Monitor switches off at startup

This is a weird problem which has just happened out of the blue. My monitor switches itself off just before the logon screen in Windows Me. Luckily I have another monitor which doesnt seem to have this problem, but this one is blurred and too dark, and even it only works every 2nd or 3rd attempt.

Ive pinned the problem down to Windows changing the resolution of the logon screen/main default desktop to the highest resolution/bit depth possible, regardless of what I set it to last time I used the computer. The monitor I prefer to use is old enough that I guess it doesnt support 1280 x 1024 @32bit. Is there any way to stop Windows changing the resolution at startup? I dont recall changing any settings, in fact, I dont even use the default profile.

Incidentally I use a 64Mb GeForce 4 Mx440.