Screensaver interrupted

[cromag_rickmanus]

I have a problem that seems to be fairly recent with my screensaver not coming on when it's supposed to. The screensaver itself works fine when I put in on manually, so it seems something is either 1. triggering the mac out of screen saver mode or 2. not allowing it to go into screensaver mode because of some ongoing interruption.

When I put the computer to sleep (which kills the wifi access) it stays asleep so its got to be something internet/network related. Maybe some app updating notifications, updating network links, something. Putting it to sleep works ok but I like to have VNC access to it from work so it needs to have an ongoing internet connection. My question is:

Is there some way to monitor what could be interrupting the "idle" period so I can fish out what's causing this? I figure there's some kind of log I can access to see what's going on. I have some suspicions as to the culprit but I'd like to make sure.

Thank you!
iMac, OSX Leopard

 

[djackmac]

Try zapping PRAM. Then go back and readjust/verify settings. Make sure "put hard disks to sleep when possible" is checked.

 

[cromag_rickmanus]

I appreciate your reply, I will try zapping PRAM. However, wouldn't the option to put hard disks to sleep kill the internet connection just as if you had put the computer to sleep manually? I would like to keep the internet connected.
Thank you again!