Vista Tutorial - Vista keeps losing my dual monitor settings

Hi all. Maybe there's a fix this somewhere deep in the forums - I just can't find it. And I've read in other forums the same problem but no one seems to have the fix.

Just got a new computer - HP with Vista Home Premium 64bit. Video card is ATI Radeon HD4850 with two DVI outputs. I have twin Acer V223W monitors connected with DVI cables.

I can figure out how to set them up in Vista, and also in ATI Catalyst, setting the default and extending the desktop and all that. I had been running dual monitors like this for years on my former XP machine. My problem is, each time Vista goes to sleep, or hibernates, and even on some restarts it reverts back to clone mode. HUGE pain in the butt.

Please help.

Make sure you have the latest drivers for your monitor under Device Manager, also make sure Acer V223W is under "DeviceManager/Displays" and not Generic or Std PnP Monitors, this can cause problems.

Now, being said that, I was having problems with my Vista loosing internet connectivity after waking up from sleep and I tried everything and then some but to no avail. The consensus on this Energy Saving thing is a toss up and many believe there are no real savings as far as the Electric Bill is concern so, all I do now is set the ScreenSaver for 10 mins and computer NEVER SLEEPS... EVER! No more internet problems here

I know, that is not a solution and I usually feel pretty angry when I can't find an answer but I have learn to choose my fights & battles wisely as of late... more so when it comes to the Quirkiness World that we call Vista

I tried that. Initially both monitors appeared as PnP, so I forced in the current drivers. That seemed to help... but not for long. What I did today was download the latest drivers from ATI for my card, including Hydravision. I've only rebooted once all day and it ccame back the way it went off, so maybe that was the fix. We'll see what happenes tomorrow.

I also disabled the sleep feature, so I figured that was at least part of the problem. Still plugging away.

I downloaded the latest drivers from ATI and that seems to have solved the problem. Or at least I should say, the last 15 hours have been trouble free. You''d think with a brandy-new computer they would have the latest drivers?????

lul yea you'd think they would have the latest drivers but truth be told most computers you buy out of a store have been sitting there for a little while. When i purchased my 4850 i had to download the latest catalyst before i got everything working also, the catalyst that came on the disc was not the latest.

the update should fix your problem it fixed it for me

Scott144; I temporarily solved this problem for the past year by installing an old X1300 ATI card for my second monitor in addition to the 4850 on a Gateway CPU. Since ATI's Version 9.4 and higher no longer support this old card, I had to remove it in order to install Ver. 9.5. And Yeap; the problem we both experience is back.

By the way; do you have both monitors set for the same resolution? Someone told me that having the monitors set at different resolutions could cause this problem.

Just for what it's worth; while I had both cards installed, never had a single video setting problem. (Each monitor at a different resolution).

I am considering another 4850 and Crossfire them but will go off the roof if the problem persists.

I wonder if other users out there, using two 4850 Crossfired cards have this problem also.

Actually, brand new PC's frequently ship with outdated drivers and without a great many Windows patches/updates.

The reasoning is quite simple: the manufacturer doesn't have the time and resources to ensure that every driver or system update that comes along will work with everything on that computer. Theoretically, when you purchase a new computer from a manufacturer, there should be no conflicts between driver A and software program X. At least, that's the hope.

For me, at least, it's easy to empathise with them. How many of us have ran a Microsoft update or driver update on a brand new machine, only to have that update cause some massive headache that requires us to remove the update or even re-image the drive? I know I've encountered this enough times to empathise w/ the hardware manufacturers, even if it is a huge pita to have to download 2 gigs worth of software updates every time we get a new machine.