Every morning when I startup my computer, my third monitor off of a secondary video card is dark. This is true whether I shut my computer down at night, or leave it on 24/7. Note that this problem occured for the first time about three weeks ago after working flawlessly for about a year. To my knowledge no additions, deletions, or modifications were made prior to this problem showing up.If I try to activate the monitor in display properties, I get the following error message with the old yellow exclaimation mark in the circle: "Invalid display settings: The currently selected graphics display driver can not be used. It was written for a previous version of windows, and is no longer compatible with this version of windows. The system has been started using the default VGA Driver. Please contact your hardware manufacturer to get an upgraded driver, or select one of the microsoft provided drivers." Only the monitors off of my primary card then show up in the display properties.Note that the system DOES NOT startup with the "default VGA Driver", but with the NVIDIA drivers off of my primary card. Under hardware in the control center, the installed driver properties for both video cards are listed correctly and say that they are working properly.For my secondary graphics card in question, I am useing the ATI Catalyst Version 7.5.6 drivers (for XP Pro) which again have worked fine for about a year. I tried the newer version 8.2.2 which did not work at all (Screen never lights up in spite of no errors shown). Previously, I used the Catalyst Version 7.4.5 drivers also with no problems.For my primary NVADIA card, I am useing the latest drivers, and nhancer and have seen no problems.First, finding that my LDS 767 did not work relative to false positives mentioned by others for flight 1 products, I thought this was activated by my antivirus program scan every night (originally AVG free version). I have since also tried Panda and esat (NOD32). Same thing, so I now doubt that antivirus programs are the culprit.Things I have tried:1. Removing all antivirus programs.2. Disabling the automatic windows XP timed screen saver, monitor and harddrive shutdowns.3. Multiple antivirus programs tried as listed above.4. Disabling automatic updates in the antivirus programs.5. Disabling automatic scanning in the antivirus programs.6. Shutting down the computer at night.7. Totally cleaned house of all display drivers and reinstalled.It takes just about one minute plus restart time to reinstall the drivers for my secondary card (hardware listing attached), and everything works normally for the rest of the day until after I retire for the night, but the next morning, another reinstall of the drivers is necessary to get my third monitor back again. She comes up with all of my original display settings (i.e. resolution, refresh rate, etc.) All I have installed are the drivers without the control center (ATI), as my primary video is off of the NVADIA card (although I have tried including the control center).I can restart the computer repeatedly during the day, and everything works perfectly (after reinstallation of the drivers ONLY one time in the morning). On one morining only, the problem went away, however, during the day on a restart the problem raised its head. I have not been able to duplicate that, and it has been repeatedly a night time occurance both before, and ever since.If interested in the progression, one might take a peek at my replies in the "How to stop AVG antivirus scan from deleting my addon f..." thread of the FSX forum.No total biggie as video driver reinstallation is not a big thing every time I want to use the third (or a fourth) monitor, but it is a nusience.Something is happening every twenty-four hours on a regular basis, whether the computer is running or not, and I have no idea what it is, nor what originated it. My next try will be to unplug power tonight and see what happens. If anyone else has ever seen something like this happen and/or knows a soulution, I sure would appreciate the help.Thanks:RTHASUS P5N-E-SLI MotherboardIntel E6600 Core2 Duo CPUZalman CNPS7700-CU RT CPU Fam4 GB KST DII800 MemoryWinXP ProNVIDIA VCG8800GTX 768MB Primary Video Graphics Card21

RTH- I doubt if this will help, but for whatever it's worth:A couple of years ago when I increased RAM from .768 to 1.28 GB, monitors 2 & 3 went black- and stayed black even after going back to the orig. RAM. After a lot of frustration, a tech guru discovered a driver update was needed. Runs flawlessly since.AMD XP2200 1.8, GeForceFx5200 AGP dual head, Same type PCI single hd.Alex Reid

Thanks Alex:I sure wish that was the solution, but I am afraid the latest XP drivers for the card in question came out just a few days before my problem raised its head (Catalyst Version 8.2.2 downloaded February 16, 2008). So far, I have not been able to get a display with them. The prior drivers worked for months and still do with the exception of my early morning mystery.Thanks for the suggestion.RTH

You are using two different video manufacturers cards. I dont believe anyone reccommends that. Basically you have NO way of knowing how those drivers interact. I would be suspicious of driver issues. But who knows?My suggestion is to stop beating your head against a wall and calculate how much time you have already spent on this issue. Then multiply that by what you get paid per hour on your job.Then compare that figure to the price of a Nvidia PCI card. ($50.00 or there abouts). My guess is that the card is cheaper than all of the other time you have spent on the issue.But then again, it is your head banging up against the wall.I have an ATI AGP card with two monitors attached. I also have a ATI PCI card with two monitors attached to the same computer, and have zero problems. I wouldnt think of running an ATI and a Nvidia card together on the same system. I'm surprised no one has jumped in here and pointed that out.

