On boot I can only configure a max resolution of 1024x768 now after booting this morning. I ended up reinstalling ubuntu 11.10 and still am limited to this as the max resolution. The display is detected as unknown.
My graphics are on chip Intel 2500K (Intel HD 3000 graphics), the monitor is a Dell 2209W. The reinstalled system has been updated to the latest packages (there's no more updates to apply).
All has been fine until I updated the repositories last night.
Other than that there's nothing really unique about my system.
slioch@slioch-desktop:~$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 8192 x 8192
VGA1 connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
1024x768 60.0*
800x600 60.3 56.2
848x480 60.0
640x480 59.9
HDMI1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)