Multi-monitor resolution and position settings lost after reboot

Question

I've had two 1280x1024 monitors running for years on an nVidia 8800GT card with no problems. I've now replaced one monitor with a new 2560x1440 one. The card seems to support both fine, however every time I reboot the resolutions and monitor positions revert to the old settings. I've tried upgrading, downgrading, stripping out and reinstalling many versions of the nvidia drivers to no avail.

Logging in as another user doesn't help - same problem. Booting into another another OS (Win7 64) works OK, so it is just this OS installation. During boot up everything looks fine (ie native 2450x1440 res) until the nVidia control panel or something is loaded which flips it back into the old mode. I have no old saved nvidia profiles. I can't find anything in the registry relating to these old settings.

Its driving me crazy having to set resolutions and realign monitors on every reboot! Can anybody help?

Answer 1

I have this problem as well. I found a hotfix which is supposed to fix this issue: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2496400

Unfortunately it didn't help for me.

Answer 2

As requested by shufler, I am 'answering' my own question, well, it's a workaround anyway.

Basically, I think the nVidia control panel (or something) sets the resolution to some old values hidden somewhere (couldn't find them in the registry) towards the end of boot up but before log in. Removing the nVidia drivers, control panel, settings files, and registry settings (even using nVidia's own tools) does not fix the problem.

The workaround is just to automatically reset the res and positions to what you want after log in. I used the command line Display Changer utility to do this in a batch file which runs at start-up:

timeout 2
"C:\Program Files\12noon Display Changer\dccmd.exe" -max -more 
"C:\Program Files\12noon Display Changer\dccmd.exe" -monitor="\\.\DISPLAY2" -ty=416 -apply

The 2s timeout allows time for other stuff to load on boot up otherwise it doesn't always work YMMV. The first line sets the primary display monitor to its max resolution and waits for another command, the second line positions the y pos of the second monitor 416 pixels below the top of the first and applies both commands. See the display changer documentation for more info, most people will probably just need the first line with the -max setting.

Hope this helps somebody. If anybody figures out a proper fix please let me know.