Thanks for the reply:Unfortunately, I have been there, done that.With a motherboard that supports an AGP slot, there is no problem. I agree with you completely and what you mention works flawlessly. In fact, with a combination of an ATI AGP card, and an NVADIA PCI card they work flawlessly (did that for several years). With a good motherboard, the mismatch of manufacturers is not an issue (AGP + traditional PCI slots).The problem raises its head upon upgrading to a motherboard implementing PCI Express x16 (or 8) slots for use of the 8800 series video cards. Granted, there is a board or two that has both the PCI Express and AGP slots but they have other liabilities by comparrison as I understand. In any case that was not my choice.With a motherboard WITHOUT an AGP slot, and two PCI Express x 16 (or 8) slots, the recommendation if not mandate seems to be that only two video boards capable of useing the same drivers should be installed (In the PCI Express x16 (or 8) slots. Useing one of these slots along with a traditional PCI video card does work, with far less expense (although I opted for a little faster secondary card.) For such an application, the driver question again becomes a problem. Two NVADIA cards requiring different drivers have not worked. They are in fact in conflict with each other. Drivers between ATI and NAVADIA are not in such an application and work fine with no conflict.Once again, my problem has occured only after about a year where performance was problem free and flawless. I am presently suspicious that it is occuring at midnight when the date changes, but this is not confirmed yet. Something is disabling the secondary drivers every 24 hours. AntiVirus programs were my first suspicion, but I kind of doubt that now. Windows power saving monitor and harddrive shutdowns were also a possibility, but that was not it either.Relative to time, it takes just about one minute to reinstall the drivers and she works flawlessly again until the next day. Nusience, but not very time consuming.Thanks again for the input.RTH

Thanks for the reply:Unfortunately, I have been there, done that.With a motherboard that supports an AGP slot, there is no problem. I agree with you completely and what you mention works flawlessly. In fact, with a combination of an ATI AGP card, and an NVADIA PCI card they work flawlessly (did that for several years). With a good motherboard, the mismatch of manufacturers is not an issue (AGP + traditional PCI slots).The problem raises its head upon upgrading to a motherboard implementing PCI Express x16 (or 8) slots for use of the 8800 series video cards. Granted, there is a board or two that has both the PCI Express and AGP slots but they have other liabilities by comparrison as I understand. In any case that was not my choice.With a motherboard WITHOUT an AGP slot, and two PCI Express x 16 (or 8) slots, the recommendation if not mandate seems to be that only two video boards capable of useing the same drivers should be installed (In the PCI Express x16 (or 8) slots. Useing one of these slots along with a traditional PCI video card does work, with far less expense (although I opted for a little faster secondary card.) For such an application, the driver question again becomes a problem. Two NVADIA cards requiring different drivers have not worked. They are in fact in conflict with each other. Drivers between ATI and NAVADIA are not in such an application and work fine with no conflict.Once again, my problem has occured only after about a year where performance was problem free and flawless. I am presently suspicious that it is occuring at midnight when the date changes, but this is not confirmed yet. Something is disabling the secondary drivers every 24 hours. AntiVirus programs were my first suspicion, but I kind of doubt that now. Windows power saving monitor and harddrive shutdowns were also a possibility, but that was not it either.Relative to time, it takes just about one minute to reinstall the drivers and she works flawlessly again until the next day. Nusience, but not very time consuming.Thanks again for the input.RTH

So you have replaced the second video card to make your cards matching manufacturers ? There are many things on a computer that work in harmony together to produce a result. Once something gets aschew, problems rear their head, even where they once worked. One thing that I have learned from EVERY instructor and EVERY forum that I have ever experienced is that a computer does not simply change its configuration itself by just sitting there. That defies logic. Something on your computer changed a configuration and you're seeing the result. Maybe that was MS updating something, maybe it was something you did, but something clearly changed and is producing the result you see. I sincerely doubt that some virus "activated" itself and told your computer to shut down the second monitor. That also defies logic. I don't think a hacker would believe that your second monitor is that important and write a program to shut it down. So you are left with an unknown change that adversely affected something else. Probably your video drivers. Certainly affecting your video outputs.Have you contacted tech support for Nvidia or ATI? Or posted in those help forums? I'd be curious as to what either company says about mixing each others drivers. And in the end, its your head. Good luck.

