Screen Resolution defaults to 640x480

Recently my screen resolution defaults to 640x480 and the color quality to 256. I can reset the resolution to the desired 1024x768 and color quality to 32 bit and the display responds to these settings until the computer is rebooted. After a restart the settings revert back to 640x480 and 256 color quality.

I have reset the parameters several times and after shutting down the computer the next time they always default back to the old 640x480 and 256 settings.

Can anyone tell me what to do to make the computer retain the desired settings?

 

You might check your MSDOS.SYS file and make sure there is not a line that says:

BootSafe=1

It kinda sounds like you are booting into safe mode every time.

Best

 

Unlikely it boots into safe-mode I think - very obvious "Safe Mode" warnings during and after booting, which louies does
not mention.
If it's not corrected by re-installing the video drivers, reseat
and/or replace the video card.
regards

 

I have searched the fourum for responses to similiar resolution questions. Some have suggested the video card, or video drivers could be the problem, and one suggested resetting the user profile. So far I havent
run across anyone who has included a statement that he/she did in fact find a fix. Where are the preferences for the video card stored? Is it on the video card itself or somewhere else?

 

No-one is telling you there is a "fix" as you call it.
You can only fix a faulty video card by replacing it.
There are no "preferences" stored with the video card or it's
drivers. These are Windows display options which may work
or not depending on the installed video card.
regards

 

The preferences that you change in Display Properties are stored in the registry. Going into the registry and changing this will not help, as doing it in Display Properties does the same thing.
I think you are either have corrupted drivers, or the video card has a slight failure.
You could try this for now, Restart in Dos Mode and do these commands.
scanreg /opt
scanreg /fix
When you get the message that windows has repaired your registry, reboot,

 

I don't know if this will be much help. But, I have run into a similiar problem a few times in the past. Very simply, updating/installing OpenGL drivers usually does fix this problem for me and allows me to change my resolution and color depth after reboot.

Many games come with OpenGL installation these days, or you could try searching google for a download. I can't remember the link off hand of the download I used, else I'd give it to you.

Hope this helps. If not, sorry.


Regards,

Mike

 

Thanks for the suggestions. The large icons continued to be a problem for about a week and then all of a sudden things changed and now all of the icons have become very small whereas before they were at the 640x480 resolution size and now retain that size each time the computer is shut down and re-booted. Previously you might recall I could reset the resolution but it would always reset to 640x480 on re-boot.

I have not as yet re installed the drivers. I did open the tower and make sure that the Graphics board was firmly seated and blew out a ton of accumulated dust.

 

res

I had a similar problem and found, through this site, that whenever I powered up the computer I needed to have the monitor on or else I'd have that problem.

http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27317

 

louies

just ran across your post about screen resolution problems - I have the same thing happening to my comptr - since Xmas - my grandson played Zoo Tycoon on here and the resolution did not go back to what it was supposed to be - and like you, I have to reset everytime I log on. Have had people from WindowsBBS try and help - but to no avail. Did you ever get your problem solved? If so, can you help me? I have a Dell Laptop with Windows XP. Thanks much!

 

Louies, I think Merlin is on target with his suggestions. Problem is probably either the video card or the drivers. But let me expand on this.

Has your display gotten really slow? If so inspect the video card. You say you have reseated it so I guess you are comfortable opening your PC. Howabout removing the card and visually inspecting it? If there is a brown or "burned" spot on the back side under the chip, it has probably been too hot and the chip is failing. If so, time to replace the video card. If this is an older system that you don't want to invest a lot in, you can probably pick up a suitable salvage or used video card for $1 to $10 that will work just fine.

Most probably though it is a driver problem. You don't say what card or drivers you are using, but some, such as Nvidia, can be tempermental and a simple reload may not be enough. You may have to remove the drivers and reload from scratch. But that is not as difficult as it sounds.

First go to display properties and change your driver to "standard vga" or which ever of the generic drivers provided by windows may be appropriate for your system. This will result in a 640 x 480 display with only 16 colors, but you can work with it.

Next, go to control panel, add/ remove software and remove the display drivers (should be listed under the name of the maker of the video card or the chip such as Nvida, S3, Diamond, etc.)

Then, since add/remove software usually doesn't remove all files, go to start, find and put in the name or your display card or chip. Delete the files found.

System should be clean now. So go to display properties and reload the correct drivers for your display card. (You may have been asked to restart your computer at various points in the above process. Do it)

This may seem like "overkill ", but I have had similar problems, tried half measures. They didn't work. The only thing that did was completly removing the drivers and starting over with a clean install.

Good luck!

Byron

 

Resolution

thanks Byron for the reply - will try what you suggest but probably cant do all this until Monday - am going out the door soon for the weekend so will try the "fix" on Monday - thanks for your time