bizarre windows xp behaviour - screen resolution

hi,

i installed windows xp sp2 on a new notebook that includes an ati radeon mobility 9700 graphic card. i installed its driver and set the desired screen resolution. now everytime i boot the machine, windows recognizes the driver but starts with a display resolution of 640x480.

now what makes this very bizarre is that i installed a dual-boot system on this same notebook and on the other bootable side, everything works perfectly fine. i had been tweaking the windows services to get better performance results, i set every parameter back to initial value, i uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers of the graphic card and i fiddled with what i think is the spot in the registry where windows stores the resolution: the second key of hkey_current_config\system\currentcontrolset\control\video

even if i manually change the default settings for x and y resolution, the next time i boot windows it's again 640x480...
even weirder - if i change place the icons on my desktop, they're being placed back in the exact same positions they were before the reboot, as if the desktop display settings were stored and recalled at every reboot. the notebook has never been connected to the net, can't be a virus, scratching my head on this one, can anyone help me finding a solution?
thanks,
chris

 

Hi and welcome to MajorGeeks.

Have you checked the display adaptor in Device Manager?

If there are no errors, click on driver details on the driver tab and see if it's correct.

 

driver is the correct one and being recognized with no error in device manager\display adaptor.
what's so strange is that i can change the screen resolution and it all works fine until i reboot and get the dreaded 640x480 again!

 

Are you using the latest video chip driver?

Try uninstalling the display adapter from Device Manager and reboot.

Does it do this for other account profiles?

 

that's what i don't understand and makes it so frustrating - on the other side of my dual boot [same windows version, same notebook, same driver] screen resolution is NOT changed after reboot - which makes me think it's windows related...

not sure about latest video chip driver, ati is a pain and doesn't let you download driver for a computer not connected to the net - and then, it does work on the other side - [???? i just don't understand]

i did uninstall drivers and reinstalled them with exactly the same result - i really think it's windows related just don't know where...

 

Chris: Try this and see if it helps: Right click on your desktop, go to properties, advanced, adapter, list all modes, and see if the settings are right there. Just a thought.

 

Yeah, I know, I read your original post.

I'm interest in accounts, not dual boot. I wanted to see if this was a due to a driver problem or account corruption.

Again, if you just log off and on, using the same and/or a different account, what happpens?

 

@yooperlady:
in desktop/properties/advanced/adapter/list all modes
all modes are listed including 1440x900 the resolution i want to use. there's no problem in switching to that resolution, it's just that when windows shuts down it seems to not store the parameters...

@insomniac:
sorry-didn't understand you.
display adaptor does not show error exclamation mark and it is the right driver.
when i log off and on again, everything is fine. i created a new user account just to test, also there everything is working fine.

as mentioned above, i have the impression that my problem is windows related - where in the registry are the resolution settings being stored? as already mentioned the resolution keys in hkey_current_config are being overwritten at windows shut down (or boot up).


thank you for your help,
chris

 

What I would do, if you're sure you're using the latest driver, is transfer to the new account and delete the corrupt one.

Easiest way unless you want to experiment with different drivers.

 

sorry, haven't expressed myself properly: when loggin off and/or switching user accounts everything works fine. but from the instant the computer is shut down and rebooted, no matter from which user account, the same problem (screen resolution being 640x480) occurs on both accounts. actually already the blue screen letting you choose the user log-in shows up in the wrong resolution. once changed to 1440x900 the higher resolution remains on both user accounts as well as the user log-in screen.

i am almost sure it's not the drivers - it's my windows save settings that are messed up. would you know where in the registry i can fix them?

thank you,
chris

 

It is the driver, it's not Windows. (assuming everything is compatible)

Windows is reverting to the generic driver because of a problem with the graphic chip driver.

I suggest you make sure you are using the latest graphic chip driver, and if that fails, try another version.

 

This is probably way to simple to be it, but I don't suppose that if you go to start->run->msconfig, click on the "boot" tab, that "/basevideo" is checked?

Do you have any driver-related "driver helper" or driver configuration services running on boot?

I tend to agree with Insomniac, however, this sure *sounds* like a driver issue...

 

thanks for your help,

msconfig - boot tab - basevideo is not checked

just to be sure, i reinstalled chipset drivers that came with the motherboard for the graphic chip driver - it works on the other side of my dualboot.
the only difference is that one partition is formated in ntfs and the problematic one in fat32 (which i had to do because of the bootmanager i use) - but that couldn't possibly be the problem, could it?

i checked into drivers for the graphic card today, unfortunately ati doesn't support notebooks at the only driver-software you can download is an installer without the actual driver that requires to be connected to the net, which i can't do on this machine for the moment...
i'll let you know if i find a solution.
chris

 

i was not capable of tracing the source of the problem - so i formated and reinstalled windows and now everything runs smoothly with the old drivers (??? still don't understand) - well thank you for your help

 

It may have just been driver corruption, but it was certainly driver related.

Anyway, glad to hear it's sorted.