Disaster after I tried to set up HDTV as a second monitor

[vidronin]

I decided to try to set up an old HDTV as a second monitor (vid card is Radeon 4650). After initially setting it up and not being happy with the result (this is a somewhat archaic by today's standards DVI only 720p tv), I thought it better to stick with the original set up, and the computer has not been running correctly since.

Since then I've tried a variety of setups, using both monitors, one monitor, using switching between VGA and DVI inputs, and I've had nothing but problems.

I've been getting a variety of blue screen errors including "IRQL not less than or equal to", and start up repair, system restore, etc. has not been fixing the problem. On the rare occasion I can get to the windows logon screen, when I log in the desktop fails to show up. The cursor appears over a black screen and I can hit "ctrl alt delete" and get the task manager menu, shut down or restart, etc. but Windows won't load up properly... it stays on the black screen with cursor.

I'm running Windows 7 home premium OM 64 bit, got an ASUS P7P55D motherboard (this was a home build, my first).

I haven't gone into BIOS yet to try anything but I'm honestly not sure where to start... and I'm a bit sleep deprived and need to let this thing go for the night, and hopefully take another crack at it with some advice here...

Sorry if I've neglected to mention something obvious that I should mention... I can hardly think straight right now.

[MikeMoss]

Hi

I'm grasping at straws here but if everything worked before you tried the two monitor thing, (I have a setup like this myself, monitor and HD TV both connected) then I would try getting back to where you were.

If you can Uninstall you video card in Device Manager, Perhaps even remove it and put it back in.

Let Widows detect it and install the latest drivers for it.

Make sure that Display Setting is set to display the desktop on only your main monitor before going through the process. If you didn't make any changes in the bios or anything it seems like this should get the video setup back to where you were.

I don't know if this will do it or not, but it won't take long to try and it's worth a shot.

Mike

[vidronin]

Well, after I left the black screen on for about 20 minutes, my desktop returned, and now the computer seems to be running fine. (I've rebooted several times with no further issues).

I'm not entirely clear what caused the initial problem. It certainly started when I was experimenting with the HDTV, but it was system restore that fixed it and it set it back to a point when I was looking for desktop wallpapers and my anti virus software picked up a threat (when I opened firefox it showed one of those was the last site I'd visited). So perhaps it was a virus and it just happened to kick in as I was experimenting with the second monitor.

I wish I knew what caused the problem but I'll cross my fingers and hope it passed.