I had the same problems on 7.04 7.10 and 8.04. I fixed mine by going into
screens and graphics and reseting there. For some reason that is not showing up
in the system menu on my 8.04. but I found it under applications other. Have you
tired that? there is some post in launch pad wher they show you how to
reconfigure it in xorg by setting the default to what ever you want. 7.10 took
me forever to get working. Was easy in 8.04.

Thanks for the reply. I do not have applications|other. I do have,
however, a screen resolution under system|preferences. That only
allows me to go as far as 800x600. This is every mysterious as 7.10
just did it! I do have a graphics, under applications, but its for
dealing with photos/scanners/etc. I will check the xorg stuff and see
what I can find.

Video driver problem? My desktop is running at 1650x1050 on a 20"
lcd as installed. I have a Nvidia 8400 on the machine.

My HP dv6305 is running at 1280x800 on a 15" wide as installed with a
nvidia 2160 le


Both are at native resolution.