phantom administrator has disabled my display control panel!

[spartacus]

Hi,

have another real frustrator on my hands AGAIN!!
It goes a little something like this... I have dual monitors (running on Win 2k pro) attached to ATi Radeon 128 meg graphics card. Up until a few weeks ago everything ran smoothly and i had no problems.

The ATi card comes with 'Hydravision' software to control the behaviour of windows when maximised across two monitors. Each application 'learns' which monitor to default to, and how to maximise (e.g Reason 2 goes across two screens, most other apps e.g. Word maxes to one monitor etc)

Anyway, I started to notice odd behaviour from the apps - maximising oddly and not reappearing in the 'correct' positions - this got really annoying, as what is the point in having software to control apps over two monitors if it doesnt work properly??

Now each time i play any PC game, when i quit out of the game the resolution on my screens goes to 2000 * 1200 (or thereabouts) and the desktop is hugely bigger than it was before i played the game - so big in fact that when i move the mouse to the bottom of the screen the display actually scrolls down until i get to the task bar.

I put up with this [each time i finished playing a game, going through the rigmarole of resetting the desktop] until today. I finished playing half life, quit to windows and went to adjust my display settings only to be greeted by the message 'The system administrator has disabled the display control panel' with no options - just an OK button beneath it.

I restarted the PC and tried the same thing again (quitting from game and attempted to adjust desktop) and the same problem. It let me reset the desktop to its usual and i carried on with my work.

Lo and behold after another game, the same situation. So i restarted - the same message came up but i cannot reset my desktop - even though i set up my PC and have administrator priveliges...

Please help cos this sucks...


I know that reinstalling my graphics card and its drivers may cure the problem - but why should i have to do this when no changes have been made? - this seems to have happened out of the blue...



As an aside i also have a post in the hardware section for help with an MBR problem - could this be related...

Thanks v much for reading this far and any help/advice will be gratefully appreciated

Best Regards

sp.

[PCguy]

Stuff like this happens. I would update all drivers and windows updates. Then try again. Also, whatever game freaks out the PC, make sure it too is updated.

[brad]

Why not create a profile on each computer? Then just switch from your "gaming" profile to your "normal" profile.
brad

[spartacus]

[spartacus]

I created a new user [I assumed you meant 'User' (UK Windows) when you said 'Profile'] and called it Games. I would love to know if this is going to work but now...

Windows 2000 professional wont let me log off. It simply ignores the command as if i haven't pressed it and does not respond. Neither does the Restart Computer command in the shutdown menu. No matter how many times i do it I end up having to press and hold the RESET button on the front of my PC case and start my computer again. This totally removes any advantage of logging on and off.

I am particularly worried about this f**k up on Windows 2000's part - Please, please advise me what to do to correct WIN 2000 - My entire 4 years of university work is stored in here including my final year project which i must complete in June, aswell as my work stuff - I just cannot afford to lose everything!!

Back to the original resolution issue, i am no longer getting the 'system administrator has disabled the display control panel' message.
For the minute i found that switching to single monitor setup before starting a PC game allows the PC to return to its normal resolution state regardless of which User/Profile i am logged on as.

Whilst actually manually starting up and logging on as Games i found another quirk - that whilst logged on as Games, playing Need For Speed Underground worked fine. Attempting to play Half life on the other hand did not. I tried auto run CD, clicking on the start menu half life icon and also exploring the CD and hitting the autorun icon in there. The ony thing i got after exploring the CD was the opening 'install half life' screen - I assume (strange though it may be...) that i have to reinstall the game whilst logged on as Games - Could this be due to compatability issues with Win 2000 and that NFSU is a lot newer??

Half life may need updates (last update was from the release of Blue Shift add on) but surely this shouldn't affect the fact that it wont run whilst logged on as a different user??

Sometimes I just f***ing hate PC's... sometimes...

Again, many thanks for the help peeps

Best Regards

sp. [/b]

[brad]

I should have been more clear.
Create a new Hardware Profile.
Go into "My Computer" / Properties and create a profile for Gaming by disabling/enabling the hardware you need.
Do the same for a "Normal" hardware profile.
brad