Vista - Will Not Run Two Monitors

I had two monitors running on my desktop and moved the second monitor to my laptop. I want to display a copy on both monitors so I can use a huge monitor with my laptop.

I know the monitor works I tried it on two different computers and its very nice HD display.

I plug the monitor into my laptop and a screen pops up for external monitor located. I click display a copy on both monitors (presentation mode). I've also tried both of the other modes. When I plug in the monitor the laptop screen goes black or stays on depending on what option I use.

I know the video card detects the monitor because it pops up a PnP screen as soon as I attach it. I uninstalled the monitor and video card several times from device manager.

When I turn the monitor on the power light is orange and I get a self test screen saver on the monitor. When I plug the monitor into the laptop the power light on the monitor goes to yellow and it says "sleep mode - press a button or move the mouse" on the monitor.

No matter what I do the external monitor stays in sleep mode and never displays anything but a black screen with a built-in screen savor. I restarted several times, reinstalled the video card, checked drivers, reset the BIOS to defaults and ran through the help file on windows and followed the Wizard on screen. Nothing I do gets windows to send a signal to that monitor. Even closing the lid on the laptop doesn't help.

Edit:

BTW I also tried pressing the Function+F4 key on the laptop because the Windows help file says that it will enable/disable external monitors on laptops. When I press it the monitor screen goes black and turns off. When I press it again the laptop screen comes back on. But it does nothing to the external monitor.

Change your resolution to something that Windows can display normally. 800x600 or 1024x768 and then try it again. You probably need a driver for the monitor

I am unable to change the resolution of the monitor because the slider bar is disabled.

I have the driver disc but it makes an error on Vista and there are no new drivers for my monitor on dells website. I called Dell but they refused to provide support unless I paid $200 because I don't have a dell computer I just bought the monitor.

Its wierd that Vista would need drivers for the monitor because the monitor works on my Fedora computer without drivers and it will also display the BIOS program on the computer with no problem. But when Vista is running it goes right into sleep mode. It even works on a computer running DOS.

If you see 1 and 2, click on 2 (or select it in the drop-down)

The keyboard should have one key with a picture of two screens side by side. Might not be F4. I've seen F2, and mine is F8

It looks like windows is messed up. When I plug in the monitor it thinks there is only one monitor connected and the external monitor goes to sleep mode.

When I unplug the monitor it says new device dected and turns on presentation and says "multiple monitors connected". It also acts like the screen has been extended to the left.

I guess it really doesn't matter anymore cause I don't think its going to work.

Thanks for helping.

It's most likely a driver issue.

NT has been multi-mon capable since Windows 2000 (or was it NT4?), so it's definitely going to work in Vista providing you have the proper video card driver.