Windows 7: Power options change on their own

spdracer · 03 Jan 2010

I set my options to shut off my monitor and to stand by within power options and when I re boot they change back to defaults. Anyone else notice this? It doesn't matter what power mode I use(high performance,power saver) it still does it

richc46 · 03 Jan 2010

That is not a common problem, can you give us detail on how you make the change. I guess you go into CP, select power options, then the particular power plan that you want, and then change those settings. Is that correct?

spdracer · 03 Jan 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by richc46

That is not a common problem, can you give us detail on how you make the change. I guess you go into CP, select power options, then the particular power plan that you want, and then change those settings. Is that correct?

Exactly richc, then without explanation or changing or adding anything, on reboot they change back to default.

richc46 · 03 Jan 2010

Difficult problem, but you are not the only one. Read and try these solutions.

Power Options keep reverting

WindowsStar · 03 Jan 2010

The first time I saw this problem was when I was installing and configuring Windows Server 2008 R2 (Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 share the same code). The next time I saw it was in a Windows 7 install. Here are the fixes.

1) Wipe the Drive and do a complete fresh re-load. Not Ideal because of the time involved.

Before I get into the next fix I want to note: This fixes it but I am not sure that it fixes the underling root of the problem. So far I have not done this fix and felt good enough about using it as a production machine. I do not feel that the fix harms anything just that it is forcing something that Windows is doing to be done my way. Another note is that I have done this type of fix to make things stick for other reasons (i.e. I want them across the whole machine including user profiles). What I think is happening is that for some reason the power settings are a) not being modified in your profile or b) they are being over written by the OS from the default user profile.

2) Set your power setting as you like them. Double check them and remember the name of the power plan (make sure you save your power plan). Open REGEDIT and navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\PowerCfg Look at the key CurrentPowerPolicy and see what it is set to. You may notice when you look under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\PowerCfg\PowerPolicies that you are set to something like 0 however you are really wanting to use policy 3 or a custom one you made. Review all the power polices until you find the one you are using and note the number. Go back to the CurrentPowerPolicy key and modify it to be the number of that policy (Power Plan). In other words you go into folder 4 and see that those settings (by its name) that are the settings you want to use then change CurrentPowerPolicy to that number. For this next step you must be able to see hidden files in Windows Explorer. If you can’t you will need to set that up first. Now: navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and make sure it is highlighted. In REGEDIT click File | Load Hive… navigate to \Users\Default and open NTUSER.DAT when it asks for key name enter something that is easy to find and easy to see. I use !LOADED-HIVE that way it is at the top and easy to find. I will assume you are using my name !LOADED-HIVE. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\!LOADED-HIVE\Control Panel\PowerCfg and look at the key CurrentPowerPolicy it will most likely be set to 0 set it to the number you did for your profile above. Close the !LOADED-HIVE (Change the arrow to pointing at the !LOADED-HIVE) then highlight the !LOADED-HIVE. In REGEDIT click File | Unload Hive… answer YES if it asks. Close Computer (Change the arrow to pointing at the Computer) and EXIT REGEDIT. Reboot and your power plan should stick.

Let me know if this works for you. It did on my Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 machines.

xaver · 17 May 2011

I have the same problem. My experience is that whenever I run the Windows update this is set back.

1994F7PT · 17 May 2011

i have this issue from time to time on production machines on site, its a pain as i can't remote access to sort it and the pc's are often a good mile walk away :-( lol!

GeneO · 17 May 2011

I just set up a scheduled task, that is triggered by the unlock workstation event. to set the power configuration I want. Well, windows was just reverting the standby timeout to never, so the action in my task is powercfg -x -standby-timeout-ac 30. But you can do whatever you want. This way, whenever I log in, it gets reset to what I want.

Windows 7: Power options change on their own

Power options change on their own problems?