Question : Problem: Video card just stopped working in Vista

My system is a Dual boot XP Pro SP3 and Vista Ultimate SP1.  Intel 965 chipset, E6700 CPU, 2GB RAM, Lightscribe DVD-RW, with multiple hard drives and multiple partitions.  XP and Vista are installed on the same hard drive, in different partitions. I was running a Geforce 6600GT 128M PCIe video card.  The monitor is an Acer LCD model AL2017, connected via the Digital interface.

Last week I was working in XP, and when I booted back to Vista, the monitor reports no signal.  It gives me the boot up screen with the scrolling bar, then goes black when the GUI starts to load.  I can hear the boot sounds, I
know it is running, but no video signal.  I shut it down and booted into XP, where it worked fine.  I went back into Vista, safe mode and disabled the video card, now it boots up and runs.  I contacted Nvidia, who had me update
drivers, and then try several older drivers, but the problem still exists.  I put in a new video card, a Geforce 8600GT 1GB PCIe, but the problem is the same.  Through all of this the system boots and runs fine in XP, and it runs
OK in Vista using the standard VGA driver (just no hardware acceleration, and no Aero).

During this process I found out that dual booting with XP deletes all of the previous restore points, so I can't go back.  I did try uninstalling all of the recent updates on the system, and then reapplying the drivers, but still
no help.

I really don't want to have to reload Vista...AGAIN...Any suggestions?

Answer : Problem: Video card just stopped working in Vista

I'm sure I've had similar problems (and frustrations) but can't remember exactly what solved them for me.
Some ideas off the top of my head:
(1) try using the VGA instead of DVI plug for the monitor
(2) in Vista safe mdoe, update drivers and then choose simple settings (like 640x480, 256b colour, 60Hz refresh) before rebooting into normal mode
(3) in Vista, make sure it's not trying to extend your desktop to a 2nd monitor.
(4) in Vista, try making your 2nd monitor the primary and only one.