For what it is worth:Many months ago, there were multiple posts or replies confirming what I have said by others relative to the cards in the slots in question. It was thanks to the advice by multiple well respected parties that I went to diverse manufactured cards and drivers (which have worked flawlessly for almost a year). Again, this scenario is unique to the type of slots/video cards in question (as far as I know). I can't remember whether any of these recommendations were from the manufacturers or not, but that is definitely a possibility. NO REPLIES or POSTS were in conflict with this advice. A search for this dialogue would probably be successful, but I do not see its worth or what it would prove.I totally agree with you that "something on your computer changed" (that is being my computer). That was really the major implication of my original post and my request for possibly the knowledge from someone as to what it was. I have also thought that it might be "MS updating" (automatic). I may search dates if that is given and do some search there. Thanks for that reminder. Relative to a change by me, that is always is a possibility, but I do not remember any such modification within the time frame in which the problem raised its head.I fully agree at this stage that it is very unlikely that an AntiVirus program is the culprit. The false positives for other items was all that led me to believe that this might be a possibliliy being that the scans took place during the time period that the disabling of the video drivers takes place.I just discovered that "WinTV" also required reinstallation of the drivers and the control interface downloads for viewing that program (The control reinstallation may not have been necessary). Something during the wee hours of the night is doing this, even with the computer off, and the power unplugged. I haven't a clue as to what it is. Again not a biggie deserving a total format and starting over as a minutes time cures the problem, but I sure am curious.Thanks again for your interest and comments.RTH

Not sure is this is it, but maybe getting closer to the cause of this problem.If I go to "Windows Update", and select "Review your update history", I find the following successful updates:"Product Windows XP, Update Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - February 2008 (KB890830), Status Succeeded, Date Thursday February 14 2008, Source Automatic Updates".The update is on a monthly basis as I understand and I highly suspect the February 14th update contained something that is causing my problem thanks to the following updates that began on the same date.I also find: "Product Windows XP, ATI Technologies Inc - Video - Diamond Radeon X1550, Status Successful, Date Thursday February 14 2008, Source Automatic Update".This latter update repeats every day with the exception of Feb. 15, Feb. 22, Feb. 26, March 1, and March 4. The update occurs twice on February 25, and March 3.I do not recognize or remember the exact date that this problem raised its head, but February 14th, 2008 sounds just about right. The updates also take place at 3:00 AM each night which also sounds about right.Clicking on the ATI update results in the following information (or lack thereof): "ATI Technologies Inc - Video - Diamond Radeon X1550, ATI Technologies Incl. Video software update released in September 2007. Get help and support http://support microsoft .com/select/target=hub" Clicking on the microsoft link resulted in nothing I interpret as a help.Assuming that these updates are causing the glitch in the ATI secondary video card drivers every night. I do not understand the ommissions or duplications, but it may or may not have been thanks to my method of trying to isolate the problem on these dates (Shutdowns of the computer, multiple driver installations, or whatever).Something else I don't understand is that I can go to into my control panel and bring up the add or remove program listings, and I do not find either of these updates listed. I do have "Security Update for Windows XP (KB943055)" and "(KB946026)" included in my add/remove control panel secuity update listings for February 14th. My assumption is that the ATI listing of "Windows Update" may be included in the ATI Drivers line item of the add/remove listings, and the KB890830 update is not applicable to being so listed for some reason.My suspicions may or may not be totally unrelated as I downloaded KB890830 and ran it manually after reinstalling my video drivers. It showed no infections nor did it shutdown my third monitor.In any case, my next step will be to disable automatic updates and see what happens. If that does not discover anything, possibly remove the February 14th security updates and see what happens.The search goes on:RTH

So simple that it was being overlooked.As mentioned earlier, on my system, the latest drivers for my card, Catalyst Version 8.2 do not work. The monitor just never lights up, although the hardware device properties list them as working properly. With the earlier Catalyst Versions 7.4 and 7.5, the display is fine and has worked flawlessly for about a year.What was happening is that with Windows XP Automatic Updates, since the middle of February, 2008 Microsoft has been installing a new set of drivers every night (Catalyst version unknown). They also did not work with my system. I snuffed this update to retain my working drivers, and the problem went away.Respectfully:RTH