M17x: Windows shrink whenever I close lid

I have my power options set to "Do Nothing" when my lid is closed. And for the past umpteen months, there have been no problems when I close the lid. But yesterday I noticed that my CPU fan went to max shortly after I closed the lid, and when I opened the lid again I had to wait maybe a full minute before my desktop was shown, and all my windows had shrunk to fit in a 600x800 screen space--tiny. Needless to say, usually I see my desktop instantly and my windows stay the same size.

I've reinstalled the A3 BIOS, I've checked for Malware using the usual tools and turned up nothing, I've updated to the most recent NVIDIA GeForce 200M drivers, and I've cleaned my registry using Registry Mechanic. My system seems to be in pretty good shape. Yet, as soon as I close the lid, when I reopen it, I have to wait a solid minute for my desktop to be displayed, and all my windows have shrunk.

Does anyone have any idea what might be going on? I haven't installed anything or done anything unusual in the past few days, so I'm mystified.

 

are you positive that in power settings it's set to do nothing ?
also, it's not such a good idea for your lcd to be exposed to the heat generated by the comp while it's working and the lid is closed...

 

You been using it on an external display or been playing with any of the related settings?

 

Yes, I'm positive.

Actually the keyboard and palm rest areas never get warm as a result of the display being closed, even when the fans are tilted because of some undiscovered hardware or software problem. The M17x is extremely efficient at self-cooling, and it doesn't seem to make any difference toward this end whether the lid is open or closed.

I've used laptops exclusively for about 15 years now, and I've never encountered a problem of overheating or damage to the LCD as a result of the lid being closed while the system is left on. I'm pretty sure most laptops are designed this way.

In fact, I have an old Toshiba Tecra 8000 that sits in a stuffy closet with the lid closed and runs 24/7 as a printer, mailing list, and backup server. It runs as well today as it did when I first bought it, even though I have to clean the cobwebs off and blow some dust out of the fan assembly every six or so months.

 

No external display. With previous versions of the NVIDIA drivers, I've found the use of an external display to be very problematic. I'll try again with the most recent drivers when I'm home again, but I have a feeling it will be more of the same poorly designed bull.

I can't actually think of anything that would have brought on the problem. I did get the system to go back to its normal behavior, however, after several more hours of investigating and trying out different settings.

When I checked the NVIDIA Control Panel for anything unusual, I discovered that "Select an SLI Configuration" had been set to (*) Do not use SLI. I didn't do this. I had it set to (*) Enable SLI (recommended). So, somewhere, somehow, this setting got changed.

When I set it back to (*) Enable SLI and rebooted, the behavior I described in the original post went away, and everything is back to normal. Still, I have no idea what brought this on, and I'm a little uneasy about it because not knowing what caused it means it could happen again.

Are there any tests I can do to check for imminent hardware failure? Or will such tests not reveal anything until after such failure has occurred?