What is the "Ati Hotkey Poller" service?

i'm using windows xp on my t400. i disabled the "Ati Hotkey Poller" service by going into start > run > services.msc.

the reason i disabled it is simple. my resolution right now is 1440 x 900. i've been having a trivial but very annoying problem where every time i shut the lid on my t400, my desktop icons rearrange themselves, as if i had lowered the resolution. since i like to keep some icons on the right side of my screen, i was annoyed that the right column kept getting moved back to the middle. when i disabled the "Ati Hotkey Poller" service, my problem went away. my icons no longer get messed up after i close and reopen the lid.

what is ati hotkey poller that it causes such a strange problem? it's disabled now, so have i disabled a service that's potentially important for some function of my computer? where did it even come from? since i did a clean installation of windows xp, it has to be either a part of windows (which doesn't seem right, since it's probably from ati, judging by the name) or from one of the drivers i installed. does anybody know what "ati hotkey poller" is?

 

afair it is used for changing screen resolution and/or the desktop (hydravision?) settings, etc. using, well, hotkeys assigned by the utility

unless you want to use hotkeys it oughtta be useless, as proven by your test