Why did I suddenly go all VGA?
February 8, 2011 12:36 PM Subscribe
How did my laptop's display driver suddenly cease to exist?
Last week, I opened up my laptop, which had been asleep, and was in the middle of typing an email when suddenly the screen resolution changed itself, without warning, to 800x600. After some poking around, I determined that it had reset itself to Windows' default VGA driver, and I couldn't find any other drivers. After a little googling I was able to download the correct driver from the laptop manufacturer's website, and everything is fine again.
But... WTF? Is this going to happen again? Is there a virus that only eats video drivers? Should I be worried that my OS is corrupted somehow?
Relevant info: I am running Windows 7 on an ASUS UL30A laptop. I was running Firefox and iTunes at the time. I do not currently use any anti-virus software.
Last week, I opened up my laptop, which had been asleep, and was in the middle of typing an email when suddenly the screen resolution changed itself, without warning, to 800x600. After some poking around, I determined that it had reset itself to Windows' default VGA driver, and I couldn't find any other drivers. After a little googling I was able to download the correct driver from the laptop manufacturer's website, and everything is fine again.
But... WTF? Is this going to happen again? Is there a virus that only eats video drivers? Should I be worried that my OS is corrupted somehow?
Relevant info: I am running Windows 7 on an ASUS UL30A laptop. I was running Firefox and iTunes at the time. I do not currently use any anti-virus software.
Best answer: Yeah this usually happens when the driver running the card essentially crashes, provided it's not a hardware failure. My first step is to reboot, and then second step is to go hunt down an upgraded driver version. Drivers should be available here.
posted by msbutah at 1:01 PM on February 8, 2011
posted by msbutah at 1:01 PM on February 8, 2011
Also, you may have a reason for not running anti-virus software, but if you just don't want to bother with it may I suggest you install Microsoft Security Essentials. It's free, lightweight, and very unobtrusive.
posted by msbutah at 1:03 PM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by msbutah at 1:03 PM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]
And I'll come in, as I do following any other recommendation I see for MSSE, to point out that I've seen it do weird and irritating things to Windows computers, and that Panda Cloud Antivirus is also free (as in beer, for both personal and non-profit corporate use), lightweight, unobtrusive and competent.
posted by flabdablet at 3:36 PM on February 8, 2011
posted by flabdablet at 3:36 PM on February 8, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Iosephus at 12:53 PM on February 8, 2011