Screen resolution changes on startup

I have a 1280x800 resolution laptop. Im not sure if im infected with a virus but on startup, on most occasions i find that my screen resolution has changed to 1024X768. I cant even change it back because my display properties>settings shows only the 800X600 and the 1024x768 options. kindly help...

It could be a corrupted display driver. Try updating it to see if that helps.

I tried that. Didnt work out. In fact earlier on a few occasions, whenever i tried reinstalling my VGA driver i would get an error msg and the setup would exit. It didnt happen today but still theres no change in my resolution or display properties.

When your display properties only show one or (at most) two possible settings, it's definitely the driver. Have you tried uninstalling the hardware and then reinstalling it?

Also, do you get this problem if you us an external monitor? I'm assuming that you have a video out port -- most laptops do.