Removed power supply and rebooted. With external monitor attached it acts just like it does with power attached. This means it shows all display from boot sequence to windows desktop on external monitor.

Removed external monitor and rebooted (with power still not attached). It shows (just as it does with power attached) boot sequence on laptop monitor, shows windows loading screen, and at the point where it would start to show the desktop (or login prompt) it goes black. It never even begins to paint the screen. the only time it will show on laptop monitor is if I choose Safe Mode.

One additional thing I noticed. With external monitor attached it shows the desktop background as it would if it were the primary monitor (dual monitors it had a background on the laptop and none on external secondary display). After a little more than a second or so it flips to showing no background as if the desktop is now on the secondary monitor (but of course there is only one actually showing anything). In addition during this one second or so period I can see the volume slider (if I choose to change volume settings during this brief period). But after the screen changes it no longer shows the volume slider indicator on the screen. The laptop has volume control buttons on it and normally while depressed it shows a bar indicating volume level on the screen. It will not do that once the screen changes. This occurs after login as the desktop is being loaded.

Note, considering this problem I have no desire to continue use of extending the display across two monitors. Its a nice feature. I like it, but this is a development machine used to program web applications and I can go without it. Right now I would like to get it out of that mode and of course working on the laptop monitor. I need it to work on the road. If anyone knows registry entries that I could change to get it out of extended mode I am willing to try that as well as a last resort. I haven't messed with anything outside of the display properties trying to select and deselect extending the desktop with no luck.

If you can point me to the XP issue I would love to try whatever fix there may be there. I don't know about the question about battery power or its applicability to the problem but never know, it could be something similar with slightly different causes but same solution.

Its not unusual when I setup at work and hook it up that it is off the power supply while it boots up. I see its a dimmed screen and notice why and power up. That could have happened recently around the time this went glitchy but nothing happened right then that I can remember. Again, speculating since I don't know the information you refer to.

Well thats not it since the fix is to remove power. Tried that. I just reinstalled drivers as well with no change. What makes it show the display on the external device during boot? If I could stop that it might do something. I want it to boot and show output on the laptop monitor first and then when it gets to windows it can decide to extend the desktop.

Also, just as an aside I checked Event logs with no errors.

Message Edited by jrflorida on 12-05-200604:15 PM

I recently loaded Windows XP again and after what I believe was a Windows Update, the black screen is back. It was fine when I loaded XP and worked for several weeks. It was also fine after it was rebooted from that update. I then took it home and tried to boot it and at the point where it would show the desktop it went black. If I connect a monitor externally it will show fine. It would also be fine if I started it up in safe mode. I've seen some issues related to this that mention reseating the graphics card, but I don't see how that applies if the external monitor works.

Message Edited by jrflorida on 03-30-2007 10:52 AM

Since this started I have uninstalled the ATI driver, rebooted, let it install a VGA driver and then reinstalled the driver (downloaded the latest from the Dell site just in case). With a VGA driver it will show the desktop on the laptop fine. The second I install the ATI driver and choose a different resolution other than the default it will black out. At which point I can connect an external monitor and the the desktop fine. But at that point nothing will get it to show mack up on the laptop. If I attempt to go to safe mode I can see the login screen (which wouldnt have shown had I not gone to standby because it would have gone black prior to this point). So I can't imagine the problem is hardware related.

I just did all of this, in the order specified and with all the corresponding reboots. After installing the ATI driver, on reboot and at the same point just before showing the windows login screen the screen goes black. I can plugin an external monitor at that point and see the login screen and desktop.

I disconnected the external monitor once I removed the ATI driver to start with. But to answer your question from the standpoint of the current situation. If I press function+F8 the external monitor flickers but remains the primary display. Nothing happens with the laptop monitor. I don't know anything else to do but am happy to try anything.

Message Edited by jrflorida on 04-02-2007 03:37 PM

fn+esc did not work. If I have the external attached it just comes back up there and if after suspend I remove the external and hit power it will prompt me with the bios password screen (if external it would have shown there) on the laptop and then go black again. Display properties shows the external monitor as the primary. Use this device as the primary is checked and disabled, extend my desktop on this monitor is checked and disabled. The other icon with a 2 on it is smaller and is dimmed indicating not active. I can right mouse and choose to attach and it is no longer dim, but if I try to do anything with it then it will just go dim again indicating not attached. The ATI video properties If I am looking at the Display tab (far right) it shows 4 monitor options but all are disabled except the current one referring to the external monitor. The one with a laptop icon has an X through the connection icon.