Display Power Options Grayed Out

Question

When I open Display Properties then click Power, the Power Options Properties, Power Schemes tab is completely grayed out, lost focus... all labels are grayed out. This happened after I uninstalled then reinstalled Free Cell using Windows Components add/remove and my xp pro cd. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

FYI: A friend took a look at my laptop and figured out that the lenovo power options software had somehow over ridden the windows power scheme. Uninstalled the lenovo software and the windows power scheme is back. I am very grateful to all of you for your time and help. Have a great day.

Answer 2

Thank you for responding so quickly. As I mentioned in my first query; about a half dozen or so settings including power options changed when I uninstalled free cell then re installed with add/remove > components and my OS CD according to instructions. I was able to change back all settings such as display schemes but not power options. I tried method 1 this way: opened DOS, went to the root directory C: then typed powercfg /RestoreDefaultPolicies then pressed Enter. I couldn't tell from the kb if there is a space between powercfg and / so I tried it with and then without the space. I then changed directory to C:\Documents and Settings and entered the command with no success. Tried other directories but no luck. Here is my system summary:

Laptop system summary

OS Name         Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Version            5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600

OS Manufacturer          Microsoft Corporation

System Name   LAPTOP

System Manufacturer    Lenovo

System Model  INVALID

System Type    X86-based PC

Processor         x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 13 GenuineIntel ~2161 Mhz

BIOS Version/Date      Lenovo 10CN38WW, 10/8/2008

SMBIOS Version         2.4

Windows Directory      C:\WINDOWS

System Directory          C:\WINDOWS\system32

Boot Device     \Device\HarddiskVolume1

Locale  United States

Hardware Abstraction Layer     Version = "5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2111)"

User Name       LAPTOP(My first and last name)

Time Zone        Eastern Standard Time

Total Physical Memory 2,048.00 MB

Available Physical Memory       1.05 GB

Total Virtual Memory   2.00 GB

Available Virtual Memory         1.96 GB

Page File Space            3.78 GB

Page File          C:\pagefile.sys

Components

Name   Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family

PNP Device ID            PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2A42&SUBSYS_3A0217AA&REV_07\3&11583659&0&10

Adapter Type   Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family, Intel Corporation compatible

Adapter Description     Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family

Adapter RAM  128.00 MB (134,217,728 bytes)

Installed Drivers            igxprd32.dll

Driver Version  6.14.10.4964

INF File           oem2.inf (iCNT0 section)

Color Planes     1

Color Table Entries       4294967296

Resolution        1280 x 800 x 60 hertz

Bits/Pixel          32

Memory Address         0xD3C00000-0xD3FFFFFF

Memory Address         0xC0000000-0xCFFFFFFF

I/O Port           0x0000D180-0x0000D187

IRQ Channel    IRQ 16

I/O Port           0x000003B0-0x000003BB

I/O Port           0x000003C0-0x000003DF

Memory Address         0xA0000-0xBFFFF

Driver   c:\windows\system32\drivers\igxpmp32.sys (6.14.10.4964, 5.74 MB (6,023,072 bytes), 3/19/2009 7:03 PM)

Name   Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family

PNP Device ID            PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2A43&SUBSYS_3A0217AA&REV_07\3&11583659&0&11

Adapter Type   Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family, Intel Corporation compatible

Adapter Description     Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family

Adapter RAM  128.00 MB (134,217,728 bytes)

Installed Drivers            igxprd32.dll

Driver Version  6.14.10.4964

INF File           oem2.inf (iCNT1 section)

Color Planes     Not Available

Color Table Entries       Not Available

Resolution        Not Available

Bits/Pixel          Not Available

Memory Address         0xD4100000-0xD41FFFFF

Driver   c:\windows\system32\drivers\igxpmp32.sys (6.14.10.4964, 5.74 MB (6,023,072 bytes), 3/19/2009 7:03 PM)

Answer 3

So if you got to Method 2 of the KB, does that mean that Method 1 did not work?

Under your Power Options, do you have a Hibernate tab or do you not and and if you do, are you able to check the box to Enable hibernation (just as a test).

XP has a default user profile and when you create a new user (like when you install XP), that generic user profile is copied to create the profile for the new user as a starting point.  Method 1 copies that supposedly "good" power scheme information from the default user profile to your profile.

Why don't you temporarily create a new user and see how things look for the new user.  That will also copy the default user profile as a starting point for the new user just created.

If things look good for the new user and do not look good for your user then the problem is with your user profile.

If you still have the same problem with the new user, then you probably have some other problem that afflicts all users - even a new user so it is not specific just to your profile.  You can just delete the new user when you are done testing.

I can't imagine how uninstalling FreeCell could cause this problem, but Method 1 of the KB article usually works - unless there is some other problem.  Are you sure nothing else changed?

We could take a look a few things to perhaps get some clues if you do this:

Click Start, Run and in the box enter:

msinfo32

Click OK, and when the System Summary info appears, click Edit, Select All (Ctrl-A), Copy (Ctrl-C) and then paste (Ctrl-V) the information back here in your next reply.

For video driver information, expand the Components, click Display, click Edit, Select All, Copy and then paste the information back here.

There will be some personal information (like System Name and User Name), and whatever appears to be private information to you, just delete it from the pasted information.

Answer 4

Method 2 of the MS kb says "export/import files and schemes." There's no explanation and it appears that I can't get a definition of "schemes." A search came up empty. Good thing I copied the kb article because I clicked the link again and got a message that the article is "...no longer available." It appears then that only the author of the kb article knows what "schemes" are and she/he isn't talking. MS Windows is truly a voodoo operating system.  I tried to log onto this page but IE7 froze and crashed twice. When I clicked the submit reply button I got an error message: "Error On Page" then, "Done" but nothing happened. Let's see how many tries it takes to reply... After 8 attempts using IE7, Firefox 19 and Chrome 24 I finally got to this reply box with FF19. What a fantastic record. This has happened each time I try to log onto Live. Thank you all for your help but it appears that the ancient mickey mouse fix of reinstalling the os is the only method that will work. MS says it takes 2 hours to reinstall XP however it takes me at least 2 weeks to reinstall all my software and settings. No thanks. I'll limp along with fn>f1. I'm about to click Submit. Wish me luck.

Answer 5

​Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community forums.

From the issue description, I see that Power scheme option is greyed out after uninstalling and reinstalling Free Cell.

I can imagine the inconvenience you have experienced. We are here to help and guide you in the right direction.

This issue may occur if some or all the registry entries that are related to the power scheme options have been deleted.

I would suggest you to try the steps in the article and check if it helps.

Power scheme options are unavailable on a Windows XP-based computer

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913622

Warning: An in-place upgrade is the final alternative before you have to reinstall the operating system. Note that it takes the same amount of time to do the upgrade as to reinstall the operating system. Also, some of your customized Windows settings may be lost through this process.

Let us know the status of the issue after performing the troubleshooting steps. If you need any further assistance or information about Windows, I will be glad to help you. We, at Microsoft strive towards excellence.