I have tried troubleshooting this for weeks and I still don't know why it's happening. Basically, when I shut down my desktop at night, when I turn it on the next morning there's a high chance that it'll be set at a 1024x768 resolution instead of its native 1920x1200. It's not every time and it's not on restart (i.e., if I fix the resolution, then restart or even just shutdown and immediately turn back on, it will stay at the correct resolution until I turn it off for hours again), so troubleshooting takes a long time.
This only began happening after I moved cities, so my first thought was that something was physically damaged in the move, but after replacing the DVI cable and switching to a different monitor socket on the tower the problem is still occurring.
I have already tried using regedit to manually change all the monitor entries to 1920x1200 as per this fix (though I will admit mine had many more entries than I expected considering I've only ever used one monitor--not sure if that's relevant; also I know that link is for Win7, but I can't find the link I used that offered the same steps for Win8), updated my video drivers, disabled Base Video as per this fix, and attempted to disable all services through msconfig to see if one of them was causing it. None of these has worked reliably.
The problem, though, is that because I need to use this computer daily, I can't just shut it off for eight hours at a time to test. In addition, because the problem only occurs after extended time off, I can't be sure I've fixed it by just restarting. The first time I tried killing all the services through msconfig and then restarted, the resolution appeared fixed. I thought I could turn them back on in groups at a time to see what caused it, but after I'd slowly worked all the way through the whole list (restarting every time), the problem still didn't occur again. Then the next morning after having been off all night, there it was again: 1024x768.
Also, I don't know where to put this, but if the computer boots with the wrong resolution, if I unplug the monitor from the back of the tower and then plug it back in the resolution is fixed. All my icons are disarranged, of course, but the resolution stays correct until the next morning. In addition, when I go to change the resolution after a faulty boot, the correct resolution displays and can be changed to without incident.
I cannot isolate any other software or hardware changes since this problem began. The monitor is a standard PnP generic which I've used for years (LG W2452TQT).
Currently running:
- Windows 8.1, 64-bit
- AMD FX 8350 8 core processor
- 8.00 GB RAM
- two AMD Radeon R9 270X in Crossfire, drivers 14.401.1003.0 for both (and yes, I do have the Catalyst software installed, but a fine-toothed comb hasn't shown me any settings to tweak there for this problem. I may absolutely be missing something, though.)
- I have no idea what else you'd like to know but am happy to provide screenshots of anything you might need.
Thanks in advance for any help. This is a small problem, but extremely frustrating!