latitude e6500 with docking station: dual monitor issues with DVI - worked fine for months until this morning

hi all i've searched but can't find what i'm experiencing.

i have a latitude e6500 with a docking station. for some time now, i've been using two widescreen monitors with it (based on another post here about closing the lid on the laptop to get two external displays). it worked great, one was DVI and the other was the regular blue monitor cable (VGA? i think).

this morning after i booted up, the second monitor wouldn't come on. it would say No Signal or something but wouldn't work. after all the usual troubleshooting of drivers etc, still nothing. so i try a different flatscreen we have here that is not wide. it works ok BUT only if the first monitor is on the DVI and the second one is on VGA. if i try to have it the other way, DVI on the secondary, VGA on primary, it does not work, only the VGA will work.

i have tried every possible combination you can think of the secondary monitors (both wide and regular) with the primary wide monitor to no avail.

further, the primary, now that's in DVI, won't let me get the right resolution, so it's not fuzzy, but not quite clear either and just weird looking. this happened before, with the fuzziness, but i was able to adjust the resolution just fine. (i used to have the secondary wide on the DVI because i could never get it quite clear enough for me).

so what the heck? i've rebooted and disconnected and reconnected in all the possible fashions. i'm pretty computer literate when it comes to knowing how to do this kind of troubleshooting, but this is just beyond me. my tech guy here thinks maybe it's a problem with the dock, but we don't have any other dell docks here (the other users have them at home).

so - why would the DVI only work now with the primary and at a lower resolution?

last night when i left work, everything was fine. this morning, i put the laptop on the dock, start it up by using the dock button with the lid closed, which is the same thing i do every day.

help!!!