The words "Change settings that are currently unavailable" are not shown in my Power Options screen where they should be in Vista

Question

Is there any way that I can make these words appear where they should be in the screen(s) following Power Options, and hence get me the concommitant functionality, please ?   I have the appropriate screen but the above words are missing.

I have  a fully-spec'ed home PC and I am signing on as Administrator.

In  Mouse / Hardware / Power options the option "allow PC to close this device down to save power" is grayed out and I reckon the two problems are hardware-mouse related.

Answer 1

Thank you very much - problem now fixed.

Now, it seems that when going into full "Sleep" mode at least one fan switcehs off automatically and immediatley.  Howvever, one or more fans do not switch off immediatley but take several minutes, maybe 10 minutes, before turning off.  

One guess is that the fan keeps going until it pushes to CPU temparteure donw to a specified level.

Whilst I do not know which one of the several suggestions you gave me was the one that fixed it but whichever, thank you as all is now fixed.

Thank you

PS:  Looking at sverel PCs I see that "allow the PC to turn off this mouse to shut down the system" is ALWAYS grayed out.  I guess its an obsolete "option".

Answer 2

Thank you - The previously invisible wording "..Change Settings...~"  is now fixed by turning on UAC.  If UAC is turned off, as on my PC, the relevant settings are changeable anyway.

• but my minor problem remains -  going to Mouse in Control Panel - the option  "allow the PC to turn off this mouse to shut down the system" (or similar wording) is grayed out so the sytem will not go to sleep properly.

Maybe I should raise this in the Mouse / hardware area of the forum ?

Thank you, very much.

If I knew how to close this thread, I would.

Answer 3

Hi,

1. When did the issue start?
2. Did you make any changes on the computer prior to the issue?  
3. What is the make and model number of your computer? 

Follow the methods listed below:

Method 1:

Step 1: Reset and restore the power plans to default

a. Click “Start”, type “cmd”in the “Start” search box and press ENTER.

b. In the command prompt, type powercfg –restoredefaultschemes and press Enter.

c. Exit command prompt.

Note: This would reset the power plan settings to default. Any previously customized power plans would be removed.

For more information on Powercfg command-line options, click here.

Step 2:

Once the power plan is reset to default, you may create a new power plan and customize the same according to your needs.

Also see Power plans: frequently asked questions

Method 2: Perform a System File Checker (SFC) scan

SFC tool scans system files and replaces incorrect versions of the system files by using the correct versions.

For further information, refer the link:

How to use the System File Checker tool to troubleshoot missing or corrupted system files on Windows Vista or on Windows 7

Hope this information is helpful

Answer 4

Praseetha K, thank you for your reply.  The information was very helpful and enabled me to eliminate some possible causes.  However, may I reply:

1. I do not know when the issue arose.  The issue means when I invoke Sleep Modeone or more fans inside my HP Pavillion 6140 Desktop PC continue(s) to operate.  My O/s is Vista Home Premium 32-bit+SP2 and all updates have been installed.
2. I did upgrade my C drive from a 250gb to a 1tb HDD recently which required copying the whole of the operating system, drivers etc to the new drive.  I cannot be sure if Sleep Mode worked properly prior to the upgrade.
3. SFC fixed one system file issue (I do not know which one) and now it reports no issues but it has not fixed sleep mode..
4. I restored all  Power Plans to default using both the CMD prompt and via Control Panel->Power Options, just to be sure.
5. When using the powercfg CMD prompt I found some interesting inconsistencies.  For example "powercfg/query" gave a detailed result but when I tried all of "powercfg/ - devicequery" and "powercfg-devicequery" (note the differing syntax) I got error messages saying "invaild parameter" and "not recognized as an internal or external command" respectively.  This was despite using the Cut&Paste method of copying the command line of various of the commands taken directly from the Microsoft page (kb 929833) - to prevent me making mis-typing errors.
6. It seems that my PC will not respond to some of the command line prompts.  This is odd as the PC works really well.  I am using the Administrator Account.  UAC is disabled by default.  There is no Systems Administrator account.
7. I also notice the following issues remain:

• When I follow the path Control Panel->Mouse-> Hardware / properties /power managment - I see that the box "allow this device to be turned off to save power" is grayed out.
• Edit Power Options Screen "Save changes" is grayed out.  Maybe this means no chnages can be made >?
• "Change settings that are currently unavailable" are not shown in my Power Options screen where they should be in Vista.

I suspect the mouse!   Is there any point in physically disconnecting the mouse, then deleting any drivers via Device manager, rebooting,  the reconnecting & reinsatlling the mouse ?  It is a Windows Mouse Optical USB. 

Any comments would be much appreciated.

Answer 5

Hi,

1. Where is this message being shown?
2. Is there a loss of functionality or any other problems as a result of this?

If UAC is disabled, the "Change settings that are currently unavailable" option will not be available.

Turn User Account Control on or off

You can try a different USB port and also check under a new user account.

Create a user account  

Hope this information is helpful.