Since I upgraded my HTPC to an AMD A5400 series (from the old E350) I have had a problem where on wake from sleep the resolution would be set wrong (1024×768 I think) instead of the full 1920×1080 that the TV supports. Exiting media center would trigger a resolution correction and then media center could be reloaded without issue. This was not satisfactory as a solution.
After significant searching (google results just aren’t as good as they used to be), I eventually found some vague information suggesting a registry solution. Some more searching on some of the registry key names turned up a discussion on Microsoft Community. As best as I can tell the issue is due to a communications break-down between the TV, the graphics card and Windows. My old system had used DVI, the new system uses HDMI. This was apparently the trigger for the problem. I didn’t want to go back to DVI, and considered this a “work around” rather than a fix anyway, so I decided to experiment with the registry solution.
The place to work on is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Configuration
In this key are a set of subkeys with long cryptic names. I believe each refers to a monitor, screen, or remote desktop screen. Each contains a set of resolutions and colour depths amongst other things
Each cryptically named key contains a subkey called 00. This itself may include 2 subkeys called 00 and 01.
In the parent 00 key are 2 values of interest — PrimSurfSize.cx and PrimSurfSize.cy
Inside the child 00 en 01 keys are values called ActiveSize.cx and ActiveSize.cy.
Changing the values of these, to match the resoltion you want, is the solution.
There are 2 things to be aware of. Firstly — make sure you set the value as decimal and let it convert to hex. Second — you need to find the right cryptically named parent key for your primary monitor. If you’re lucky you wont have many of these to look through before you locate the one with resolution set too low.
I had a similar problem. When I was reformatting and building my MediaCenter, i was using a 1024×768 vga monitor. Once I finished, I moved it to my 1080p HDMI TV. If my TV was on before I woke up MediaCenter, everything was fine. If I turned on my TV after resuming the MediaCenter, the aspect ratio was 4:3. All I had to do to fix my problem it was to run the MediaCenter TV setup again so that MediaCenter would lock the display resolution at 1080p. Hope this helps you or others.