Video Driver – Computer thinks my screen is bigger than it is

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After a recent driver upgrade, my laptop running Windows 7 has been acting like I have a secondary monitor installed when I don’t. There is a 1024×800 screen off in the virtual space to the left side of my laptop. I can’t see it because I don’t have a secondary monitor installed, but I can move windows onto it and treat it like I would a normal monitor. The software that came with the computer that is supposed to manage the video card won’t even run, it just freezes.

I’ve tried everything from driver rollbacks, to 2 year-old drivers from the manufacturer, to System Restore, and nothing will get rid of this thing. Any ideas?

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Any ideas?

aguazales,
Hello… Does your PC use “Nvidia” graphics? if not did you try setting up your screen resolution using the “Control Panel” See screen shot…If you have Nvidia Right click on an empty space on desktop and select Nvidia control panel…check settings for either:cheers: Regards Fred

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Does your PC use “Nvidia” graphics? if not did you try setting up your screen resolution using the “Control Panel”

Hey Fred, thanks for the response.

I do indeed have nVidia graphics on my laptop. Unfortunately, the nVidia graphics control panel is the software that freezes on every run, so I can’t use it. As for the Windows Control Panel, when I first open it, it doesn’t even detect the other imaginary monitor. But if I click the “Detect” button, it suddenly recognizes “Available display output on: Intel HD Graphics”. If I select this display, the “Multiple Display” dropdown menu has two options, “No display detected” and “Try to connect anyway on VGA” (See first screenshot).

If I select “Try to connect anyway” and apply, it “connects” to this imaginary monitor and gives me multiple options for configuring it. I want to stress that this hasn’t changed anything about my computer yet. The imaginary monitor is behaving the same as always. Selecting “Remove this display” does nothing to affect the imaginary monitor either.

I’m not sure if this is relevant, but even when the other output is supposedly connected, Windows will not identify it with a number (see second screenshot) when you click “Detect”. Something is messed up about the way Windows is detecting the output source.

Sorry about the length

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The half with the tree on it is the invisible output to the side of my monitor. It should be identified with a “2” if it were working correctly.
30015-Clipboard01

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I do indeed have nVidia graphics on my laptop. Unfortunately, the nVidia graphics control panel is the software that freezes on every run, so I can’t use it.
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aguazales,
Hello… It might be a clue to the problem that Nvidia freezes when you try to run the Nvidia Control Panel …I would go and remove the Nvidia driver package (uninstall programs) But before doing so (removing) look and see what version it is. Go to the Nvidia website Nvidia and download the appropriate driver for your setup. Once removed your PC native drivers will take over … see what happens then (probably you will end up with some wrong screen resolution)…if the problem is gone and you only have one monitor again, try and adjust to the proper resolution.. If all is then OK you could try to re-install the Nvidia package. ..If you can take a full system image before you try this.. you can use one of the free programs that are available …post back if your not sure about how to do the Image.:cheers: Regards Fred

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try looking in your bios and see if the on-board graphic control is enabled. If it is set it to disabled or off. maybe computer getting confused when both on-board graphics and PCI graphics enabled.
Failing that check that the graphic priority settings in bios are set to PCI first.

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Hey Fred. Sorry for the lack of a response – I went on vacation and completely forgot I had asked the question :(. Anyway, I managed to trace the problem to a third party video driver from Avatron. Their Air Display software is supposed to allow you to use your iOS or Android mobile device as an extension of your desktop, but the driver must have conflicted with the native nvidia one, because as soon as I uninstalled that my ghost monitor disappeared and the nvidia control panel started working again. Who knew?

Thanks a lot for your suggestions though!

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aguazales,
Hello…Thanks for posting back with answer to the problem… Regards Fred

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