Seems no-one so far has any idea about intermittent and annoying little problem #1 (the case of the occasional missing logon cursor), so let's see if we can do any better with #2.

Sometimes, when more than one person is logged on to the PC (i.e. we have been switching user rather than logging off), someone logs on and finds that the graphics display has reverted from 1280x960 high colour to 640x480 16 colour. Sometimes the person affected can close apps and log off and on again, and normality is restored at the logon screen; sometimes the logon screen remains at low res, and more logging off or a reboot is required.

On the face of it, it seems like a simple memory issue, but for two things:
- the machine has 1 GB of RAM
- we never had the problem before the mobo transplant

OK, three things:
- occurrence of problem does not seem to be obviously proportional to memory demand. Sometimes all four of us can be logged on with a couple of applications each open, with no problem. Before I posted this, there were three of us logged on, and when I logged back on, the problem occurred. I had two apps open, someone else had one, someone else had none. I logged out the no-apps-open person, and graphics normality was restored.

It never happens when just one person is logged on (or at least it never has yet, and I regularly have several large apps open at the same time, a far more demanding portfolio than regularly causes the problem when it is spread over two, three or four users).

Graphics card is NVIDIA GeForce 6200 A-LE, so not smoking, but a good card. I just updated to the latest graphics card driver and that hasn't solved the problem.

Anyone ever come across a problem like this?

Andy[/i]

Intermittent problems can be difficult to diagnose and solve.

As a workaround, you might try one of a number of programs that save and restore desktop settings.

See for example:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-Enhancements/Other-Desktop-Enhancements/DesktopSave.shtml

Hi k027,

Thank you for this suggestion and the other one about the missing keyboard cursor. I have downloaded desktopsave and will see how we get on. Thanks again.

Andy

Two other common things that can cause intermittent random weirdness are dust accumulation and a dying CMOS battery.

In case it helps anyone else, an update on this issue. It turns out this is a known problem with Windows XP:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832295/en-us

Only thing is, it is supposed to have been fixed in SP2. The PC with the problem came with SP2, about 3 years ago, and only started to show the problem about a year ago. So it looks rather like a regression. I just installed SP3 tonight, hoping it might fix the problem, but it hasn't.

I have reported the problem to Microsoft. They don't exactly make it easy. To get official help, I need to pay £46 because the software is OEM and preinstalled. Stuff that. Eventually, by browsing a MS technical forum, I came across a thread including this link (which I have broken up with five carriage returns to avoid my post being the same width as the full link):

https://support.microsoft.com/contactus/
emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;
1214&WS=search&url=http%3a%2f
%2fsearch.microsoft.com%2fresults.aspx
%3fmkt%3den-US%26setlang%3den-US
%26q%3dreporting%2ba%2bproblem

Well done, whoever found that. I have no idea how he managed it. I have bookmarked it and suggest others do so too. I also suggest others make liberal use of it (as did he). There's certainly no route to it that I can see by going to:

https://support.microsoft.com/contactus

So it seems - the emails I sent were answered with stock replies referring me to Microsoft UK, and when I go down that route I come back to "speak to the manufacturer or hand over the money". I don't get it. The OEM version of the OS is exactly the same as the one you buy in the shops, isn't it? So if there's a known problem with the OS, what difference does it make whether it came preinstalled or not?

The retail version is a lot dearer than the OEM version. When you buy a Retail version you become eligible for support fom MS. The license agreement also allows the operating system to be removed from one computer and installed on another.

The OEM version is intended to be exactly that - an operating system installed on a machine by an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer). It is intended to be used essentially only on the computer it was originally installed on, and the OEM is responsible for support.

The price difference reflects these differences, for example I see here in the UK one retailer sells XP Home (Full) for £180.00 while the OEM version is £52.77. Support and portability is what you are paying for (in effect, it's the license that costs the money).

OK, that makes some kind of sense. But even if I could remember which online outlet I bought this PC from (and I can't), and even if it hadn't had a mobo transplant since (which it has), the manufacturer has no ability to upgrade or patch the OS - so what can they actually do to resolve any problems with the OS?

Not sure if MS tech support would go that far as rewriting the source code based on a support call.

Remember the WMF exploit that relied on a third party fix for some weeks before MS finally addressed the problem?