Vista - Corrupted Video Driver Every Two Months??

Hello,

I recently had a problem with my dual monitor PC. When I started up my system my primary monitor started with no problems, but my secondary monitor stayed blank. After Vista had loaded, I turned my secondary monitor off and then on again. The result was that my second monitor was re detected and was no longer in extended desktop mode as if I lost some of my settings. Instead it was in clone mode where my secondary monitor was like my primary monitor. I had to go back into my display settings control panel to reset my secondary monitor to extended desktop mode. I then had no problems.

Curious and worried, I contacted both AMD/Ati and Dell technical support. AMD responded that I might have a corrupted video driver and to reinstall the latest one. Dell responded with the same answer.

Dell said something else that has caused me to right this post. I was told that my video card driver can get corrupted over time due to updates, and that I should reinstall the latest Ati driver every two to three months.

Is this true? It seems like quite a hassle. The way I feel about it, if I have a Ati driver that works well, why change it??

Also: What was going on with my PC when my second monitor didn't start?

What does the fourm think?

Thanks,

Michael R

seems very odd saying that , all i can assume is that they are thinking your using windows update to update your video driver , and after a few months of installing drivers over the top of other drivers they could become corrupted , otherwise i see no reason why you would need to install every few months , this could explain why your settings are screwing up

however winupdate wont install them unless you select the available update , automatic update only automatically installs critical updates

Hi Again,

I don't see how my video driver got corrupted then. MS updates were just security fixes. I only updated my video software once since I bought this PC and everything was working fine. What do you think is the cause of my problem Archie?

- Michael R

Remember seeing another post in a different forum about a similar problem and the solution was that there was a setting in the BIOS somewhere about restoring video settings. They had a multi boot machine such that, every time they booted back into Vista, they would lose their driver settings and had to reapply them. Once they changed the BIOS setting, everything was OK.

Sorry, don't have the post with the specifics, but it's something you could look into. Maybe it will help.

Mark,

Thanks for your input. If I start having this problem again I will check my BIOS settings.

- Michael R