Windows 7 Display stuck in 640x480 after restart

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kstarfire

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I'm running the Windows 7 Beta build 7000 on an HP Pavilion zd8000 laptop. Pentium 4 3.0ghz, 2GB ram, and ATI Raedon Mobility x600 graphics chip with 256MB dedicated memory.

This morning my display was running just fine at 1650x1080, 32-bit color. After installing iTunes 8.1 and restarting, my display is stuck at 640x480. In screen resolution options, I'm able to move the slider up to maximum resolution, but then it tells me it is "unable to save display settings".

The monitor type is listed as "unknown display device", rather than "generic pnP device". I also cannot access monitor properties. Even though I'm running as administrator, it tells me I "may not have sufficient authorization" or something.

I should clarify that this is NOT a driver issue with the graphics chip. Those drivers are working just fine, and I've uninstalled and reinstalled them just to make sure.

When I connect an external display my primary LCD shuts off and disappears from the displays list, as if it weren't attached. My external display is fully adjustable, scalable, and accellerated. Windows 7 just refuses to recognize my LCD.

I'm currently running Ubuntu 8.10 and the screen looks just fine and is running at native maximum resolution. The problem is obviously software-side and not a hardware issue.
 
Solution
Hi kstarfire,
I have the same problem with Win7 on a ATI x600, and I have made some progress towards solving this:
My laptop is a Samsung X50, 2Ghz, 2GB RAM, ATI Radeon Mobility x600 with 128mb video ram and 1920x1200 screen.
I think the problem has to do with WinSAT and your screen's maximum resolution, and has nothing to do with iTunes.

I have formatted my drive, and re-installed Vista and Win7 many many times, and even bought a second X50, so I could swap parts to try to resolve this issue, and here is what I found:
Both XP and Ubuntu Linux work fine on any screen, but Vista and Win7 only work on crappy low-resolution screens.

Once ATI x600 drivers are installed with a 1920x1200 screen, windows immediately tries to switch to the...
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I hate to argue.. but it really sounds like it IS a driver issue with either your gpu OR maybe your chipset... Are you using Windows 7 specific drivers or Windows Vista drivers for your gpu? I don't use iTunes at all so I can't really say much regarding that... I'd suggest reinstalling both your Chipset and Gpu drivers and see if that makes any positive difference..
 
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Like I said, I've already done that. The display was working fine until I restarted my machine. There were no problems whatsoever. I'm using the Windows 7 specific drivers, they were included in the first batch of updates.

EDIT: I'm about to throw a chair through a window. After spending some time in Ubuntu, I loaded back into Win7 to see if I could troubleshoot the problem.

It fixed itself.
 
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And after restarting AGAIN, the problem returns, exactly as described above.

It seems like drivers shouldn't randomly install and uninstall, and it's even worse that administrative rights arbitrarily change between sessions.

Anyone else having this problem?
 
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Come on, SOMEBODY has to have an answer.

My display has survived several restarts with no problems. However, today, the problem has returned AGAIN. Last time this occured I booted into Linux, ran some programs in WINE and that seemed to fix the problem for the next rotation. I'll try that again.
 
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I agree with Radenight that your display settings problem is driver related . From the chronology of the problem as you have posted, my best guess is that the correctly installed ATI Radeon Mobility x600 graphics chip driver for your HP Pavilion zd8000 laptop's Display adapter (Videocard driver) has probably become corrupted after you installed Itunes 8.1. This assumption is based on the proximity of the problem to that software install, absence of the problem in Linux System (I guess you tried a Linux Live CD to test) and its reproduction in an external monitor. What remains to be known is the absence of ATI Radeon Mobility x600 against Display adapter in Device Manager which at this time would be showing VGA adapter (Basic) instead.

If that is proven, try uninstalling the Itunes 8.1 and reinstalling the correct VISTA Display adapter driver from the HP download site that would correspond to the X32 or X64 Bit Windows 7 Beta you have installed.

Once the system works ok with proper Display settings for several reboots, try
new download of iTunes 8.1 making sure it is not corrupt and install and try again.
 
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I've done all that. The problem occurs completely at random. Some boots it recognises my MONITOR and some boots it doesn't. This is not an issue with the graphics chip driver. Sometimes it sees it as "PnP Monitor" and it works fine. Other times it sees it as "Unknown Display Device" and it's all messed up. This occurs regardless of having my graphics drivers installed.

There is no basis for this problem. I uninstalled iTunes and have reinstalled the video drivers countless times. The problem occurs at random.

