I've escaped my cell, got my weapons, but I can't get any further. I can't turn off any of the lamps because the sneak icon is under all of them. I even was able to ring the bell and 2 guards go upstairs. Is there a pattern I must go through???

You need to press the zero key on the keypad when the Stealth icon come up. That switches between that and the action icon. The good news is that you're only about an hour away from beating the game.