Why does the screen resolution of 1440x900 suddenly disappear from Intel GMA Control Panel?

Solution 1:

Solved in the most unlikely way : used a different VGA cable. Apparently somebody used my monitor (without my knowledge) and used their own (defective) cable and left it there. I found back my original cable and plugged it in, in place of the defective one, and everything went back to normal in literally a second.

I got a hunch that the trouble might be the cable when I was poking around the (labyrinthine) Windows registry and found that the Intel GMA detected my monitor as "#-" instead of "Del003" as it usually did and the Serial Number of the monitor could not be read. (Also thanks to Ivo too for mentioning "cable" which triggered something in my mind.)

This condition was probably caused by the graphic card not getting the right EDID (Extended display identification data) from the LCD Monitor. Since the monitor is fine, I looked at the cable more carefully and noticed it wasn't the original one.

This incident has wasted hours of my life, but oh boy what a lesson. A lesson hopefully no one else has to endure.

:-)

Solution 2:

Yes, CHECK THE CABLE in the back of both your monitor and computer. This solved my problem immediately. I re-seated the cable firmly on both ends, and got a windows pnp recognition wav. Restarted the computer and my resolution was available once more.