EDIT: Just to prove my point: My display is once again working fine. The only thing I did to my last Windows session (when the display was boned) was restart my computer.
 
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Since Driver is the "translator" between the Device ( in this case Video card) and the Operating System ( Windows 7 Beta) OS cannot understand (recognize) the existence of the device ( Unknown Display device or VGA adapter (basic) if the correct translation does not occur because of improper or corrupt Device driver for that Operating System. Your Linux Distro has native driver for this card and will have no display problem while using the very same Video card and the LCD monitor. But unfortunately Windows 7 Beta has no driver for this particular video card and has to depend upon downloaded drivers. All we can say is that there is no hardware issue ( video card is not damaged) but it cannot communicate with the OS back and forth because of the lack of a good "translator" and the OS decides to use the most primitive mode of display on the Monitor i.e. VGA driver it has which limits the monitor resolution.

You may test this by launching your DirectX Diagnostic tool. ( Click Start> and type DXDIAG in the Search programs and files box and then click on Display tab.

Since you have stated "I uninstalled iTunes and have reinstalled the video drivers countless times" I suggest a driver cleanup tool before you make a fresh start to get rid of corrupt files in your Windows \inf\ or Windows \system32\drivers and registry entries.

I have not personally used but some claim success using Driver Cleaner Professional 1.5 to get rid of driver file remanants that might cause problems similar to yours. The other less desirable option is to reinstall the OS to start all over again.
You may be able to download the Driver Cleaner Pro from:

http://www.freedownloadsplace.com/Driver-Cleaner-Professional-1.5-Download-8915.htm

I will be certainly interested to know how you will finally solve this issue.
 
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When I first installed the Win7 beta, there was a driver download for my specific graphics card in Windows Update.

The problem is NOT the graphics driver. When my laptop LCD is screwed up, I can still plug in an external monitor and get all the features of my graphics card. EVERY SINGLE FEATURE.

THE GRAPHICS DRIVER IS WORKING FINE.

The problem is Windows isn't always properly detecting what type of display I have, and it's happening at random.
 
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The graphic driver could work fine if and when Windows could load it after several reboots from among other files in its cache on the contrary, Linux will have no problem to make the display normal after every reboot as it probably did not require you to provide the needed drivers.

Since someone having similar problems might find this thread, I am posting additional steps one could use to troubleshoot their display problem.

  • Remember to close/disable any DL accelerators, fire-walls and antivirus programs while downloading or installing the drivers to avoid file corruption.
  • Test your drivers using DXDiag: as previously posted.
    If any of the Display options are Disabled and you cannot Enable them,
    your best option would be to update your Chipset Drivers
  1. For your Radeon Mobility 3000 , you may look at the following URL.
    Link Removed
  2. On the webpage, navigate through and select from the 3 panes, (1) Windows 7 [ 32 or 64 bits as the case may be[ (2) Mobility Radeon and (3) 3000 Series respectively and then download and save it for example in C:\ATI\RadMob3k
  3. Next Restart and pressing F8 during bootup , get Start Menu options screen
  4. Choose Safe Mode.
  5. Login into Safe Mode
  6. Open Device Manager [ Windows Logo +Pause /Break key( in some systems+ Fn key)> System Properties >Device Manager from left Pane or R-click Computer > Properties( to get System Properties) >Device Manager
  7. Scroll down to and expand +Display Adapters / right- click on
    the adapter, click on "Uninstall", and click No if prompted to Reboot
  8. Open Control Panel / Programs and Features to uninstall the
    previous driver (exe)Link Removed due to 404 Error which may have been installed.
  9. Restart the computer in Safe Mode by tapping the F8 key
    as it starts rebooting to select Safe Mode.
  10. Click "Cancel"if Windows prompts you to install the Video card
  11. In safe Mode , navigate to your C:\ATI\RadMob3k and click on the Driver Installation file previously downloaded and saved.(Step 2 above)
  12. Ignore any question about Windows Logo Certification by clicking "Continue"
  13. Once driver installation has finished, Reboot
  14. After you reboot, go to Device Manager and confirm your Display adapter (Ati Radeon Mobility 3000)
  15. Right click blank area on Desktop> Personalize>Display (Left bottom) >Adjust Resolution and choose your settings and save.
 
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Just wondering, where did you download Windows 7 from?

Next time this happens, go to device manager > Display adapters, and see if your GPU shows up there. if it does, double click it and see if there are any errors.
 
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Matt said:
Just wondering, where did you download Windows 7 from?

Next time this happens, go to device manager > Display adapters, and see if your GPU shows up there. if it does, double click it and see if there are any errors.
Click to expand...

