Stupid Me: Need advice on resetting video resolution (now with solution)

[MaxDepth]

UPDATE
I finally bit the bullet and used a second monitor. The reason I hesitated is because the HTPC is in a small space between the walls and it makes getting to the back of the case a pain in the butt. The small space was created when they built the house, designing the den and living room around a double chimney. There is a pocket space between the two rooms, the fireplace and a closet.

Anyway...THE SOLUTION:
1) Powered down the system
2) I connected the the second monitor through the DVI link and disconnected the HDMI link from the video card (AMD 6970)
3) Powered back up, logged into and had the second monitor running
4) Plugged the HDMI back and made the HDTV the second screen (two separate monitors not one large screen).
5) Adjusted the HDTV resolution to the proper resolution
6) Made the HDTV the primary screen, turned off the second monitor and unplugged the cables from the video card.

Took about 12-15 minutes total. The original problem was a dying battery in the bluetooth remote keyboard/mouse (http://www.logitech.com/en-us/support/dinovo-mini?osid=1&bit=32). It was giving constant key presses (Enter) making everything jitter and not useable.

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR HEP AND ADVICE!


--------- Original Post --------------------------------------------
Stupid, stupid me. I was working on my HTPC because for some reason I was getting a lot of icon flickering and small CPU spikes. I thought it may be my fans weren't working, darware going bad, etc.

I was eliminating every possibility when I started on on the video card. I have HDMI out to A/V receiver then out to old RCA tube HDTV. I noticed the screen resolution wasn't what I thought it should be (close to 1080i but slightly smaller due to overscan issues with the TV). Anyway I reset the video to an incompatible setting, which for some reason did not revert back to the old resolution after 15 seconds (you know the one that prevents this type of crap from becoming permanent).

Does anyone know how to reset an AMD bad screen resolution? I tried RDP'ing to the system but remote sessions cannot change video.

Thanks.

 

[MustISO]

Reboot into Safe Mode or use VGA mode from the F8 menu.

 

[MaxDepth]

I tried the safe mode and the reboot into VGA from the F8 menu. I get the login screen in the 640x480 but then afterwards the Catalyst Manager takes over. I think I will RDP back into the system and remove all the AMD drivers then reboot locally and see if I can have a basic resolution and then reinstall the drivers.

 

[iCyborg]

Uninstall drivers in safe mode and then reinstall them in normal mode. If you have a second monitor, you could do it without reinstalling drivers.

 

[Yuriman]

Uninstall drivers in safe mode and then reinstall them in normal mode. If you have a second monitor, you could do it without reinstalling drivers.

On that note, he could probably even use a different output from the video card, such as VGA, and achieve a similar result.

 

[tweakboy]

Uninstall drivers in safe mode and then reinstall them in normal mode. If you have a second monitor, you could do it without reinstalling drivers.

:thumbsup:

 

[iCyborg]

True, but as soon as he returns to the usual connector, I think drivers would remember old settings, so he'd need to find which registry keys store this, and delete them while connected via VGA. But yeah, it could be done that way too...

 

[MaxDepth]

Well, I tried uninstalling and reinstalling. No change. I also tried using another monitor to set the video then plug the HDMI back into the receiver. I went into the %system_root%\inf and renamed all the oem files that pertained to AMD graphic drivers.

I have not tried to clean the registry or use the TV and another monitor at the same time to use two screens and use the monitor to reset the TV resolution.

 

[MaxDepth]

Updated with solution