Dual monitors not recognized by Windows 10 - Did work fine yesterday

I have a Dell Inspiron 17" laptop with an AMD 64 bit processor & Radeon HD graphics card 1.70Ghz, 8GB memory, 500Gb SSD hard drive with a 1Tb SSD external hard drive for Dropbox. I have dual Dell 22" monitors hooked up to a Dell port replicator. I am running Windows 10 version 1511, build 10586.545... I HAVE NOT upgraded Windows 10 yet.

This instance of Windows 10 was a clean installation on a new SSD hard drive replacing one that crashed so it is not an upgrade installation. I run the video output on Extended with the lid closed on the laptop.

I use Actual Window Manager to control the monitors. This system has worked successfully on the Windows 8.1 that was on the laptop until the HD crash and has worked perfectly with Windows 10 for several months, until this week. I started the laptop up from sleep mode as usual in the morning, both monitors fired and then immediately displayed "no signal".

I checked the monitor settings section in Settings and only 1 monitor, the PC monitor showed up. I checked AWM dashboard and only the PC monitor showed there as well. I checked the Project box and the output is on PS Screen Only and WILL NOT switch to any of the other 3 usual options there.

I am running the latest Video drivers and AWM drivers. I have uninstalled & reinstalled BOTH to no avail. I have exhausted 3 Microsoft Rocket Jockeys who all said "I dunno"...

I suspect that this was caused by one of Microsoft's Magic Overnight updates where some "Ace" coder left something turned off or turned something on that gave the OS heartburn!

Does anyone have any idea what might have caused this... And any ideas how to correct it?

Oh BTW, my external hard drive is fed from the port replicator which connects to the laptop via a 3.0 USB port so no, it NOT a cable problem since the hard drive/Dropbox works fine. Sorry for writing a novel, but I am trying to avoid the glib "Are you sure it's plugged in answers"... Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance.

alphanumeric said:

Sounds like a port replicator issue. I'd reinstall the drivers for that. You could also try plugging the monitor directly into your laptops video port. Then do a + P > Extend. If it works you know its not the monitor or the video drivers. With that monitor plugged into the port replicator it becomes a USB 3 monitor, and is dependent on that devices driver to function correctly. I have an external USB 3 monitor for my laptop, it uses DisplayLink. If DisplayLink gets messed up it doesn't work.

YOU ARE A LIFESAVER! You nailed it! There is a problem with the replicator. I assumed that since Dropbox (also on the replicator) continued to work correctly that it was OK.

Now I have to figure out how to prevent Dropbox from crashing while I reinstall replicator drivers. (driver update didn't do the trick)

Thank you so much for your help!

alphanumeric said:

A port replicator like the one you have, for all intent and purposes, is the same as a bunch of separate devices all pugged into a USB hub. The driver package is more along the lines of several drivers versus just the one driver for all. Thus, one part of the device can go AWOL without the whole thing stopping from working.

Well, I know were the problem is, now I just need to know how to fix it... Did the driver reinstall and still no fix, Is is possible that the replicator needs to be replaced? I am waiting on Dropbox to finish playing around and will try the reinstall again for good measure.