Work: dual 1600x1200 20" monitors
Home: 1680x1050 22" widescreen monitor
I really like having the dual screens at work as I can have an app maximised on each screen. With my widescreen at home I’m more concerned about gaming and it’s great for that.
1920 x 1200.
Main monitor: some biggish number (maybe that 1280x1024 one)
Left-side monitor: the highest Ubuntu 7.10 supports (I think 1024x768 but maybe 800x600)
Right-side monitor: under WinXP and Win98, 1024x768, under Win3.1, 800x600 (I think, it’s been a while since I booted that partition)
Laptop: something pretty low, because I have to be able to see it output via S-video to a TV since the laptop’s display is blown (I’m guessing 800x600)
Work and home: 1024x768.
CRTz 4 lyfe! 
Lappy: 1280X800 (it’s a macbook)
Home: 1920X1200 (the 1200 doesn’t sound right but I can’t remember so I’m going by the others who have 1920 - I’m sure of that).
It’s the native resolution of the cheap flat-panel monitor I bought a few months ago for one of the work computers. Unfortunately, Windows XP doesn’t really understand the concept of 1280x800, and it works very poorly.
What does it do? Are you unable to set that resolution in the Display control panel? Or something else? If the former, that means your monitor card driver doesn’t support that resolution; I just checked my ATI card, and it supports 1280x800.
It could well be the driver or video card.
When I set the resolution to 1280x800, it makes a “virtual screen” that’s 1280x1024 with a 1280x800 viewport and scrolls it with mouse movement. When I set it to 1024x728, it stretches to fit. Everything’s distorted, but at least I don’t have to explain to my employees how to deal with the scrolling screen.
Yeah, that sounds like what I’ve seen when you set a resolution, and the driver simply doesn’t believe that the monitor really, for reals, can display that resolution. So it tries to be helpful and makes a scrolling bizarre desktop for you. I’d go with a driver issue. Hie thee to their web site, post haste! If you can tell if its an nVidia or ATI chip set, go straight to their web site, don’t pass Go, and get whatever is their latest video card installer.
ETA: its also possible that the driver for the monitor is a problem – its lying about what its resolution is. Try that too. In fact, try that first.
My laptop is 1280x800.
The external monitor I plug in at work is 1280x1024.
The external monitor at home is 1440x900.
Two monitor setup: 1920 x 1200; 1680 x 1050.