I was having a look at the Intel Driver package for my GMA IGP (I think's either GMA 900 or 950) and I've managed to set an incorrect resolution which is higher than my screen can display. Now, previously if I set the wrong resolution either "Esc" or "Enter" would revert the screen back but it didn't happen this time. I trying 'sleeping' and hard shut-downs using both the front and rear power buttons but I still come up with the same "cannot display this resolution" message on an otherwise blank screen. The next thing I tried was booting into safe mode. That worked as far as it went and I tried uninstalling the driver package in the hopes that the system might boot in normal using the generic windows driver and come up but it didn't. I'm running Vista Basic fully patched. I have a Vista disc but I'd rather not do a full re-install unless I can't absolutely avoid it as I've got a lot of programs, favourites and stuff like that saved on the machine that I don't want to lose. I have considered going into the shop I got it from and seeing if I could use one of their monitors for a few minutes (My monitor displays up to 1280x1024, the aberrant res is 1440x1050, I assume if I connected it to a monitor which supported 1080p via VGA then it should display okay and I'd be able to reset it. Would that work? Does anyone have any other ideas. Shamrock Holmes
Go in Safe Mode, set the screen resolution to 800x600, if it already at this resolution, increase it and decrease it back, so that the "Apply" button is no longer disabled. If that does not work, try under Safe Mode with VGA. Also, be sure to use DVI cable to connect the monitor to your graphic card. If all else fails, try using VGA cable to see if the DVI cable is broken or the DVI port on the graphic card (well motherboard)
Should have mentioned that the monitor was already connected via VGA not DVI and it wasn't a problem with the cable as a) the screen still displayed an error message and b) the same cable was able to connect to the second machine. However, I was able to get it to co-operate finally by using System Restore from Safe Mode (I'll bear in mind your suggestion as well. Shamrock.
Ok, may I ask, why are you have a digital screen (LCD) attached on analogue cable? Use DVI, as the computer knows the monitor information and specification.
Would love too. However, the IGP only has a VGA port and the old 17" Dell monitor I'm using to output is likewise VGA only.
Friends don't let friends buy Intel graphic solutions Did you try the Safe mode thing I mentioned? Also, in the device manager, do you have something that says something in the line of "(Microosft Corporation)" next to the graphic solution of Intel. How about in the properties? If so, then you are using Microosft drivers and not the Intel ones. And if that the case, and you are indeed installing the one from Intel, perhaps the setup failed installing the drivers. Plan B is that you can take your system back in time, to a period in time before you touched your screen resolution. To do this, simply boot form Vista disk, click on Repair Windows (or something along that line), and select Restore system from an early point in time option. The panel might take a short moment to show, when it shows, follow the wizard.
It is a bit pants yeah, I had originally planned on upgrading to an add-in GPU but the PSU wasn't having it (and I'm not comfortable with swapping that). Anyway, back to the OP, in the end I tried a combo of 1 & 2, specifically booting in Safe Mode (which worked fine thank you) and selecting System Restore. All's fine now. Thanks, Shamrock Holmes
