Vista - Problem with Screen resolution

Help...

I was playing a game in windowed mode and after exiting the game I noticed my screen resolution was lower than what it usually is. I tried changing the resolution back to 1280 x 800 only to find that it was already set at 1280 x 800 and yet my screen is still showing a clearly larger resolution than this.

My computer is a HP dv5 - 1138TX

Apparently my screen should be able to higher resolution than 1280x800. New problem. I am not able to select a higher resolution than 1280 x 800

I have the same problem. I usually put my computer on Hibernate, or Standby. Well, this time I shut it down. When I turned it back on, the resolution went to a different one. I went to personalize and display settings, raised the bar looking for 1440x900 and didn't find it. It was the highest setting at one point cause it was my native resolution. Now it's gone.
I tried "back-up and restore center" from Start>All programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore
Restored the system. Nothing changed and I went to furthest restore point I possibly could.
Then, I tried to update my drivers through ATI.(some people have Nvidia or something...)
That didn't work out. They said to first download it, uninstall the current driver then install the new one, then reboot.
All it did was add a resolution but didn't add the one I needed.
Then I read somewhere to just unplug my monitor for ten seconds, plug it back in and it in and what do you know. It fixed it.
Then, since I restarted from the restart point, I had to re install the Windows Updates and guess what happened the resolution sucked again.
Now I'm too lazy to restart my computer and unplug it and all that good stuff.
So give all that a try. good luck.

What I meant on that last part about "restarted from the restart point..." was "Restore point". Also, I was working with a laptop today and i have one of those '2 port KVM switches' and decided to use my 17" Gateway monitor as an extended desktop. I had my desktop running too and was switching between the two (laptop and desktop). I had to restart my desktop for some reason. It turned on and guess what happened, 1440x900 resolution baby! I'm puzzled. I didnt know why it happened. I put two and two together. I disconnected the laptop, restarted my desktop...1200x1600 resolution (resolution that looks horrible on my monitor). I'm not surprised. Now, I did it again with the laptop in the KVM switch and when my computer turned on...1440x900 again, baby!
Now I'm really puzzled. How can my computer turn on and be a totally different resolution than it's native, but can go to it's actual native when a laptop is plugged in? All I know is that it'll be a while before I restart or shut down my computer.