Display resolution changes unwanted

R

Rich Pasco

A friend asked me to help solve this problem and I'm stumped.
She has a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop with a 1280 x 800 LCD.

She sets the display resolution to its highest 1280 x 800 via the
Control Panel / Display Properties / Settings dialog, and is instructed
to reboot. When she does, the display comes up at that resolution,
until after she logs in. Then, while her applications are being loaded,
the display resolution suddenly changes to 800 x 600 pixels.
This process is repeatable: Each time she changes it she reboots, and
it displays at high-resolution until after she logs in, then it changes
back.

As an experiment we created a new user account (also with administrator
privileges). When that new user logs in, the display can remains at the
high-resolution setting all day. But if that user logs of and my friend
logs in with her original account, the display reverts to 800 x 600.

Evidently something is getting loaded when she logs in that sets it
back. But what? Her personal Startup Group is empty. I also looked
in the registry at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run and
didn't see anything that looked like it would change the display.

So what can I do next to find the guilty application?

- Rich
 
M

Malke

Rich said:
A friend asked me to help solve this problem and I'm stumped.
She has a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop with a 1280 x 800 LCD.

She sets the display resolution to its highest 1280 x 800 via the
Control Panel / Display Properties / Settings dialog, and is
instructed
to reboot. When she does, the display comes up at that resolution,
until after she logs in. Then, while her applications are being
loaded, the display resolution suddenly changes to 800 x 600 pixels.
This process is repeatable: Each time she changes it she reboots, and
it displays at high-resolution until after she logs in, then it
changes back.

As an experiment we created a new user account (also with
administrator
privileges). When that new user logs in, the display can remains at
the
high-resolution setting all day. But if that user logs of and my
friend logs in with her original account, the display reverts to 800 x
600.

Evidently something is getting loaded when she logs in that sets it
back. But what? Her personal Startup Group is empty. I also looked
in the registry at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run and
didn't see anything that looked like it would change the display.

So what can I do next to find the guilty application?
Click to expand...

Do clean-boot troubleshooting:

Clean boot in Windows XP - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

Clean-boot advanced troubleshooting in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560

Malke
 
R

Rich Pasco

Thank you for these suggestions! My friend was able to resolve her problem.

- Rich
 

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