Recommended:

Turn off your monitor when not in use. No screen saver = no extensions conflict; also reduces energy consumption and radiation in your work environment. - more

Alternatives

1. Don't worry about your monitor at all. - more
2. (System 6 or 7) Use the old brightness control panel. - more
3. Disable your screen saver before running Signalyze. - more
4. Use a stand-alone screen saver application rather than a system extension screen saver. - more

Background

Perhaps the most popular system extensions are screen savers. With old monitors, there was a real danger of having the displayed information actually burning into the phosphorous coating of a monitorÕs picture tube.

And perhaps one of the most popular screen savers is After Darkª. Unfortunately, After Dark is also known to cause conflicts with many programs, particularly resource-intensive programs like Signalyze. After Dark makes heavy use of the same parts of your machine that Signalyze does; having the After Dark control panel running significantly increases the chance of extension conflicts.

Many screen savers also come with password protection. While keeping your data from being seen, this feature increases the chance of conflict with other programs.

You can avoid these conflicts and the resulting crashes in several ways:

If you have a separate monitor, turn off your monitor by hand when you're not using it. - top

I know, how archaic, but it will not only ensure that there is no information burn-in on your display, it will also save energy. How contemporary!

(I have forgotten where I read it, but a tremendous surge in worldwide power consumption has been attributed to the explosion of personal computer--and hence monitor--use within the last decade.)

Most monitors also produce an incredible amount of heat, something your computer does not need.

As far as power consumption and Energy Star monitors go, note that a user reported to Macintouch in 1998 that he connected an ampere meter to his display circuitry. He found that his new Energy Star (supposedly energy-saving) monitor, which turns off the display after a period of inactivity, did not reduce its power draw when the screen dimmed. Even though it was not displaying, it was using up just as much energy waiting to display. I do not know if the newer monitors also do not reduce power consumption while 'sleeping'.

In a recent development, many corporations (including Apple Computers) are moving from the standard CRT displays based on a television tube to LCD flatscreen monitors due to the projected energy savings over the life of the monitor--basically these monitors are expected to pay for themselves in saved energy costs.

Don't worry about your monitor at all. - top

This is a valid option if you have a monitor made in the Ô90Õs. Newer monitors just don't need the protection that older ones did, and no System extension = no system conflict. This is not just a personal opinion; there was an article in MacUserª magazine on this a while back. I've been interrupted and ended up leaving something on a screen for over 12 hours before (3 kids at home); there was no trace of the image when I switched off the display (a 1996 Sony Trinitron).

However, leaving the monitor on will not reduce power consumption, nor keep any sensitive data from being readily seen.

If you are still running System 7, turn it off via the Brightness control panel. - top

It doesn't even have to be in the Control Panels folder to work. Keep a copy on your desktop, and when you need to dim the screen just pull the slider to the left.

Disable your screen saver before you run Signalyze. - top

See the section on managing extensions for more information.

Use a stand-alone screen saver program instead of a system extension - top

While most commercial screen savers are based on extensions and/or control panels, there are those that are stand-alone applications. Again, no extension, no extension conflicts.

One of the old standards is DarkSide of the Mac, a freeware program (Thank you, Tom Dowdy!) that does almost all of what After Dark does (the sole exception I've found is the "energy-saving" features of After Dark 3.x). Since it is a stand alone program, it resides in its own memory space without modifying the operating system. It's not as flashy as After Dark (no flying toasters, Star Trek or Simpsons modules) but there are many nice modules in their own right (it will play the QuickTime movie of your choice with the Movies module).

Other alternatives I've found amusing (although I just turn off my screen now) are 3D Morphing Power Cube, a ZDNet download (requires System 7), and Planet Earth, a $15 shareware that puts a rotating globe (with optional real-time cloud cover) on your desktop.

I only have old copies of these; if you are interested in them you should do a web search. An excellent place to start is the TuCows site: http://cyberec.mac.tucows.com/graphite/macintosh.html.