are you keeping it?

[kimmer]

QUOTE(Paddy @ Jul 11 2014, 12:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Or then there's the technique when you're about to do a presentation and realize that everyone may *see* that big mess on your desktop, and you just select it all and shove it in a folder. Which you then proceed to ignore. After a while, it gets like the clothes you haven't worn for a year or more; if you haven't needed anything in that folder for a year or more, why are you keeping it?

I have several folders like this.