I am trying to set up dual monitors to my laptop. I want the laptop to be the primary and another monitor to be the secondary. Everything I try in control panel does not seem to work. Control panel is not recognizing the second monitor. I recently re-imaged the laptop to an image from about a year ago. Any suggestions on how to set this up properly?

You must figure out why Windows does not see the second monitor. Do you have the most current video driver for your system. The dual monitor capability is a function of the video driver. Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

And are you sure the laptop has the capability to support two monitors? I know nothing about your particular machine, but it's possible the connector is simply to be able to switch the one desktop to an external monitor or projector, not run both simultaneously. What display adapter does it have in it? -Noel

Yes, this laptop supported two monitors until about 2 weeks ago when my hard disk crashed. I replaced the disk with an older hard drive and re-imaged the laptop with a backup that was taken about a year ago. Now, when I go into control panel and try to identify, the display shows both 1 and 2 on both monitors.

Look for a video driver setting that allows you to treat the monitors as separate, rather than duplicating the display on both. As suggested above, visit the web site of the laptop maker or the maker of your display adapter (e.g., nVidia.com, ATI.com, etc.) and get the latest video driver available for your particular model. -Noel