My host system is Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit, running on a Dell Vostro 460 Tower with an AMD Radeon HD 6670 video display adapter. I currently have 2 VMPlayer guests (version: 5.0.2 build-1031769) running Windows 8 Professional. Overall, everything seems to be running fairly smoothly and reliably. Other than running the VM's, the host system is connected to the TV as a 2nd monitor and runs services like Hulu and Netflix. The VM's will be used as personal desktops for me and my partner. It's possible that an additional VM will be added later running Ubuntu, but that's down the road. The computer has 12G of memory. Each VM is currently allocated 4G.
Here's the problem:
The display resolution for the host is 1366 x 768. Each VM defaults to 1350 x 656. Frequently when I try to open applications inside the VM's, I get an error message stating that the resolution is too low. So I change the resolution to 1366 x 768, and everything seems to work fine. Later, I receive the same message again and when I check, the resolution has changed back to 1350 x 656. I can change it back to the higher resolution, go in periodicallyand check it and it is still at the higher resolution. Then suddenly I check it and it's dropped back to the lower resolution.
The connection to the regular monitor is VGA and to the TV it is HDMI. I tried swapping the 2nd monitor back and forth, and the VM resolution remains at the higher resolution, so the problem does not appear to be caused by that.
Anyone have an idea why the Windows 8 resolutions automatically (and seemingly randomly) switch back to the lower resolution?
I really don't understand the interactions between the VM display adapters and the hardware adapter in the computer, but would like to. And I'm willing to do most anything to obtain the highest resolution possible in all environments, as long as I can create stables environments.
