monitor device not updated when monitor replaced with different one

Question

monitor device not updated when monitor replaced with different one

old bofh 25

greetings - I had a samsung 971 plugged into the VGA port on a lenovo thinkcenter running windows 10 home 32-bit. I now plugged in a lenovo L2240 to that port. The OS thinks it's still a samsung. I have samsung's driver installed. The OS won't give me native resolution, but only 1280x1024 (on a 16:9 display, etc.).

What do I do to get the OS to forget that the monitor plugged in there was the samsung 971, and recognize the L2240 instead ? On another system, the L2240 does not take a custom driver.

I tried to 'update driver' and the OS said the most appropriate driver was already installed.

Do I uninstall the device ? I'm concerned that I will then not have a functioning monitor to interact with the system.

This is the only monitor on this system. If needed, can add a second monitor via a second port.

(Translated into the language I speak (unix) the device database entry for the monitor device is stale. I want to remove it and have device discovery run and discover the identity of the new monitor, and then select the appropriate driver.)

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Answer 1

Manoel Barros 21,560 Independent Advisor

Hello! You should remove the Samsung driver. You shouldn't lose your monitor, as the video card is still controlling the video.

Remove the old driver, reboot, and install the new driver via Windows Update.

Search "Device Manager" in the search bar > Click the icon > Expand the "Monitors" tab
Right click > Check "Attempt to remove the driver for this device" > Uninstall > Restart your PC.
Open System Configuration > Click "Windows Update" > "Check for updates".
Download all available updates. Click "Advanced Options" > "Optional Updates" > Select all available drivers and updates > Click "Download and Install".

If you have no video on the monitor for some reason, simply disconnect and connect the monitor's video cable, or restart the computer using the Reboot button.

old bofh 25 Reputation points

2025-09-03T22:22:33.4+00:00

worked like a charm. I uninstalled the device and the monitor indeed kept working; when I rebooted, it shows in dev mgr as generic non-pnp monitor, driver monitor.sys, with full resolution choices available. Thank you for your explanation ! I infer that for a relatively standard monitor like the Lenovo, a custom driver would not add any relevant features ? Vs. the Samsung has color mixing tools, etc. so the custom driver is a value-add. Interesting, and obviously there's only so many ways you can implement device management...