I have had this issue with a few laptops now and it looks like it is some sort of user account problem. Specifics of the system are:
- Dell Laptop
- Windows XP Professional SP3
- Non-domain member computer
- DLP Projector connected to laptop via VGA
I use this setup almost daily to do presentations, always the mirrored display mode where I can see on the laptop monitor the same thing that is displayed on the projector.
Today, when I boot up, I get the mirrored display at the login screen, but after I log in, it switches to Extended Desktop (like two desktops side-by-side). Fn+F8 just cycles through all the normal settings except the mirrored display.
I created a new user account on the computer and it performs normally. Mirrored display works as normal.
I have run into this about four times now and it always can be solved by creating a new user account on the computer, and then all is well.
I would like to either:
- Find a way to reset the customized settings for a specific user account which would hopefully make this go away, or
- Find the specific setting that causes this so that I can easily fix it when the problem comes up.
Creating new user accounts is kind of a pain and an easy fix must be out there somewhere.