Display Settings Revert to 640x480x8 on reboot

[Guest]

Win XP Home, SP2
NVidia GeForce FX5200 128 MB with latest drivers (as of today)

Upon reboot, display settings revert to 640 x 480 x 8 bit color. Settings
can be changed to anything and they work correctly, but revert again upon
reboot. Have tried uninstalling and reinstalling, have deleted the user
profile and created a new profile. Have created a new user and the problem
exists in all these occasions.

Have run virus and spyware scan and found nothing serious (IST was there,
but not much else)

Any help appreciated

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

Win XP Home, SP2
NVidia GeForce FX5200 128 MB with latest drivers (as of today)

Latest from the manufacturer, right? You didn't install driver updates from
Microsoft, I hope? If so, go get the mfr's driver from their website &
install it in device manager.

 

[Guest]

Drivers were from NVidia's website.

In

Latest from the manufacturer, right? You didn't install driver updates from
Microsoft, I hope? If so, go get the mfr's driver from their website &
install it in device manager.

 

[Malke]

Drivers were from NVidia's website.

Swap out the video card for a known-working one. Uninstall the old one
from Windows first. If the new card solves the issue, throw the old one
out because it was failing.

Malke

 

[Guest]

The card in question is brand new out of the retail box.

Once windows has loaded, I am able to change the display settings to
anything and it works fine until reboot. Seems to be an issue with Windows
not being able to remember a setting rather than a HW problem.

This is a Dell box with an Intel board and an Intel display adapter built
in. I went into device manager and disabled the Intel device and rebooted to
the same problem.

Completely uninstalled the NVidia board and all drivers, re-enabled the
Intel adapter and rebooted to the exact same problem. Two adapters, both
with the same symptoms generally means SW, not HW.

Thanx
Pat

 

[Malke]

The card in question is brand new out of the retail box.

Once windows has loaded, I am able to change the display settings to
anything and it works fine until reboot. Seems to be an issue with
Windows not being able to remember a setting rather than a HW problem.

This is a Dell box with an Intel board and an Intel display adapter
built
in. I went into device manager and disabled the Intel device and
rebooted to the same problem.

Completely uninstalled the NVidia board and all drivers, re-enabled
the
Intel adapter and rebooted to the exact same problem. Two adapters,
both with the same symptoms generally means SW, not HW.

Quite right and if you'd told us all that pertinent information in your
*first* post you would have gotten more differently-focused answers.

Perhaps this tweak from MVP Kelly Theriot will help:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm - Save Settings on Exit
(Line 54)

Also look in Event Viewer for clues.

Also try clean-boot troubleshooting to see if you have something running
that could be causing the issue.

Clean Boot - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=310353
and How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560

Malke

 

[jt3]

In defence of OP, you and everyone else here responds better to brevity than
completeness - - -

 

[Malke]

In defence of OP, you and everyone else here responds better to
brevity than completeness - - -

Not true. A good post will include all pertinent details, be written
clearly and concisely, using paragraph breaks or numbered points.
Certainly a post can be too long, written like a
stream-of-consciousness novel, in all capital letters, or all small
ones. Length does not equal completeness.

This is a technical support newsgroup and the object of the poster is to
get help for a problem. To that end, the poster needs to make it easy
for people reading his/her post without sacrificing necessary details.

A good post will give enough information about the computer, the
operating system, any relevant software (antivirus, etc.), and the
problem so that one does not have to pull details out of the poster
over the course of many posts. The information included in Pat's third
post combined with a description of the problem should have been the
*first* post. I'm not picking on Pat - when I or other regulars point a
poster to a "how to make a good post" link it is to help them maximize
their chances of getting the answers they need.

Malke

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Not true. A good post will include all pertinent details, be written
clearly and concisely, using paragraph breaks or numbered points.
Certainly a post can be too long, written like a
stream-of-consciousness novel, in all capital letters, or all small
ones. Length does not equal completeness.

This is a technical support newsgroup and the object of the poster is
to get help for a problem. To that end, the poster needs to make it
easy for people reading his/her post without sacrificing necessary
details.

A good post will give enough information about the computer, the
operating system, any relevant software (antivirus, etc.), and the
problem so that one does not have to pull details out of the poster
over the course of many posts. The information included in Pat's third
post combined with a description of the problem should have been the
*first* post. I'm not picking on Pat - when I or other regulars point
a poster to a "how to make a good post" link it is to help them
maximize their chances of getting the answers they need.

Well said! An incomplete description of a problem gets a request for more
information,*if* you're lucky. If you're unlucky, it just gets ignored.

 

[jt3]

Notice that I did not suggest that brevity was preferable to completeness.
I'm merely suggesting that, based on my observation of the posts and
responses, completeness is often mistaken for prolixity, and thus, if OP
finds conciseness difficult, the general tenor of responses is often likely
to induce brevity at the expense of clarity.

 

[Rock]

Notice that I did not suggest that brevity was preferable to completeness.
I'm merely suggesting that, based on my observation of the posts and
responses, completeness is often mistaken for prolixity, and thus, if OP
finds conciseness difficult, the general tenor of responses is often likely
to induce brevity at the expense of clarity.

Could you briefly clarify that?

 

[Guest]

Fair enough.

Since the last post, I have run SFC /scannow and rebooted. Same problem.

Applied the .reg file from Kelly's Korner from Line 54 to Save Settins On
Exit. Same problem.

Ran MSCONFIG and disabled services and startup items. Same problem.

Went to reenable settings in MSCONFIG and noticed the boot.ini had
/basevideo switch added. Looks like someone had edited the boot.ini before I
got to it and deleted all entries except the VGA mode option. Took the
/basevideo switch off and *poof*, everything is working normally.

Hate when I overlook something simple like that ... [sound of palm smacking
forehead!]

In the future, I will try to make the first post more complete. Its hard
sometimes to sort out in my mind what needs to be included in the post, but
next time I will err on the side of completeness rather than brevity.
Thanks for all your help everyone.