iTunes hosed my monitor resolutions

[James Steele]

Hmmm... okay... brief setup. I've got two monitors attached to the built in video of my G5 2.3ghz dual... a 17" and 19" flat screen... both native resolution of 1280 x 1024. So I'm playing back an MP3 in iTunes and decide to engage the Visualizer in Full Screen mode. It kicks my 19" monitor into some lower resolution and plays the neato light show. I press Escape and it's stuck at this ridiculous resolution like 700 by something...

I try to go to both the Displays control panel as well as the Switch Rez control panel and 1280 x 1024 is not available as an option... neither is a whole slew of normal resolutions. It won't kick back out of this weird resolution. I reboot... zap PRAM... same deal. I end up using Switch Rez to override things and force it into 1280 x 1024 at 60hz and it takes, but things still seem all screwed up as the system will not show all the available resolutions.

I'm back in business but only because I set up my Display Sets to force this resolution, but 1280 x 1024 is still not available using the Displays control panel... Bizarre... I'm on 10.4.6 as well.

[mikebeckmotu]

This might sound odd, but I once had to support a Mac that would occasionally boot into a low-res display mode. I never could figure out why. But the quick fix was to shut off the computer, power off the monitor, and then restart the computer with the monitor left powered off. Once it was booted, turn the monitor back on, and it all worked again, and I could re-set the display resolution. Fortunately it didn't happen often. None of the usual maintenance routines made any difference.
I sure felt silly coming up with that fix, but the Mac user thought I was a temporary genius. I can live with that.