Second monitor erratic

I have a second monitor (Samsung 2232BW) hooked up to my Averatec C3500 notebook. It worked fine for a while but now it is erratic. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. When I go to Display settings, monitor 2 is not activated and I can't activate it. I click "make this my primary monitor" but can't move the slider to give it better resolution. When I click "apply" or "ok ", it doesn't take. Then sometimes when I turn on the computer, it works just fine. Then when it comes back from hiberation, the second monitor is gone again. Very frsutrating.
Any ideas/suggestions? Thanks!

 

Hi and welcome to the BBS,

When you start up, does it show the startup splash screens on both monitors? Does it only change when it gets to the Windows desktop?

Matt

 

When the second screen isn't recognized, there is no splash screen on it.

My son pointed out that this erratic behavior sometimes happens with my wireless mouse and keyboard (although not as often as with the monitor), so the problem is probably with the notebook and not the monitor. Where should I start to find the problem?

 

When the second screen isn't recognized, there is no splash screen on it.

My son pointed out that this erratic behavior sometimes happens with my wireless mouse and keyboard (although not as often as with the monitor), so the problem is probably with the notebook and not the monitor. Where should I start to find the problem?

 

It sounds like you have quite a few "external" pieces of hardware attached...mouse, keyboard, probably a printer, an extra monitor, etc (a PCMCIA modem perhaps?). I would start suspecting that the power supply system might be starting to get overloaded. Get a self-powered hub for the USB connections. [And that does not mean the type that draw power from another USB connector! They are a joke in my opinion.]

I don't like the idea of connecting all sorts of things into a laptop. A laptop is a mobile computer. The new laptops I am working with at the moment have a 75 Watt power supply, my desktop at home has a 500 Watt PSU and has less peripheral hardware hanging off it than I see some people using on their laptop

This is my opinion and not necessarily directed at you Francinde Gair, but if you want to run a workstation, get a desktop machine. I believe a laptop should be used as a mobile computer.

Matt

 

Very well put Matt and I would term it a very well informed opinion.

Francinde: Based on the way you appear to be using your laptop, you may be best served with the purchase of a docking station or port replicator.

I've seen quite a few problems among users who run their laptops in conjunction with projectors and can never remember their dual screen setup configuration. One can try setting up distinctly different hardware profiles which usually takes the "human memory failure" out of the equation. Although this doesn't sound like your situation, it may provide some relief. To me, it sounds more like your computer's memory (saves settings upon hibernation) is not doing its job correctly and that is probably because of the peripheral "overload" Matt has referenced. Again, very well put Matt.

 

Thanks

Thank you for the advice.