Update:
SORRY! It looks like my Dell laptop video card is bad. Please disregard the message above.
Also, FYI Dell Laptops have a known issue where the GPU goes bad. There was a class action settlement which gives users like me an extra year of warranty support. (In case others see this post.)
Details here:
http://en.community.dell.com/dell-bl...hancement.aspx
Again sorry for the confusion, but I wanted to leave this up in case others ran in to a similar and very confusing situation.
P.S. I have set up an additional BVU195 in place of the external monitor connection to the laptop until I get it fixed. Works great!