Screen Resolution Auto Resizing

Question

When I turn on my computer, the screen automatically reverts back to 800 x 600. My original setting is 1440 x 900. This has been happening frequently for about a week and a half. It's not the monitor's driver because I have tried to reinstall it and the problem persisted. When I boot up, it seems that the screen is in the proper resolution. When I get to the log-in screen is when it shows the difference. The screen would look stretched and the buttons look larger than normal instead of scaled to size. After logging in I would manually resize the screen back to 1440 x 900. When I use the computer again after a few hours the log-in screen would be out of proportion. The monitor would only show the upper left quarter section of the log-in screen as if the log-in is larger than the monitor.

I do not know how to resolve this.

on a side note, I could not update my version of Vista to service pack 2. I do not know if that had anything to do with this problem though.

Answer 1

Why can't you update to SP2? What happened when you tried? It may or may not have anything to do with the video problem but since I don't know the details of the failure, I can't say. Usually your symptoms are caused by a failing video card if updating/installing the correct video drivers doesn't help. You don't want to install monitor drivers; you want to install video card drivers. So if you didn't install the latest video card drivers, try doing that first.

Never get drivers from Windows Update. Get them from:

1. The device mftr.'s website; OR
2. The motherboard mftr.'s website if hardware is onboard; OR
3. The OEM's website for your specific machine if you have an OEM computer (HP, Dell, Sony, etc.).

Read the installation instructions on the website where you get the drivers.

To find out what hardware is in your computer:

1. Read any documentation you got when you bought the computer.
2. If the computer is OEM, go to the OEM's website for your specific model machine and look at the specs (you'll be there to get the drivers anyway)
3. Download, install and run a free system inventory program like Belarc Advisor or System Information for Windows.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html - Belarc Advisor

http://www.gtopala.com/ - System Information for Windows

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MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!