Apps on Dual monitors swapped around when waking up from sleep mode

Hi,

I know this is not really a crash, but wasn't sure where else to put it.

I have now been running Windows 7 for about 2 months and am loving it. However, there is one small issue that is starting to drive me NUTS!

Every now and again, after recovering from sleep mode, the apps on my dual screens get swapped around.

In other words: say I've got Outlook maximized on screen 1 (left hand side) and Skype is running on screen 2 (right hand side), the machine goes into sleep mode and, upon waking up, outlook will be maximized on screen 2 (right) and Skype will be open on screen 1(left).

Primary and secondary setting is unaffected. Only the applications get moved.
Also, it does not happen every time!

To fix, i simply drag the apps back to the opposite screen and maximize again.

I dearly hope someone can solve this for me as I have spent endless time trying to figure it out.

Welcome to Seven Forums TeachersPet. How are you setting up the dual monitors? Through Windows, or with your video cards control panel? Do the apps open on the correct monitor, or do they open on the primary and you switch them to the secondary monitor, etc.? Have you tried closing the program on the monitor you want it to stay on, and then opening it to see if it opens on the same monitor, or switches to the other?

A Guy

Hi Guy!

I set it up by Right-clicking on the desktop and selecting "Screen resolution". Through windows then...
The apps open on the wrong monitor whenever the PC comes out of sleep mode. in other words, whatever was open on the primary monitor, will now be open on the secondary monitor, and vice versa.
The Primary monitor stays the primary monitor. it is not affected.

Once this happens, if i close the app that is being displayed on the wrong monitor, and open it again, it still comes up on the wrong monitor. i have to drag it back to the original side and expand. now, once i close and open again, it displays on the correct side.

Do you have any Window management application(s) running in the background? It's apps like Ultramon, Nvidia's NVIEW, or apps similar to those...

zzz2496

Nope.

I have no funnies running in the background. Usually just a SCADA program, maybe SQL, and Outlook and Skype is constantly open. Other than that, not much is going on.

So this morning, after waking up from a good night's rest, the apps on my screens were swapped around once again... However, when i went into my screen resolution settings page, this is what i saw: Suddenly Windows seems to detect a third screen! (Needless to say, i only have 2 screen cards and most certainly do not have a third screen plugged in for windows to detect!)

Here is a screen grab of the situation:

I hope this will spark something somewhere for someone. Thanks for attempting to help thus far...

what monitors are you running?
Sounds to me like 1 screen is waking up first and outlook gets shifted to that screen, but I don't see why Skype would switch to the other screen.
Are you using the onboard VGA as well as a separate video card?

Have you tried updating your graphic card driver?

I am using the onboard plus a Radeon. (check my specs)

No update available for the driver...

I've found W7's automatic monitor detection to be quite problematic in some other situations too

I think they need to work a bit more on this. It really should remember the last settings or allow you to "Lock" the omnitor settings and not auto change them till you "Unlock" them. When the second monitor is a TV, which is off most of the time, it should REALLY not try to rearrange the desktop every time the computer is restarted. Grrr...

fseal said:

I've found W7's automatic monitor detection to be quite problematic in some other situations too

I think they need to work a bit more on this. It really should remember the last settings or allow you to "Lock" the omnitor settings and not auto change them till you "Unlock" them. When the second monitor is a TV, which is off most of the time, it should REALLY not try to rearrange the desktop every time the computer is restarted. Grrr...

Click to expand...

OK, good to hear i'm not the only one with this issue.

I just don't understand how they could have gone backwards here as there was no problem with this in XP and previous versions, but now, if you search the word "Sleep" in a forum a thousand issues pop up!

At least mine isn't quite as serious as some of the others i've seen, but it still blows my mind.

TeachersPet, I'm using multi monitor setup (I have 3 monitors, see my specs). I don't see any problems with window moving all over the place like you've described... Check your display adapter's drivers, maybe it has something to do with it. I remember that ATi have "HydraVision" utility, it's similar utility to Nvidia's NVIEW. See if you can poke around in it...

zzz2496

I just switched from a GTX285 & 9600GT to an ATI HD5850 yesterday.
I locked the machine and the middle screen went to sleep but the side screens stayed on.
With the Nvidia cards all 3 screens would go to sleep.

Woke up the display and unlocked the machine and everything was where it was when I locked it.

did you state your make and models of your screens?