Introduction

I caught the HTPC bug sometime back and went about building one after receiving component recommendations from Sandy Bird, one of our Senior Editors. The installation went smoothly. Then, one day I encountered an issue I had not seen before. Switching the source input from the HTPC to some other source, such as my DVR, and then back to the HTPC would sometimes give a small 800x600 window centered on the display. The output was no longer 1080p, the resolution I started out with. Additionally, an attempt to restore the original setting through the display panel dialog was futile, since all the 16x9 aspect ratio options were absent. Only resolutions with a 4x3 aspect ratio were selectable. The cure for this ill was to reboot the system. I did figure out a workaround later on which did not require a reboot, but it is best to not have this issue altogether.

I hoped that this was a temporary problem, solvable by a future driver update. I was quick to update my system with new drivers when they became available. Some versions were better, while some were worse. Unfortunately, many updates later, the problem remained. I asked Sandy, who has the same motherboard, an ASUS P5E-VM HDMI, if he had ever come across this problem. His answer: no.