I got win7 straight from Microsoft. And I have checked when the display does screw up; the GPU is indeed there, there are no errors, and the driver is up-to-date.

I don't know why people on this forum insist on misreading things. It's NOT a problem with my GPU, it's a problem with properly detecting my monitor type.
 
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Hi kstarfire,
I have the same problem with Win7 on a ATI x600, and I have made some progress towards solving this:
My laptop is a Samsung X50, 2Ghz, 2GB RAM, ATI Radeon Mobility x600 with 128mb video ram and 1920x1200 screen.
I think the problem has to do with WinSAT and your screen's maximum resolution, and has nothing to do with iTunes.

I have formatted my drive, and re-installed Vista and Win7 many many times, and even bought a second X50, so I could swap parts to try to resolve this issue, and here is what I found:
Both XP and Ubuntu Linux work fine on any screen, but Vista and Win7 only work on crappy low-resolution screens.

Once ATI x600 drivers are installed with a 1920x1200 screen, windows immediately tries to switch to the screen's maximum resolution, which seems to be too much for windows to handle. When it fails Vista will disable Aero Glass, and Win7 will
get stuck at 640x480. Both Vista and Win7 will work fine with an external XGA screen though, just like you described.

If I open up the laptop and replace the internal screen with a 1650x1080 (same as yours) then Vista glass will SOMETIMES work, but 9 out of 10 times it will still fail, so I have to spend hours starting up and shutting down, before it works.

However, my older Samsung X20, with ATI Radeon x600, 64mb video ram and SXGA+(1400x1080) runs vista just fine.
Also, if I replace the X50 laptop's internal screen with a crappy old WXGA (1280x800), then Vista glass works every time!
I suspect the same goes for Win7, but I havent tried this yet.

A better solution was to install very old Vista RC1 drivers (found on Softpedia). Then Aero glass works with ANY screen!
I think Vista and Win7 use winSAT to check your system's specs, before enabling full Aero Glass.
Unlike newer drivers, the RC1 drivers are older than winSAT, so they just work, regardless of system specs.
Newer drivers wont enable glass until after a system rating is performed, which always hangs halfway but RC1 drivers dont need this. Unfortunately I cant yet get the Vista RC1 drivers to install on Win7, due to an incompatibility, but I'm still trying.

Also, maybe its possible to set Win7 to run at 1280x800 on your 1650x1080 screen BEFORE it tries the maximum resolution, fails and gets stuck at 640x480, but I havent figured out how to do this either.

Unless a fix is found soon, I'll be sticking with Ubuntu Linux permanently.
 
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Solution
Exactly the same has happened to me. I restarted my pc last night and it done it but i am sur its a driver issue as i have different display options appear after the restart. I am not fussed as i dont ever really restart my pc lol

Cant turn my monitor off for very long or it wont turn on till i heat it with a hair dryer lol
 
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I still say you shouldn't have used the driver that came through Windows Updates.. they are crap... plain and simple.. they suck..
But then again what do I know..
 
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Gave up on Windows.

At the time of my last post, I was running Windows7 build 7022.
Soon after that post, I formatted, and installed the latest build 7100.
I tried the same ATI drivers I used under build 7022, and even tried the latest drivers from windows update.
With build 7022 at least it worked at 640x480, but now I get nothing but a black screen.
Windows is going from bad to worse.

That was the final straw.
I then gave up on Windows and switched to Ubuntu Linux for good.
 
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I had a very similar problem.

This may be very late, but I encountered the same problem today on my external monitor connected to my laptop. It kept giving me the dialogue message: "Unable to save display settings", and was stuck in 640x480.

The problem may be caused by any configuration tools included with your graphics card. When my screen resolution decided to stop changing through windows 7, I went into the nVidia graphics menu for my graphics card. I found this by right-clicking, and pressing "nVidia Control Panel". Now since you have a different chipset than mine, the path you take to get to the graphics card control panel may be very different. I would suggest right clicking, hitting "screen resolution", selecting the monitor giving you trouble, then clicking the "Advanced Settings" hyperlink(?) in the menu. I was able to access my graphics card control panel through a large tab with the nVidia logo and the name of my graphics card. This could be different with your graphics card, but I would be surprised if ATI hadn't released a similar tool with their cards.

Anyway, I was able to change my display settings in this menu with no problems. It may not work for you or not be applicable anymore, and in that case hopefully someone with the same problem will find this forum and my reply helpful.

As far as i know, the problem was not caused by drivers.
 
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