Thread: Retain the resolution

I have just installed Windows Vista on my new computer. When I turn on the computer I get the lowest resolution on the screen. I open the Control Panel, double-click Display and select the Settings tab, then drag the bar from the lowest to the highest resolution and everything is okay. But when I restart the computer the lowest resolution returns. I have resorted to using Sleep instead of shutting it down to retain the high resolution.

This sounds like a driver problem, particularly as it's a new installation of Windows. Your graphics card needs a driver, a small piece of software that tells the computer how to work with the graphics card. If you don't have a separate graphics card, you'll still need a driver to tell the computer what to do. These drivers vary widely between manufacturers, but break down into three main groups - vidia, ATI and Intel. Intel doesn't make graphics cards, but if you don't have a card it's likely that you need Intel drivers for your computer. If you know what card you have, go to the appropriate website and download the latest drivers. If you don't know, find out from whoever built the compute. what the card is, and download the right driver as appropriate. Once it's installed, the resolution will stick once you change it.

The alternative, if your drivers are up to date, is that' there's another program on the computer that's resetting the screen resolution each time. Take a look in the Startup menu (found under All Programs in the Start menu) and see if there is anything there that might be the cause, such as a screensaver. If so, remove it from the Startup folder by dragging it with the left mouse button to the Desktop (you can replace it the same way if it's not the cause). Do this one program at a time until you've isolated the cause of the problem.