Cannot change resolution without reboot

[j7n]

I reckon this is mostly software or driver problem, and not hardware, because it is cured by a reboot.

The issue here is that sometimes I can't change the screen resolution without a reboot. If I reboot I can again change resolutions for a while, until I do "something" with the computer. After that resolution changes are no longer possible. I can't determine what this something is; it might a badly written program that leaves the video driver in an "open" state.

If I go to display properties to set the resolution, I'm informed that I need to reboot. If I launch a game, which switches screen mode, the game either crashes (most of them) or it handles the case and switches to a compatibility windowed mode.

I'm seeing this under Windows XP with both nVidia and ATI cards. Has anybody encountered this problem?

[Tripredacus]

The restart prompt is usually caused by the drivers. If you have been changing cards in the same PC, you may have remnant files from previous video card installations. However, Windows can be configured with these settings:

[RJARRRPCGP]

Windows 95 OSR2 and later don't require a reboot to change the color palette nor the resolution.

[j7n]

Yes, I am aware of the setting. In older OS the default was to reboot, and a warning was shown the first time on-the-fly resolution change was attempted. But this state here is "dynamic"; the setting in display properties isn't being changed, no it is possible to override the choice to reboot.

Perhaps this is acceptable, and I'm just too reluctant to reboot.