Display Resolution Resets to 640x480

[rirondo]

Hi Folks,

I recently purchased and installed an XFX 9500GT in a Dell Dimension 9100 desktop after the old video card, an EVGA 8600GTS, died.

My problem is that the display resolution defaults back to 640x480 after running a computer game. Surprisingly, the game resolution in full screen mode stays at 1920x1080, only the desktop and apps switch back to 640x480. The kicker is that if I reboot, I'm stuck at 640x480. The proper resolution can be selected in the Nvidia control panel but nothing actually happens. Right now, I have to reinstall the drivers to correct the problem, an obviously suboptimal solution! I contacted XFX support and they had me

-uninstall the video card driver via the control panel
-reboot in safe mode and run Driver Sweeper to remove Nvidia display drivers only. Then install latest driver.
-reboot

Everything looked great till I opened a video game. Desktop resolution went back to 640x480 and could not be changed. This may or may not be important, but I had a similar problem with the 8600GTS after installing the monitor, a 23" Samsung LCD. After booting the computer, the monitor resolution was wrong but it could be changed to 1920x1080. However, if a video game was opened, the desktop resolution would drop. Because of this XFX tech support told me I must have a registry problem and see you later.

I'm running Windows XP, 32 bit with all the latest updates. The Nvidia driver version is 196.21. The monitor is a Samsung SyncMaster 2333W connected via DVI cable. Help would be appreciated.

 

[Overflood]

I have this same exact problem!
I have tried everything, and have found out it has something to do with how windows is confusing your monitors. You have a plug and play monitor which is the problem like me. Windows has somehow changed the "Default monitor" to the native on-board graphics card. Currently I have found no way to fix this. If you have found a solution, I would love some help! Thanks.

 

[rasczak]

does it only happen with one particular game? if so you may want to uninstall and reinstall said game. an update may have screwed you up.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I'd disable your onboard graphics in bios, use driver cleaner and then install new drivers for your current videocard, maybe there is an update for your monitor as well.

 

[simonizor]

I did some googling and the only solution I could find was this. Hope it helps. If that doesn't help, cleaning out the drivers didn't help, and it's not specific to any game, you might very well have a problem with your registry or some other part of Windows that controls the desktop resolution. If that's the case, I'm not entirely sure how to fix it without doing either a repair install or a complete reinstall.

I had an issue where my screen resolution would go from 1680x1050 to
something like 640 or 800 seemingly at random after hybernation, restart
or even in some cases when I resumed operation after a screensaver was
ended by moving a mouse or something. All my icons would shift around on
my desktop, and it was generally annoying.

I found a fix to it by accident.

I run Vista 32 bit.



I right click the desktop, choose properties.

Then I go to display settings, and choose the advanced settings at the
bottom of that little screen.

In this setting screen I have tabs at the top... Color Mangement,
GeForce 8800GT (My graphics card), Adapter, Monitor, and Troubleshoot.

Choose your graphics card tab. For me this brings up a screen that
shows NVIDIA. (just my graphics card maker)

Then I choose "start the NVIDIA control Panel" I chose the advanved
option, it gave me a choice between advanced and basic.

Then here it the fix!

The key was this: Under the display options I have the following
choices:
1) Change resolution
2) Change flat Panel Scaling*
3) Rotate Display
4) Manage Custom Resolutions
5) Set up Multiple Displays

* Choose Change Flat Panel Scaling.

This will bring up new options. My old setting was "Use my display's
built-in scaling"
I changed the selected option to "Use NVIDIA [My graphics card]
scaling"

Since I've done this. I've not had one issue with my screen resolution
changing back on me.

 

[C1]

The screen resolution settings are specified (I thought) in one of the ini files. Use MSCONFIG to locate which file. See if you can write a batch file to modify the settings.

There are probably various other ideas like seeing if you can run the game in a legacy/compatibility mode. What happens if you manually change/reset the resolution for the game & desktop before closing the game? Does that affect anything? Seems there are many paths needed to be tried in order to derive a possible implementable solution.

 

[lancer3000gt]

problem solved by following this steps:
1. press windows logo +R
2.write msconfig press Enter
3.press on boot
4.remove select from Base video
press ok restart
all done perfectly

 

[Nnyan]

I had a this happen to one of my daughter's PC's. Nothing worked until I started to really think and do some basic tests. Attempting to install the display drivers (after the graphics) failed b/c it could not detect my monitor. That pointed me in the right direction and after I re-sat the Display Port cable at both ends it reverted back to 1080p.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It sounds like the display EDID isn't being detected properly after a mode set. You may need to "hard reset" (unplug totally) your monitor. Happened to me once.