In some cases, an error may occur when trying to view, change or add a power scheme. This may be due some corrupted registry settings in your registry. To repair your registry settings of your power management, you need to restore the default settings of your power schemes. Follow these steps to recover your power schemes:
- Go to Start – Run – Regedit
- On the left side, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Control Panel | PowerCFG
- Right-click on PowerCFG, choose Export, and save it as “old-powercfg.reg” (or any other name you want, this is just a backup)
- Now, right click again and choose Delete. The incorrect settings are now deleted
- To download the correct default power scheme settings, right click and save the following file: powerscheme.reg
- Navigate to the file you have just downloaded. Double-click. When alerted if you are sure you want to add the settings, click Yes
- Go to your Power scheme again and see your power settings are restored to their defaults.
Update 31 july 2008:
Some people seem to have some problem when they doubleclick the reg-file. Here are the instructions when doubleclicking doesn’t work:
-
Save the registry file to somewhere on your computer
-
Open the Registry (start -> run -> “regedit” -> OK)
-
Click File -> Import
-
Navigate to the saved file and click “Open”
-
Confirm the Import
Thanx It owrked !!!
Thank you very much. Worked like a charm. Power Scheme is back as it should be.
Did not really work. My goal is to have my machine go into standby mode at preset interval, after 1 hour. My machine will only go into standby at interval of 3 minutes or less. Setting it for 5 min. or more it will not go into standby. Any help would be appreciated.
PS- hard drive acted in same manor before this “fix”
Thanks . Len
Any help would be appreciated. contact at: lenzo@optonline.net
Worked like a charm for me. I somehow deleted all my power schemes, couldn’t even get them back with a XP repair. Thank God for poeple that understand this stuff for the rest of us!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Worked great! Thanks
brilliant…..first time of dared touch anything like the ‘registry’…worked like a charm and so easy…thankyou
Thank you for the registry download to repair my power schemes. It worked exactly as you said it would. As a total technophobe, I am grateful to you (whoever you are) and your fabulous website.
I did everything you said to do, deleted the registry file, downloaded the program, but when opening the file, it says run an goes to a notepad file, doesn’t ask me anything about saving changes to the registry, am I doing something wrong?
Hi, John, I also had the same problem with it going to notepad and not entering the registry. I fixed this by going back into the registry and selecting import and navagating to where I saved the file. Then got the confirmation that it was saved to the registry. Worked like a charm.
Don, that’s another way to do it, indeed. To make it all clear, here are the steps to do it
1. Save the registry file to somewhere on your computer
2. Open the Registry (start -> run -> “regedit” -> OK)
3. Click File -> Import
4. Navigate to the saved file and click “Open”
5. Confirm the Import
Problem. Followed instructions up to step 6 (right click and save. Being a novice at this, right click what? The power cfg is gone now so how or what do I right click on?
Answered my own question. Followed #10 instructions and bang-zoom, i got my power schemes back. You guys are the best. Thanks again.
You completely rock. I went in to try and wrestle with Sleep, Standby and Hibernate one more time and was dismayed to find all my Power settings disabled!
I followed your instructions exactly and am happy to report they worked perfectly – all power options are back!
Thank you for sharing this – you saved me several hours of frustration 🙂
Worked like a charm. I Accendentailly delete my power schemes and this FIXED it all
OMG! Thanks a million!
Will this power scheme fix work for Vista 64-bit?
I have tried this fix but my power system reverts to 20 mins and Never every time I connect to the internet (dial-up).
Does anyone have any ideas as to why?
Any help will be appreciated.
I should have said that I use XP Home
Thanks for the information. Worked great. Thanks, thanks, thanks.
Thank you very much. I used it in my XP Pro-SP3 and it worked fine. I guess it might have something to do with an ActiveX problem a site showed me the other day.
Thanks. Excellent.
Worked fine on my XP Home system. Clearly documented solution to what had been a frustrating problem. Thanks.
Thank u so much for your combined knowledge. Been playing for 3 days. Working great now…
I successfully installed the new registry keys, yet the error continues.
“Your Power Plan Information isn’t available”
Could there be any files missing that the registry needs to reference? Where do I get replacements?
I have a similar problem when I set my monitor to turn off in xx and my hard disk in yy and system standby in zz my computer is not responding after it goes into that mode when I move the mouse or press on any key on the keyboard my computer must be rebooted with the power button.
Can anybody help please
Thank you
Mike lac
Hello, I am an IT Technician, and I am always looking for ways to save time in my PC/laptop setups. I would like to know if anyone knows of a script or the commands to delete all power schemes on the computer and replace with with imported power schemes. I already have a batch program to import the schemes i want on a computer, but what I need is a way to delete all the schemes (no matter on what GUID). Many of the computers that I work on have various different power schemes so I would either need a… Read more »
Right clicking the powerscheme.reg file doesn’t give an option to save the file. I can only open the file as a window on my browser. I tried Explorer and Firefox.
