Odd display problem

[Grizzly]

Hi

for history to this see "Monitor res" 8th Nov

I eventually gave up trying to get the correct display res/refresh and did a 
total reinstall of ElementryOS 8.02 (based on Nobal)

All fine, did my usual most of my post install routine (add pluma, nemo, 
waterfox, kaffeine, deja-dup, transmission) all still fine

.config has a monitor file

<monitors version="1">
  <configuration>
      <clone>no</clone>
      <output name="VGA1">
          <vendor>PHL</vendor>
          <product>0xc325</product>
          <serial>0x00003a27</serial>
          <width>1920</width>
          <height>1080</height>
          <rate>75</rate>
          <x>0</x>
          <y>0</y>
          <rotation>normal</rotation>
          <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
          <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
          <primary>yes</primary>
      </output>
  </configuration>
</monitors>

reboot all still great

~$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 32767 x 32767
VGA1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 
600mm x 340mm
   1920x1080     60.00 +  74.97* 
   1680x1050     59.95  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1440x900      59.89  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1280x720      60.00  
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
   832x624       74.55  
   800x600       72.19    75.00    60.32    56.25  
   640x480       75.00    72.81    66.67    59.94  
   720x400       70.08  
VIRTUAL1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

this morning I finished my post install, added winehq (10.18), but didn't get 
as far as using/config

rebooting after install

screen showed clear & normal but no desktop icons (and monitors OSD showed 
1920x1080 75hz) for a few seconds, then went blank for a few seconds, then 
fuzzy with no desktop icons for a few more seconds, this continued for 10+ 
minutes (while I made a pot of tea)

opened a Ctrl+Alt+F2 terminal with difficulty (had to be timed just right I 
think)

~$ xrandr
can't open disply

edited grub to add nomodset

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodset"

~$ sudo update-grub
~$ shutdown now -r

when it booted it was now 1280x1024 at 60hz (most controls off of screen)

~$ xrandr (as I remember it)
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200 , current 1280 x 1024, maximum 4096 x 4096
None-1 connected primary 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y 
axis) 
   1280x1024    60.00  
 
there is still an unaltered 
monitors.xml in .config

Please is there a way out of this

I assume that installing winehq "may" have undated some file but I'm at a loss 
to which (of ~450Mb) it may have been 

I have tried removing wine and purging but still stuck

If it is of interest I also run Nobal, Questing and Win7 on same box fully 
updated with no issue

A confused Grizz