post problem, then resolution problem

Whenever I turn on my pc, it fails post and gives the long-short-short beep pattern which normally means a graphics card problem. However, the problem is solved by turning off the power supply (just restarting does not help) and restarting. Then once XP loads, the viewable resolution on my monitor is less than the 1600*1200 settings so my monitor only shows about 1/4 of the total screen requiring me to scroll around to find all of my icons. The full resolution is still available, but it is in like a zoom mode. I have 2 monitors, but usually the secondary display is disabled. When I go in and enable the secondary display, then the resolution on my main monitor is correct at 1600*1200 and upon disabling my secondary monitor, it remains that way.

What would be causing this? I have run stress tests on every component and all passed.

Update your GFX drivers, to older ones if you have to.

As far as the post beep, i'm not sure, have you tried reseating the card?

Did you check you voltage rails with a dmm, idle/load?

My problem seemed to have resolved itself, but recently it has come back, but only the post problem. However, often it does not even post. I have reseated everything tried a variety of drivers, but still no luck. It now happens on every reboot and can take up to 15min of what seems like chance for it to post successfully. Once I do get it to boot, everything indicates that it is perfectly stable (prime over 48hrs), standard 3dmark06 score, no crashes or problems of any kind. What could be causing the post problem?

It is just extremely annoying to sit there and play with the various power switches for 15min just to start my pc.

Thanks

any ideas?

The bios of the card might be restoring to defaults for some reason. That'd be the only reason it would change resolutions. I'm willing to be my bottom dollar it's a problem from your PSU to your video-card. Do you have a spare video-card lying around to give it a shot with?

After spending a half hour trying to get it to boot, i just took my memory and gfx card and reseated them, but left one memory stick out. It worked. So I tried the other stick and it does not work in any slot and the good stick works everywhere. So I sent in for an RMA and am hoping that this resolves it once and for all, but I am confused as the system did not perform like there was a problem. Just a few days ago I ran memtest with no errors after spending 10 minutes trying to get past POST. I have run every benchmark/stress tester I can think of and all came back the same as it did out of the box when I had no signs of a problem. Everything reported it as 2gb. Is this normal for a bad memory stick?