Windows XP Power Schemes - cannot save

[terrypin]

My Power Options facility on this XP Home (SP1) PC seems to be broken. It won't save any new settings. Next time I open the dialog that new name is not available.

FWIW, some combinations of Apply/OK/Save give this incomprehensible message window:
'Power Policy Manager unable to set policy'
Indicates two revision levels are incompatible'.

Note that, having changed the setting by way of a test to say Monitor = 1 min (and leaving the other two boxes = 'Never'), my monitor does power off after 1 min. I just cannot save settings. But it deletes OK. I deleted one I made months ago, so now I'm down to just 'Home/Office Desktop' and 'Portable/Laptop'. Presumably if I deleted those, I'd have nothing in the drop-down box!

Anyone able to help me fix this please? (Short of installing SP2, which caused me many problems last time I tried it a year or so ago.)

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

 

[Ian]

There's an article here which looks like it should solve the problem for you

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/47716/47716.html

Best to try the simple suggestion (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=302713) first, and then try the others it suggests.

 

[muckshifter]

Sorry, but for the "health & safety" of your PC, I would recommend you try and install SP2

If you can give us some more details on the specification of the PC we may be able to help you in any potential pitfalls prior to install.


Ian gave you good advice on the power-save problem ... but I would still like to know more on what PC you have, especially motherboard.

 

[terrypin]

Thanks both. I found that article a few minutes before seeing Ian's post, and was highly confident it would fix the problem. Unfortunately not.
In more detail: I downloaded and applied the registry fix. On re-booting the power scheme default was Presentation (i.e. Never power-off anything). There were only 3 offered, not the 5 expected. I saved a new one called 'Test 1 min', closed Control Panel. On returning to the dialog, that new option was not present, and default was again Presentation.

In case it's relevant, in the course of this I've also discovered that I have only 1 System Restore saved (from this morning). I've made another (directly before this attempted fix) and at least that appears OK, making 2.

Any more suggestions please?

I've checked again, and I am happily still getting whatever setting I enter against Monitor for the Home/Office Desktop option that I'm using. IOW, it does power off after 1 minute if I change the normal 20 to 1. But it's still worrying, in case it hints at other trouble. And anyway, my curiosity is now aroused

---------
CPU = AMD Athlon XP1800+ with 512MB PC2100 DDR memory, m/b = ASUS A7A266-E (+sound), BIOS = Award Software with ASUS A7A266-E ACPI BIOS v 1009, System Chipset = M1647 ALiMAGiK 1 AGP System Controller, Buses = AGP/PCI/USB, L2 On-board Cache = 256kB ECC synchronous write-back.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

 

[terrypin]

Sorted! After the failed fix, I was surprised to find the registry entries under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\PowerCfg\PowerPolicies
still contained ancient names (with numbers like 28, 30, etc) mixed up with the 'standard' ones (6, not 5 as I implied earlier, numbered 0 to 5). I expected the fix (XP PowerCfg Fix.reg) to have removed all but the standards. Anyway, I have just manually deleted these old (but non-accessible) entries, and rebooted. Note BTW that I had done a similar exercise earlier, before applying that fix, and it had not resolved the problem. However, happy to report that I now found all 6 entries. And furthermore, I was able to save a new one of my own, and it was still there on offer after closing and re-opening the dialog. FWIW, it appears under that registry key like this:
PowerPolicies
-0
-1
-2
-3
-32 <---- My new one 'Test-1min'
-4
-5

Still curious to know what goes on here!

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK