Windows 7 Troubleshooting Black Screen Issue on Second Monitor After Reboot: Refresh Rate Problems

seekermeister

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Sometimes I really hate rebooting, because it seems that something always goes wrong. The last reboot was no different, because my #2 monitor now has a black screen with the message which says "Cannot Display This Video Mode".

I remember dealing with something like this long ago, and it had to do with the refresh rate set for that monitor, so I opened the Nvidia Control panel to "Adjust Desktop Size and Position", and as expected, the refresh rate was set to 85. I've attempted to reset it several times at different resolutions, but the screen remains black. How do I deal with this?
 
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Solution
Never mind, I got it solved (sort of). I was trying to use 1280x1024, but I changed to 1024x768 and it worked. I hadn't messed much with the settings in that monitor, because when I got it, I just plugged it in and it worked. The screen appears to be about the same resolution as before, so I guess that is biggest resolution it will work at.
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Never mind, I got it solved (sort of). I was trying to use 1280x1024, but I changed to 1024x768 and it worked. I hadn't messed much with the settings in that monitor, because when I got it, I just plugged it in and it worked. The screen appears to be about the same resolution as before, so I guess that is biggest resolution it will work at.
 
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Solution
It is an old Dell 15" LCD. Don't really know how old, because I bought it from a neighbor back a few months ago. I did notice that the Device Manager identifies it with some strange model number that is not the same number as mine though.
 
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While W7 is much better than previous versions of Windows when dealing with multiple-monitors, it seems there are still too many issues. However, it is difficult to determine if the problem is the graphics solution and/or its drivers, or if the problem is with the operating system. And, individual programs occasionally have problems working across multiple monitors too. A common issue is the occasional confusion over which is the primary and which is the secondary monitor. So a multi-monitor utility is almost a necessity. My favorite is UltraMon – not free, but worth it. Others have suggested the free DisplayFusion, but I have no experience with it.

See also, Dual monitor setup is easy in Windows 7!
 
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