Screen saver won't go on, laptop won't sleep!

I've got a 17" laptop running 10.3.9. Everything used to be fine. Recently (after the latest Apple update? I'm not sure) I found that the laptop won't go to sleep. It's plugged in on my desk, and I've got the Energy Saver preference panel (set to "power adapter") set to put the screen to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity, and the computer to sleep after 1 hour of inactivity. I've got the "Desktop & Screen Saver" panel to start screen saver after 5 minutes. And, when I leave it alone overnight, I come back in the morning and the machine is on, screen saver never kicked in. 1) Is this a problem - is there burn-in or anything like that LCDs? and 2) what's going on? I tried rebooting etc. Could I have some process running which prevents sleep? How do I debug this? I need it to start screen saver (and require login!) when I walk away.

AndiPegg
To Apple Discussions!
Trash the com.apple.desktop.plist file.
Home>Library>Preferences>com.apple.desktop.plist
Or locate using Spotlight & delete from same.
Update to OS 10.5.4
Repair permissions & restart your comp.
Please post back the results. If the above does not work, then I suggest that you cross-post over in the Using Mac OS X Leopard Forums especially if no one else chimes in here.

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