Dual-Screen Problem (Windows 7 Pro)

[HollowNobody]

Yesterday I set up dual-screen on my computer with no problems.
Today the problems decided to show up late to the party.

I'm using a Gateway monitor as my main screen and a Coby LCD TV as the second screen(located to the right of the first one). They both are hooked into my video card using plain VGA cables.

System Specs
Model: Gateway LX6810-01
OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad
CPU: Q8200 @ 2.33GHz (4 CPUs)
RAM: 4096MB
Direct X: Direct X 11
Video Card: nVIDIA GeForce 9800GT

Booting with Main Screen Attached Only
(Also works with 2nd screen attached to the main screen slot.)
Works fine. I'm using the single screen to access this thread.

Booting with Both Screens Attached
When I try to boot with both screens hooked in both monitors are blank (with the Gateway in standby and the Coby on) until the "Windows Starting" screen suddenly appears on the Coby monitor. The screen will leave the Coby monitor and the Gateway will turn on, but then both monitors will display nothing until you hard reboot.

Booting with Main Screen Attached then Adding the Second Screen in the Display Menu
This was how I got the screen to initially work yesterday. I booted up with my main screen then after attaching the second screen I hit "detect" in the display menu and after a quick black screen they both came up fine. However when I do this now after a quick black screen both desktops appear on my main screen and the second screen says "no signal". The start bar also goes missing when this happens so I have to hard reboot.

So any ideas on why my second screen suddenly decided to act up?

[Broni]

Booting with Main Screen Attached then Adding the Second Screen in the Display Menu

"Hot" attaching another VGA cable will burn your video card sooner, than later.

Does your card support dual monitors?

[HollowNobody]

Then I shall not attempt that again.

As to dual-screen support according to nVIDIA's site my card is capable of it...
There are two places on the back of the card that you can attach a monitor to.

Anyway I've got the second monitor to work now, somewhat.

I switched the ports that I was plugging each monitor and then changed the 2nd screen resolution.
Apparently the computer was "recommending" a resolution that the 2nd monitor couldn't work with and kept resetting it back to that one.

Now the second monitor is working but it's not aligned correctly and the color is off.
By aligned I mean this:



When I try to drag my mouse across the screen in the indicated areas it gets stuck.
(This is an actual screenshot.)

The color problem I can't show on a screenshot, but the color on both monitors used to be the same and now the 2nd monitor is darker than the first. Manually adjusting the 2nd one doesn't help, it just gets darker.

[Sodde]

It sounds to me that you have a resolution problem in that one of the monitors cannot sustain it. What's the native resolution of both screens?

Here's something simple that I've had success with in the past. Don't ask me why it works but I know it has on several occasions.

1) shut off computer and monitors.
2) unplug power cables from back of comp and unplug monitors from wall.
3) Disconnect video cables from back of PC.
4) Press the power-on switch on the PC and both monitors to clear residual current. Press buttons again (off).
5)wait about 10 minutes.
6)plug all cables back in.
7)power on monitors and then power on PC.

[HollowNobody]

The solution was actually even simpler than doing as Sodde instructed.
Apparently all I had to do was drag the monitors to line up in the display panel.
(Now I feel dumb.)

Now everything, excluding the color issue, had been resolved.
And I think that the color issue is problem related the TV rather than the computer.

Thanks to everyone who replied. :]

[Broni]

Good news