Laptop screen resolution problems

Preds

Commendable
Nov 3, 2016
8
0
1,510
Hi guys, having major problems with my laptop, a Toshiba Satellite one. You see I had installed a Windows 10 update after a prompt by the computer to do so, which required a restart, did it successfully but when it restarted, everything seemed different, the screen resolution is changed from 1366 x 768 to 1024 x768, so I guess it appears stretched out but "1024 x 768" is the highest and "recommended" setting available. Plus the screen flickers, speed seems to be slightly affected and a game I play regularly, does not fit the screen properly with visible margins and such plus the smoothness is gone, leaving it unstable. Now maybe you may say change the graphics card drivers.
Okay, I did this a while back to update gaming performance and everything was ruined; had to replace the Graphics card!! which ain't cheap as you all know! So that can't be the problem.

I don't have a clue what to do, so hoping for some genuine help! All helpful advice are appreciated. Thank you all.

As for my laptop, I'll give the details:

Model Toshiba Satellite L855 B724
CPU Intel Core i7 3630QM @ 2.40 GHz (4 Cores, 8 threads)
GPU: AMD radeon HD 7600m series
OS: Windows 10 Home Single Language 64-bit
RAM 6GB
DirectX12
Display:
Generic PnP Monitor
Current Display Mode 1024x768 (32 bit) (64 Hz)

Thanks again for your time and assistance.
 
Solution

For the last approx 5 years, these dual GPU laptops (Intel/Nvidia or Intel/AMD) work by having the Intel integrated graphics always driving the screen. The discrete GPU acts as a co-processor. The game renders a frame on the dGPU. When it's completed, the drivers (Optimus for Nvidia, I forget the name for AMD) transfer the completed frame from the dGPU to the iGPU for display on the screen. (Basically vsync is always on, with the two GPUs acting as your vsync buffers.)

Getting this operating properly requires the correct drivers. The default Nvidia and Intel drivers, and I suspect the AMD drivers will not work. You will have to go to...

TJ Hooker

Honorable
Apr 15, 2014
199
0
10,710
I'll be honest, the first thing anyone is going to suggest is to reinstall graphics drivers, or maybe do a clean install of the OS (which would of course entail installing drivers).

I don't know how you managed to damage you graphics card by updating your drivers last time. How did you manage to roll back to your previous drivers when that happened?
You can always just reinstall whatever driver version you have now.
 

For the last approx 5 years, these dual GPU laptops (Intel/Nvidia or Intel/AMD) work by having the Intel integrated graphics always driving the screen. The discrete GPU acts as a co-processor. The game renders a frame on the dGPU. When it's completed, the drivers (Optimus for Nvidia, I forget the name for AMD) transfer the completed frame from the dGPU to the iGPU for display on the screen. (Basically vsync is always on, with the two GPUs acting as your vsync buffers.)

Getting this operating properly requires the correct drivers. The default Nvidia and Intel drivers, and I suspect the AMD drivers will not work. You will have to go to your laptop vendor's support site, find Windows 10 graphics drivers, and install those.

If your laptop vendor doesn't have Windows 10 drivers for this laptop, then you can give the Windows 8.x drivers a shot. They may work. But even if they do, Windows 10 will immediately "helpfully" upgrade your drivers to the newer generic Win 10 drivers (direct from Intel and AMD/Nvidia) that do not work. Even though these don't work, Windows 10 thinks they are better because it's coded to think any Win 10 driver is better than a Win 7/8.x driver, even if the Win10 driver is generic while the Win 7/8 driver is specific to your hardware. You'll have to do what I do:

  • ■Manually download the Win 8 graphics drivers (Intel and Nvidia/AMD) from your laptop vendor's support site.
    ■Allow Windows 10 update to complete.
    ■Disable the Windows Update service (This PC -> right click -> Manage -> Services and Applications).
    ■Install the Win 8 graphics drivers you downloaded.
    ■Once a month or so you'll have to re-enable the Update service to get Windows updates and security patches, then repeat this procedure.
There used to be an option to disable driver updates in Win 10, but Microsoft removed it in the Oct 2016 update. They *might* have added a similar option back in - I think I saw it while reverting drivers on a client's computer. But I haven't tested it with my video drivers yet. In the device properties page, under driver, there was an option to revert to a previous version of the driver. If you've got that, give it a shot first.
 
Solution

Preds

Commendable
Nov 3, 2016
8
0
1,510


Hi there Solandri,
very sorry for the late reply,

I have managed to "fix" the issue by reverting back to the previous version of Windows 10, before the update happened in the "Update and Security" option in the settings section. Everything went back to normal, thankfully, including the speed and resolution specifications - 1366 x 768.

Thank you for elaborating how the integrated structure of the laptop works along with the drivers of Windows 10. I hope Microsoft can really sort out this messy issue of updating what's not necessary; 'if it in't broke, why fix it?", as they say. :/

Thanks again for your time, friend. :)