10001110100110101
Okay, I take it back. I did have an annoying issue when I installed Vista. When the operating system first came up, it displayed on my Dell monitor. That was fine, since it was my primary monitor. The resolution was really low, which I had expected, so I went to change the screen resolution for that monitor. However, when I went to the properties for that screen, it was showing that the monitor was actually a Samsung. Now, my secondary monitor was a 17" Samsung, but it was not displaying anything. I do not know how Windows confused the monitors, but when I tried to extend the desktop to the Samsung monitor, it displayed resolutions that my other monitor could show.
Okay, maybe I just needed to switch the monitor type. I changed the Dell screen to use the default monitor type and tried to see if that would work. No dice. Then I figured that if I unplugged the cable and plugged it back in, it might reset the properties. So I unplugged the Dell cable and plugged it back in. The screen went black, as expected, and I waited for the desktop to reappear.
I waited.
Uh oh.
I tried switching the cables between the two outputs. No dice.
I even tried turning off the monitors and turning them back on. No dice.
Eventually, I decided to leave the rig alone and hoped that it would come back by itself, since Windows had already gone off to pick up some important updates for the operating system and I was not prepared to restart the system in the middle of all of this.
So I waited.
Several minutes passed, and for some reason the Samsung came to life. This was good! Unfortunately, the monitor was only showing the extended desktop. This was bad. Fortunately, I had control to run the context menu from that window. This was good! Unfortunately, any window that opened up would appear on the other monitor. This was bad. Fortunately, I could reach into the other desktop and drag the window from the blank screen to the visible one. This was good! Unfortunately, after dozen attempts I was only able to grab the recycling bin and realized that I could potentially click on something I should not be clicking on and had to stop. This was bad.
I was stuck again, so I decided to give the rig some more time for the other screen to come up, but it did not. Finally, I changed the inputs of that monitor so I could see my other machine, and that is when the screen came to life to show my Vista desktop!
This was good.
Amongst the drivers and updates that were available for download was one for my Dell monitor. I quickly grabbed it while I could. When the machine rebooted, I was stumped by yet another blank screen. It took several minutes before I decided to turn on the secondary monitor (which I had turned off since it was not needed) and discovered that the login screen was being displayed there!
Well, now it seems to work. Hopefully I do not break it again.
Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 20:18:26 (UTC)
Hmm, perhaps the moral to this story is to always have a single monitor when installing an OS and only install the secondary monitor once the proper updates and video card drivers are installed?
At least you *have* drivers for your devices. I had to shoehorn some Windows XP drivers into Vista to get my analog modem and Logitech webcam to work. Hopefully SP1 won't nuke them...
--- HKL
Grinning Reaper
Friday, March 14, 2008 at 03:56:13 (UTC)
Wow, you are still using an analog modem? Does this mean you still use it?
QYV
Friday, March 14, 2008 at 22:59:53 (UTC)
Heh, I mostly use it for fax capability (yes, it still comes in handy) and as a an emergency backup if my high speed goes down.
--- HKL
Grinning Reaper