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Fix: Close lid on laptop changes screen resolution


I’ve got a Dell Precision M65.  It rocks.  Dual core.  2gb’s of RAM with room for up to 4gb.  Two hard drives.  Virtual Server 2005 R2 just plain screams.

Last week I downloaded and installed all the updated drivers from Dell after I started getting some blue-screens related to my wifi driver and video driver.  Since updating, I haven’t gotten any more blue-screens but I got this new, weird anti-feature: whenever I close the lid on my laptop, the screen resolution temporarily changed to 800×600 and resized all the windows and messed with the window layout.  It’s not a real debilitating issue but it’s irritating. 

Dell’s tech support was (surprisingly) unhelpful on this one.  I found the answer in a Dell support forum for a different kind of laptop.

Go into the registry (regedit.exe).  Go to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlVideo] and find all the keys named “LidBehavior“ anywhere under this folder.  (HINT: once I got to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlVideo], I had to drill down 2 or 3 levels in a couple different places.  I found 2 LidBehavior keys.)  For each LidBehavior, change the value from 11 to 10.  Reboot.  Problem solved.

Big thanks to Jim Barry for this one.

-Ben

 

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2 responses to “Fix: Close lid on laptop changes screen resolution”

  1. George Warrington Avatar
    George Warrington

    Just adding more detail to my previous post…i have the power settings to ‘do nothing’ when the lid is closed and the computer doesnt go into standby otherwise the ‘power light’ would be flashing and it’s not. Thanks again, George.

  2. Quaris Max Avatar
    Quaris Max

    Thanks a lot for sharing this. You saved my day.

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