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I have a dual monitor setup. Normally, they both display at 1680x1050. They have been setup this way for about a year. I'm using Windows XP Professional 2003 x64 SP2.

Today, out of nowhere, one of the monitors kicked back to a lower resolution. I was not playing with any configuration at the time.. in fact all I had done was close a window (maybe a browser). But the thing is that the resolution is still preserved partially by the fact that the screen will scroll when you move the mouse. So it's like looking through a 1024x768 window into a 1680x1050 world.

The monitor itself does not appear to be damaged, because I also have it connected to my netbook (via KVM) and higher resolutions work fine.

I tried uninstalling/reinstalling the drivers to no avail. System restore doesn't help either.

I'm unsure of the exact ATI card I'm using.. Device Manager lists it as "Radeon X300/X550/X1050". There is no Catalyst Control Center software installed. I tried to install it, but there doesn't seem to be a way to install it by itself ... it forces you to install another driver, which breaks both of my displays, forcing me to go into safe mode and run system restore again.

Any ideas?

Thanks

EDIT:

After playing around more, I discovered that the "scrolling" behavior is only present for aspect ratios that are not 4:3. For 4:3 ratios, it just stretches out to fit the wide screen. My monitor's native ratio is 16:9 .. what could be causing it to think it needs to scroll?

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    There is no Windows XP Professional 2003. There's Windows XP Pro and there's Windows 2003 Server. Which are you using?
    – Broam
    Mar 22, 2010 at 14:28
  • @Broam System Properties literally says "Microsoft Windows XP / Professional x64 Edition / Version 2003 / Service Pack 2"
    – Matt
    Mar 22, 2010 at 14:34
  • Then it is Windows XP SP2, 64-bit.
    – Broam
    Mar 22, 2010 at 16:48

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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What happens when you swap monitors? Maybe the graphics card has trouble detecting the native resolution. If you swap them you may be able to narrow down the problem to monitor or video card / PC. The 'scrolling' mode seems to be called 'virtual desktop'.

Oh and what does your video settings say? Does it show the intended 1680x1050?

The 'stretching' you mention in the title is probably a hardware-feature of your screen which you may be able to turn off via OSD.

Are you using DVI?

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    I haven't swapped monitors yet. When I get a chance I will do so and update my question. I assume the problem will affect both monitors, as the problem seems to be at the gfx card. With regard to video settings .. since the 'bug' started, it actually shows MORE display modes than it used to (up to a ridiculous 2048x1536). I almost wonder if I hit some sort of ATI hotkey that set a special mode.. but I cannot find a list of ATI hotkeys anywhere to check.
    – Matt
    Mar 24, 2010 at 16:08
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The first thing you need to do is to figure out what graphics card you have installed. Open up the case and look at the card (PCIe, AGP, PCI, or built into the motherboard) and find some kind of model/serial number. Look until you find it.

Next go to the AMD website (they bought ATI) and find the exact driver for you card and 64bit OS. I'm thinking there is a problem with the driver since you don't know what the card model is.

Most of my cards are ATI and I have had problems before because windows can't figure out what type of card I have and guesses all kinds of false model numbers which makes me download incorrect drivers and breaks windows.

You must install the right driver

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