Dell laptop keeps detecting a Virtual Generic Non-PnP Display Device

One day out of nowhere, my Dell Studio 1747 laptop started detecting two display devices: One Generic PnP Device and another Generic Non-PnP Device.

I don't have two devices so how is it detecting another device?

The strangest part is that the virtual monitor is connecting and disconnecting itself, and my display keeps on switching from extended display to normal display to duplicate while that happens. It affects everything: my game crashes when I am playing and even Media Player crashes when playing videos.

I thought it was a driver problem so out of desperation I reinstalled the system (Windows 7). Just after The completing installation phase started, the virtual monitor popped up, and the display was duplicated - I see a miniaturized display (640 x 480). Even after I install the display driver, the problem is still present.

My original screen displays at 1600 x 900, while the virtual monitor displays at 640 x 480.

Here are some screens showing my problems:

Whenever the virtual monitors connects and disconnect (if you are wondering how I know it's connecting and disconnecting, I know from the tones Windows plays whenever a device is connected and disconnected), my ATI Control Center pops up an error message:

Some Interesting but very unusual discoveries

• Whenever I disable the display adapter(i.e. Video Card Device, ATI Raedon 4650) at computer management, the system switches to a very basic display, but the switching is no longer an problem and second monitor is gone. Under
• This will probably shock you all, I leave in a quite cold and moist sorrounding, so i suspected something, and decided to dry my system in the sun. The most strangest thing is after about 30 mins in the sun, the problem is gone(seriously no longer 2 monitor). Then it again reappeard at the morning I have tested this just 2 times due to tight schedule but it strangely works.
• The Connect/Disconnect Cycle Frequency is higher, when I choose to display on my monitor only, slightly less when on extended mode and very less on duplicate mode.

As per the request I will upload some information about the detected monitor on my next edit.

Solution 1:

What happens when you change the display type in your first image/dialog box's 'Multiple Displays' 'Extend these displays' - can you tell it to just mirror displays? It shouldn't interrupt your programs/displays then.

It might be worth looking in the Bios (if you can get to it) to see if there's an option to disable the additional display port - that might solve any hardware issues with it as the OS wouldn't be seeing it to detect anything.

You can sometimes also disable the extra display with a combination of your Fn key and an F key on the keyboard, although i don't think this would stop Windows detecting changes to it...

In regards to side effects of placing it in the sun to 'warm up'/dry out it would all depend on how hot it's getting, but from your previous mention of the damp conditions - i would say no, it won't harm it, if anything it'll be better for it!

It's sounding more and more like a hardware issue - certainly after your moisture and 'sun drying' experiment above... The graphics card is detecting something it thinks is an additional monitor - it's unable to determine what it is (hence the switching and sometimes 3 displaying).

Warranty certainly sounds like the best option - at least then you can completely rule out a hardware fault.