Etien, how do you distribute software? As you might have noticed, the registry keys in this article are located in the HKCU. If you have SMs 2003, or similar, you could make an advertisement that runs once for every user. If you don’t use SMS 2003, you could add your script silently in the logon script as let it run for a few months. Even better, you could add an extra registry key like “NewPowerscheme” to your Power Scheme. Then, you can do a check in the login script with REG QUERY, that checks whether the “NewPowerscheme” exists. If not,… Read more »
Hello wayne,
right-mouse clicking and then choosing “Save target As” should really be the way to save the file.
Besides, if this doesn’t work, I can assure you that the Registry key won’t do your computer any harm, so you can safely LEFT-click on it, and then choose “Run”. It will then automatically import the new (default) power scheme settings.
I can’t say thanks enough, this worked great. Thanks so much for the information,
Mike.
Thank you so much for the Power Scheme Registry Fix. Good instruction of “how to” and its back to the original setting which I had deleted one by one in ignorance until I was left with a grey screen.
Thanks a hell of a lot! I had just installed Windows XP SP2, immediately tried to save download bandwidth and time by applying SP3 and was wondering why I wasted my time on what should be a bug-free SP (i.e. not rushed-out).
You enabled me to not waste too much time and fix this quickly, cheers!
Nice of Microsoft to continue to treat its software as open source by getting others to identify – and fix – most bugs, but still creaming in the cash on the other hand, isn’t it?
dear friend
i really thank you i had lost my sleep during the 3 nights trynig to fix it,,
u post the write one solution for me,,,
happy christmas,,and happy new year
i will adveritise your website as a little thank you 4 you..
to the greek it – pc forums,,,!!!
thank you 4 once more ..
Hi, I followed the instructions down to the word and it worked for a few hours. However, it has reverted back to its usual ways. I have all of my power schemes, they all revert to: Turn off Monitor – 15 mins, Turn off Hard Disks – 30 mins. Please, can anyone help me?
i should clarify, i meant to say they revert back when ever i watch any media.
Hi Justin, I don’t know the cause of your problem, but you could try removing wirte permissions from the key and values to prevent changes in the Power Schemes. To do this, do the following: 1) Open your registry (Start – Run – regedit.exe) 2) Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\PowerCfg\PowerPolicies] 3) Right click PowerPolicies and choose permissions 4) Click “Advanced…”. A new will appear. 5) Now, for each account you see in the “Advanced Security Settings” window (i.e. SYSTEM and Administrator), you must click EDIT, and then set “Set value –> Deny”. When you click Deny at the right of Set… Read more »
Thanks, worked great! I tried different fixes, but I only had two power schemes and new power schemes would not save. Works perfectly now! Thanks!
The downloaded file ended up being called “powerscheme.reg.txt”, I had to rename it to “powerscheme.reg” and use the method described in the update.
Worked like a dream thank you very much!!!
Now if I can find out why everything disappeared? Some program must have interfered with it but now I can repair it if it happens again.
Wow! Thanx a bunch! I’m a novice and even worked for me! God bless!
I’ve imported the powerscheme to the Registry but when I try to save settings in the Control Panel they keep reverting to the defaults.
So I changed the Permissions, SYSTEM is denied and only Administrator has access.
It still will not hold the changes from Control Panel.
(Is this the most time consuming and annoying exercise Microsoft could devise???)
Any other ideas? Anyone?
Thanks
And I should also say that no setting actually works. The monitor will not turn off after 10 minutes (which is the default value in “Edison”).
But I have another box on the network with Win XP SP2 which works perfectly, and even tried importing its Registry settings, but to no avail.
Aaaargh!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks a lot! It helped right away:)!!!
Thanks it works
Many thanks for this . It’s work like a charm
err…anyone plsss help me!!
i coudnt download the powerscheme.reg file…
i had right click but it doesnt appear what it supposed to be…
Thanks very much, perfect again
Thank you it worked!
Excellent, it worked straight away!
Thank you!
Christian.
Here’s an easier fix I saw on another forum. Go to Start>Run. In the empty field type in “powercfg /RestoreDefaultPolicies” (without the quotation marks and make sure there is a space after powercfg) and click on OK. This worked for me.
Now all the default power schemes will be back and you can go on to make new ones. Apparently after awhile of making so many custom profiles, the function will get corrupted/confused and you can’t make any new ones.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913622
Just perfect. It saved me a lot of time.
It seems that there is a bug in XP for to many power schemes or double names.
Appriciated. Great
Thanks – worked great. Problem occured when I created the 11th power scheme.
Tcrelax