Power Schemes Blank in Power Options

[A.C. Douglas]

Hello.

Running XP Home Edition (2004) on a Dell Dimension 8400

I went into my Power Options which had 2 profiles already set, changed one
of the items on one of the profiles, and attempted to Save it. I got an
error message that something or other was incompatible, and so it couldn't
be Saved. I exited Power Options, and opened it again, whereupon I
discovered that the Power Schemes tab had a grayed-out and blank display,
and none of the profiles was listed. No matter what I do, I can't get
those profiles back, and worse, can't get the Power Schemes to come up
without the grayed-out display so that I can create a new profile.

Checked the ACPI driver (using Device Manager), and it checked out OK.

Anyone know what might have happened here, and what the fix is?

ACD

 

[A.C. Douglas]

[snipped - original post is below]

I searched the MS Knowledge Base, but found nothing there that gave even a
hint of either the problem, or the fix.

Has no MVP here ever run across this problem, or could venture an educated
guess as to what caused it, and how it might be fixed?