Windows 7 Display issues

Hello all. I've been using this forum since installing Win7 but only to read posts, now I've registered because I can't find a solution to the number of display issues I've been having and look forward to your understanding and support.


I believe my profile will show all the necessary computer specs so I'll focus on the issues:

1. Sometimes unable to change display settings: windows boots into 640x480 and while the Screen Resolution tool allows me to see other available resolutions, when I try to change to one of them I receive the error "Unable to save display settings." This didn't happen initially but once it started it doesn't matter how many times I reboot or how many times I try to find an updated video driver, the issue remains. As additional information, the Screen Resolution window shows "Unknown display device" as the display even though it's the native laptop screen.
2. Only one screen works with dual monitors: again, initially it worked great but eventually hooking up an external display to my laptop via VGA cable caused only the external display to work and turned off (i.e., it's pure black) the laptop screen. Sometimes if I disconnect the VGA and reboot I'll get the BIOS on the laptop and then black once in Windows and other times I'll get everything to stay on the laptop screen but then we're back to issue 1 above.

If I try to change from 32bit to 16bit color, or really any other setting, I get "The display control panel is unable to change the display settings. You may not have appropriate administrative rights to change these settings" ... immediately followed by "The display settings being saved are invalid. Please try a different combination of display settings."

I hope that wasn't too confusing or too much extraneous information. My guess is that these issues are related but that's just a guess. Oh, and I'm running the Beta build 7000. Please help.