Windows 7 - It detects a nonexistent second monitor - the cursor goes out of view

@255: The above would be worth a try. It'll take a bit of time, but you'll get there eventually.

@dsperber: Are you sure you've got everything? There's bound to be something you'ved missed somewhere.

Nope, there is only one: generic monitor plug and play.

Nope... not sure at all.

Doubling my annoyance and effort required, I have a dual-boot WinXP and Windows 7 environment on the two machines. So not only did I have to open every program and correct every window and dialog in Windows 7 to be sure (hopefully) that everything was now going to open on monitor #1 when I went back to the one-monitor setup, I had to repeat the entire process a second time for my WinXP boot environment!!!

Going from dual-monitor to one-monitor is not painless.

So, sorry guys, just to be sure I've got it: the last option is to re-install windows?
Or do you have other hints?
Thanks.

Well... turns out there IS an actual solution to this dilemma, which I'd always wanted to discover but obviously never pursued it hard enough... until tonight.

Sure enough, today I happened to open a program I hadn't used in a while and its window was offscreen... on the "phantom monitor #2" (no longer on my now 1-monitor system) where was last placed when last used.

I tried to find any relevant Registry entries, or INI/DAT files, which might contain the window location. But none were to be found, and the window location was obviously being handled by Windows.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but again with no success. The old window location in Windows apparently persisted across the uninstall/reinstall.

Finally did a little Googling, and discovered that Brink has posted THE SOLUTION to the problem. It involves right-click on the Aero Peek preview window itself (not the taskbar item, but the Aero Peek preview mini-window) for the active task and offscreen open window (on phantom monitor #2) which is "invisible" (since I only have 1 monitor), although the Aero Peek preview itself appears right over the item on the taskbar.

From the resulting context menu, select MOVE, and then left-arrow (in my case). Now just drag the mouse (to the left, in my case, from phantom monitor #2 over to real monitor #1), which will instantly make the offscreen window move over to become gradually more and more visible on monitor #1.

When it's where I want it, left-click the mouse, and the MOVE is complete. Window now successfully relocated from offscreen phantom monitor #2 to real monitor #1... without disconnecting the machine and dragging it upstairs for temporary re-connection to an available second monitor so that I can drag the actual window over to monitor #1, which had been my only previous solution so I thought.


Many thanks to Brink for this tip. Never knew it before now. And even now that I know it, I still can't find it in HELP.

UPDATE
Formatted Windows, unbelievably problem is NOT solved.
It detects a nonexistent second monitor after having done some windows upgrades.
Same problem as the first post.

You're saying that starting from a brand new Windows install and with only a single monitor ever connected to one of the HD5770's dual-DVI connectors, that the first-time window location when you open a program is offscreen on a phantom second monitor?

In passing, I point out that the DVI connector on the HD5770 which corresponds to "monitor #1" is the LOWER connector (when the tower is standing vertically) and "monitor #2" uses the UPPER connector. Which connector do you have your monitor using?



Does your "creating and arranging desktops" show only one monitor?


Also, does EVERY program window open offscreen or just specific programs?

If you follow the simple instructions in Brink's tutorial that I quoted above, can you bring the offscreen window back onto the visible monitor? And after you do that, and you close the window and re-launch the program, does the program window re-open on the offscreen monitor or does it now open on the visible monitor?

Every program? Or just some, and if so which one(s)?

Thanks for the reply.

No. Just that the mouse goes off the screen (to the right). I know that the cursor is almost invisible when it hits the right, but it's not that, it's actually going far off the screen and I have to move the mouse a lot back before seeing the cursor again.

No, no, don't worry, I perfectly know that. I plugged the graphic card myself, I know how those things work. ^ ^

Yes.
But if I go to:
desktop, right click, screen resolution, and click "detect", another monitor appears on the right, near the first one; and it says: "another non detected monitor".

How many monitors are listed under the Monitors category of Device Manager?

One: generic monitor plug and play. ID hardware PHLC074, which seems correct since its philips.
It also says that it's plugged in the ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series.

EDIT:
Ah, I'm not using DVI, I'm using VGA. But plugged in the GPU of course.
Maybe I should buy DVI?