Windows 10: Unable to change resolution on a laptop using Windows 10 with Microsoft Basic Display Driver.

My laptops GPU recently stopped working, forcing me to use the basic Microsoft driver in order to get a working display. The only issue is I need to lower the resolution, although the option to do so appears grayed out in the display settings. Advanced display settings doesn't give me the option to do so either.


Very disappointing that such a basic and needed feature doesn't appear to be available using the basic display drivers, I sure hope I'm missing something.

:)

 

Microsoft Basic Display Driver???

Dell studio laptop built for Windows 7 in 2010 (quite old).

Upgraded to windows 10 when it was released.

Has worked perfectly until 2 days ago when it dropped resolution from 1920x1080 back to 1024x768.

In device manager it correctly shows a mobility radeon 4500 series.

In display settings it has a max resolution of 1400x1050 which is squashed and useless.

Under display adapter properties it shows as Microsoft Basic Display Driver.

Tried installing ATI drivers.

Tried uninstalling/installing ATI drivers.

Tried uninstalling/installing Microsoft drivers.

All result in the same phenomenon.

Tried clean install of Windows 10 v1709

Tried clean install of Windows 10 v1607

Tried clean install of Windows 7 - resolved issue.

Tried upgrade back to windows 10 - resolution dropped.

Went into display adapter properties and updated driver, it updated to radeon 4500 series and briefly changed to 1080p. Then flickered and changed back to basic display driver.

Now useless, will have to go back to Windows 7 again which is hugely frustrating...

 

Laptop Screen Resolution Windows 10

Hi,

We suggest you to update the Display Adapter Drivers.

Step 1: Update the Display Adapter driver.

• Press Windows key + X key when you are at desktop.
• Select Device Manager.
• Expand Display Adapter.
• Right on the Display Adapter and click on Update driver software.

Refer to: How to: Install and Update drivers in Windows
10

Step 2: Kindly follow the below steps to change the resolution of the screen and check:

• 
  Type Change screen resolution in the Search box from the desktop.
  
• 
  Under Resolution search for the Recommended resolution and click on Apply.
  
• 
  A windows pops up saying "Keep these display settings", then select Keep changes.
  

There will be a recommended resolution for all the computers, and if you select more than the recommended resolution the screen would not support for that.



Hope this helps. Feel free to contact us for any further issues on Windows. We will be happy to help you.

Regards.

 

Display resolution keeps changing

Hi Rick,

It might be caused by a faulty driver that's why your display resolution keeps changing. We
suggest that you uninstall and reinstall the display driver, see steps below:

• Press Windows key + X and click on
  Device Manager.
• For graphics cards, expand the Display adapters category, right click your graphics card and select Uninstall.
• Restart your PC and Windows will attempt to reinstall the driver.

Let us know if you have any other questions.