Vista double monitor display issue ~ Offset dropdown menus

[Egg Bramhill]

I purchased a new Dell computer about a month ago and I use it with a double monitor display. Ever since I set it up I've had problems with miss-aligned menus, but until now have been too busy to track the cause down.

The problem is that when I hover or select a menu item with a drop-down menu the drop-down menu is often miss-aligned. What's worse is the shoot-out sub menus often shoot-out the wrong way (left instead of right) even though there's ample screen room.

Here's a couple of screen grabs showing these problems.

In SS1 you can see that the FILE drop-down menu is offset from the FILE main menu button.

In SS2 I've moved the window across the screen towards the right. Now the FILE drop-down menu appears to the left but the shoot-out menus appear to the left although there's adequate space for them to appear to the right!

Finally in SS3 you can see that if I right click over a blank area of screen I get the menu item ATI CATALYST(R) sub menu. If I click on this nowt happens.

Anyone any ideas?

[steve.ledger]

Some digitizer driver settings use the cpl Tablet PC settings in Vista where you can set to open menus to the left or right. See here

[Egg Bramhill]

Unfortunately that didn't help Steve. I think I'll try to get hold of Dell support and see if they can sort it out. It's really bugging my workflow! Thanks.

[steve.ledger]

I'll assume you rebooted after making the changes above?

[Egg Bramhill]

Steve, I don't have a tablet PC and I'm right handed as is the default tablet pc setting. I can't really see that this is the issue.

I have a sneaking feeling it's something to do with Flash 8 on first loading to this computer. It wasn't compliant with Vista (business) and I altered some graphic setting (Aero I think) but I've tried resetting this and it still won't play ball.

I've tried downloading updated ATI drivers but the machine tells me I've got the latest version.

However now when I right click on the desktop and choose ATI CATALYST I get the following error message. It means nothing to me.

Cheers,

[steve.ledger]

I asked if you had rebooted Egg ?
It doesn't matter whether you have a tabletPC or not, Vista has the CPL applet to change menu orientation none-the-less.

As this is a Windows accessibility setting rather than a video driver one, ATI Cat'Control Centre doesn't have any menu position settings (I checked my sons PC which uses ATI)
FWIIW, neither do nVidia.

My research results into this have all come up with the same answer, the TabletPC setting.
I've never come across flash having any effect on the Windows furniture.

As a test, you could setup another user in Vista and see if the problem persists.

[steve.ledger]

when I right click on the desktop and choose ATI CATALYST I get the following error message. It means nothing to me.

I believe this is a .NET error.

Update to the latest .NET version then reinstall the latest driver (for your card model) including the ATI Catalyst Control Centre

[Egg Bramhill]

Cheers Steve. I followed all your advice and I'm still getting nowhere. I've installed the latest net and d/l'ed and tried to load the latest drivers as you suggest. Unfortunately the drivers won't load and come up with an error. Even ask's me if I want to view the error log and on clicking yes, tells me it can't find the path! I wish I still had a CRT as I often got very close to sticking my head through it as a final resort. The thought of doing the same with an LCD screen doesn't seem to have the same impact.

However, thanks for your support and suggestions. I've posted a ticket on ATI's website so I'll see what response I get from them.

Frustrated,