Vista has a bug in it's fancy new video system. The folks at Microsoft may argue as to whether it really is a bug or not, but it is.
The symptom is this: when Vista wakes up from its low-power "sleep" mode the screen resolution may be reset to a lower resolution mode.
The Fix is below.
Many techie sites around the web have mentions of this problem but all that I've found incorrectly blame it on the computer hardware or the hardware drivers or on the Windows Vista OEM computer makers mods to Vista. These are all incorrect; it is a Vista problem.
The actual problem has nothing to do with sleep mode, per se. Rather, it has to do with programs temporarily requiring a different resolution from the Vista video system. This was never an issue with earlier editions of Windows, up thru XP, as Windows managed screen resolution differently and generally programs ran in the resolution that they are given. Period.
In the new Vista video management system, Vista tries to help by dynamically adjusting the resolution to fit the program. There is a good reason for this; it's to help make video -- like downloaded TV shows and such -- look better and smoother. So no complaints there.
The problem seems to be that when Vista is finished "helping" the application by adjusting the video resolution it forgets to reset the resolution.
For example; if you plug your 1280x800 wide screen laptop into your 720p TV, Vista will adjust the resolution output to optimize the picture on the TV. Cool! But when you unplug the TV to go back to crusing the web or working in Word or whatever, Vista forgets to switch back to the correct resolution for the computer monitor.
So what does this have to do with "Sleep" mode? Here it is:
Most computers come with a screen-saver set on by default. Usually it comes on before Vista goes to sleep. You may have noticed when your Vista computer goes into screen saver mode that the screen sort of blinks a few times when it comes out of the screen saver. Sometimes you see the blink when it goes into the screen saver too. This is the Vista video system actively optimizing the video system for the job at hand -- the screen saver.
The problem is that Vista and screen savers don't seem to always communicate perfectly with each other. Most times this is OK because Vista will quickly figure it out and reset the resolution. BUT, for some reason, when Vista gets busy waking up, the communication between screen saver and Vista can just totally break down and Vista will be left with the screen resolution set to some lower-res configuration.
The Fix:
Actually, the work-around. Turn off the screen saver or set it to the "Blank" screen screen saver. This way the resolution will not be changed during the screen saver run and Vista will not get confused when the computer wakes up.
No; it is not drivers and it is not video chipset firmware. It is Vista doing its thing and getting confused during wake up.
Hopefully Microsoft will fix it for Vista SP1, but since they don't seem to have acknowledged this bug as of this writing so probably not.
Dood. Thanks! This was driving me crazy.
Absolutely brilliant! Finally an actual answer and solution that works! Too bad that I can't have a screensaver anymore, but either way thanks! This is a major hassle reducer.
Didn't work for me. :( Back to using Hibernation and disabling Sleep...
Also didn't work for me:(.
I hate how every time it moves my desktop icons around when the resolution changes!
But when I did this fix, I now can't drag and drop them....
I'll try to restart and see if that works.
I figured out that it was a windows-related issue, but disabling the screensaver didn't work, partially because it was already disabled :P
The issue also occurs when returning from hibernation (or sleep, dunno what the notebook does when I just close the lid). After logging in, the normal 1440:900 resolution is displayed, then 5 seconds later it switches to 1280:768.
Sometimes, a pop-up balloon indicates that the resolution could be improved by just clicking it, but most of the time that balloon doesn't show up.
The resolution also changes when alt-tabbing from games that run at 1440:900 (in-game setting) - although not all the games.
This fix is working for me thus far: I googled and read somewhere that somebody fixed their issues by opening msconfig (use the cmd prompt) and unchecking the use base video option. When I looked, my use base video option was already unchecked. So, starting from a low-res state, I (1) opened msconfig, checked the box, and closed msconfig to save the changes; (2) reset my screen to high-res; then (3) re-opened msconfig and unchecked the option. Upon closing msconfig I was prompted for a reboot, which I accepted. Upon reboot I had the proper screen resolution, including coming out of screen saver.
Note: my issues started when I did a remote desktop into my laptop. The machine I was remoting in from had a much lower max res, so I changed the resolution. After that I had to reset the resolution each time. Makes me reluctant to try that again!
a somewhat related issue in XP
Problem: IBM ThinkPad screen resolution changes when using Stand-By mode
Solution:
On my IBM Thinkpad T42 and T60 I fixed this by:
Fn+F7 (to get to the Presentation Director pop-up window)
then hit "Manage Schemes" button (bottom left)
Now I'm in the "Presentation Director Settings" window
hit the "Options" button (lower right)
Now **UN-check** the box for "Automatically restore default display setings when resuming from sleep state"
Hit OK, and OK again, to exit (no reboot necessary)
(I hope this works for you as well)
I did not have a background image and the resolution changed when going to sleep, screwing with everything on the desktop, but I added a background image and all is well now!
thanks a bunch. I'll see if this works. It only seems to change when the computer restarts. Ive also got the vista home premium edition.
My problem is similar. I have 2 hard drives, one with xp and the main one with vista. I have had to manually change which drive loads because the default was changed to the xp drive. I changed to the vista drive (which is now magicially reset to the xp drive). After I changed the booting drive to vista, the screen resolution seems to reset every time I restart or shutdown. It does not fix itself but requires me to do it. Kind of annoying and honestly, makes me want to pay the extra money for mac :\ .
I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM WITH XP
The solution fixed my problem! awesome. How do people come up with solutions like this? any hint, or is it just pure guess, hit and try?
I had this problem. Runtime resolution set to 1920x1200, yet screensaver set it to 1024x768. I changed the screensaver to "3D FlowerBox" with a Screen saver Setting of 1920x1200 and Sleep did not change my runtime resolution. Fixed.
Thanks, and glad it worked for some people, but actually Vista Ultimate SP1 with all updates still does it for me WITH SCREENSAVER DISABLED.
Someone give me an axe. :<
Thanks! Worked for me.
If your icons are moving every time you wake from sleep mode, go to "task manager" (ctrl+shift+esc) over to processes and close "explorer.exe". Next go over to applications, click on "new task" and type in "explorer.exe".
This will move your icons to their original locations.