screen resolution change ignored

ctrl + or - (on numpad) do not work either

Here is the output of xrandr :
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1440 x 900, maximum 1680 x 1200
VGA-0 connected 1440x900+0+0 (normal left inverted right) 310mm x 240mm
   1680x1050 60.0
   1600x1024 60.0
   1400x1050 60.0
   1280x1024 59.9 60.0
   1440x900 60.2*
   1280x960 60.0
   1280x800 60.0
   1152x864 75.0
   1280x768 60.0
   1152x768 54.8
   1024x768 84.9 85.0 75.1 75.0 70.1 60.0
   832x624 74.6
   800x600 84.9 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
   640x480 85.0 84.6 75.0 72.8 75.0 60.0 59.9
   720x400 85.0 70.1
   640x400 85.1
   640x350 85.1
DVI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right)

After restarting/killing X a few times, issues xrandr commands manually, editing xorg.conf (unrelated, I only changed the Emulate3Timeout mouse option), is seems to work.

... except that now there is a thick dark brown border around every menu (at the top of the desktop, listbox menus in firefox etc... )

Confirmed on my system (nv driver, GeForce4, CRT monitor capable of 1600x1200). I couldn't change the resolution with the Screen resolution dialog in Preferences. The Administration -> Screens and Graphics (or something like that) did change something, but I got a black and white X screen every time. After a reboot (and with the NVidia proprietary driver installed) the resolution was ok without my intervention.

I am seeing the same problem with 7.10 on a Sony VAIO: the GNOME applet for changing resolution does not work. Interestingly, though, if I restart the system it comes back up with the screen resolution that I selected. So it's just a *very* delayed response. :-)

I disabled compiz via System > Preferences > Appearance > Visual Effects and selecting None. Now everything works perfectly: the GNOME applet changes the resolution, no reboot required.

My system has an Intel 855 video chipset. I switch back and forth between 1024x768 and 1280x1024.

I tried today in VMware (server 1.0.3 on windows) and there it works.