Good call on the drinks in Chicago.
Your problem is different than how I initially read it. With mine, my laptop has one of those weird 1650 longish views, and it frustrates me to no end that when I get a crash event, I have to go to the laptop screen, set settings, go to external, set settings, and then cycle back to make sure things aren't getting reset. The most frustrating segment of this dance is when I go to the external screen to find it set at 640, and only 1/4th of the actual display showing -- fun fun fun. But, after I futz with it a time or two, it works out. The only time it fritzes back on me is when I play certain games, like the old Axis & Allies, that were originally DOS-based. Which sounds like it may be a problem similar to yours.
I also get a regular reshifting of the icons. They don't get moved from the external to the laptop. Rather, they will get readjusted to fit the laptop's landscape setting, and this will cause them to get all shuffled when I switch over to the external.
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