Dual monitor issue

[Guest]

I have a Dell 810 laptop I dock in a PR01x station with a second monitor. I
have had no problems until today with using the second monitor. In the past I
would redock and occasionally need to re-extend or activate the second
monitor, but it always worked fine. Now I am experiencing a problem I have
also seen on a desktop I need to resolve for myself and them.

After docking or botting up while docked, I go to the second monitor and
either choose yes to activate (which checks off extend my desktop onto this
monitor) or choose the extend box directly, the screen flashes but does not
extend. The extend box is blank and available, so I could do it 100 times,
but the desktop never extends. Nothing really seems to happened, though we
run bginfo and it at one point it looked like both desktops were on the same
monitor, but only some of the bginfo information.

I have not update the driver or docking station firmware as it worked fine
since I received the setup 3 months ago. I am looking for a way to reset the
dual monitor settings really.

Any ideas on fixes? Seems to me something in the registry is stuck
indicating to the system that the monitor is already extended, but I am not
sure where that is stored. Thanks!

 

[Guest]

When you plug in the 2nd monitor or dock or undock, was the laptop sleeping
or in hibernation?

It's usually not a good idea to plug devices into the laptop when it's
sleeping or hibernation. It's best to shutdown the laptop before you dock or
undock, this includes 2nd monitors. But with USB devices you can plug them in
while the laptop is on.

 

[Guest]

No it was not sleeping or hiberating. Dell would disagree with you about hot
docking as their laptops are designed to be docked while on, as would
Microsoft since they provide the undock computer option. I have docked and
undocked a Dell Laptop for the past 3 years with no issues if I use the
undock workstation button.

All of my undocks where safe removals and as I stated this occurs when I
boot up as well and it occurred on a desktop. Thanks though for the input.

 

[Guest]

Dell also has a forum

http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/?~ck=ln&lnki=0&nav=true

You can type in your Dell model in the search.

Thanks

 

[Guest]

I looked through the BIOS and found it had rolled back to letting the docking
station control the video instead of the onboard controller. Thanks though.