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I've bought a new monitor recently and now am able to display much higher resolutions. However, every time I reboot my machine, it's on 1280x1024, the resolution on my old monitor. I can set it to the highest resolution once logged on, but why can't Windows 7 remember the resolution I had before rebooting?

Any ideas? Thanks a lot!

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4 Answers

Have you tried updating your monitor drivers to see if that will keep the screen resolution?

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Yeah, it doesn't work. It's not the display drivers. Sometimes I reboot, it remembers the resolution after I log in and then... it switches back to original resolution my old monitor was in. –  Dennis van der Stelt Mar 9 '11 at 20:06
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  1. Check the drivers for your monitor in Device Manager. If posible use specific drivers for your hardware.
  2. Upgrade your display adapter drivers if possible.
  3. Do a full shut down after setting the resolution. I had an issue where a users monitors (in Win7) would clone each other (rather than extend the desktop) after each restart and wouldn't remember the extend setting until a full shutdown was performed.
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See comment on other answer by w7pro –  Dennis van der Stelt Mar 9 '11 at 20:06
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Any chance Windows LiveMesh is installed?

It's known to screw up the resolution after every reboot.

Uninstall it or disable its services. (It's been discontinued anyway, so you're not losing anything)

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Here are some of the causes I've seen for this issue:

  • A bad cable. Make sure you're using a digital cable, such as DVI, HDMI, or Displayport, and that the cable is of good quality. If you are using resolutions above 1920x1080 and you are using DVI, you need to make sure you have a dual-link DVI.
  • Bad video card drivers. Update your NVIDIA / AMD and any integrated graphics (i.e. Intel)
  • Video cards fighting. Most intel-CPU-based systems now have integrated Intel graphics in addition to the discreet GPU. Sometimes one will try to override the other or gets incorrectly set somehow. Make sure they're set properly.
  • Monitor drivers - as a rule I rarely if ever install monitor drivers. Usually not needed for most monitors, but there are some which don't have their EDID programmed properly, or support enhanced color profiles etc.
  • Power switch - any chance you are completely powering off your display and unplugging it? That sometimes resets the in-monitor info, which can then make the PC think it's a new display every time you reboot.
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