Mac 101: curing multiple-monitor mixups with Detect Displays

Recently switched to Mac and adore my MPB. The one-button mouse and anchors only on one corner of the window are flatly stupid - sorry, but you know it's true. But everything else about this machine is a dream. My only wish: to run multiple external monitors off my MBP. No dualhead2go is not an option because of the restriction to 58 Hz. But Ill name my first-born after whoever points me in another solution!

Pet peeve about mac laptops. With a PC laptop, even with the lid open, I can make the "secondary" monitor my primary display and the laptop display an extended part of that desktop. For an Apple laptop, my only option is to leave the computer closed in order to use an external monitor as the primary. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me in a variety of situations: with a projector, in the likely scenario where the external monitor is much larger, when I want to have access to the keys/trackpad but not have the laptop screen on.

Why is such a simple piece of functionality missing? Does anyone know how I can: close the lid without putting my mac to sleep, make an external monitor primary with the lid open, and/or turn off/on the laptop monitor while the lid is open?

I've had a problem lately (seemed to coincide with 10.5.1 -> 10.5.2 upgrade) where if I restart my MBP and leave the external monitor (old 20" Gateway CRT) the external monitor will just be black, and OS X will insist that it's connected, even if I disconnect/reconnect the cable or do a "detect displays." I always end up having to restart with it disconnected and plug it in again after OS X boots. Anyone else seeing this issue?

I have an interesting problem when i restart my computer WITHOUT my external monitor plugged in. At home I have a 21" Samsung as my primary monitor, but when Im on the go, and i startup the computer, it ALWAYS thinks its still connected to the external and I have to manually detect displays to get it to realize there is no monitor plugged in.
Any body with a similar issue?

TUAW . . . I've JUST started to encounter this problem . . . great timing. I'm running a 15" MBP (2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo) and a ViewSonic VP930b. WITHOUT FAIL, every time I show up at work in the morning and boot cold, it NEVER recognizes the display. I've got to play around and muck about until something finally clicks.

I'll try your suggestions the next time it happens.

@Matt B: same problem here. I'm using a Sony STR-DG800 and I think the HDCP stream is the culprit. If you switch to the cable box HDCP syncs, but the Mac Mini doesn't do HDCP when the receiver or TV expects it.

I have a problem with a 17" MacBook Pro that no longer recognizes a 30" display. It was connected to a projector, and ever since it won't recognize the 30". The screen goes blank for a moment, but never outputs video to the 30". I zapped the PRAM, used the Detect Displays trick and no luck. Going back to the projector it will display video, so I tried moving the menu bar back and forth and no luck. Any ideas?

I assume that the example in this post is two monitors that are being powered off a MacPro desktop.

Anyone have a good solution for a MacBook Pro to be able to power two monitors and have the full screen real estate (not just mirror)???

I'd be really happy if they fixed that bug that causes my MBP to forget what monitor is attached during a reboot, so that the external monitor is just a munged up mirror of the desktop, instead of a smooth extended part of the desktop.

I have a Mac mini in my living room that I use exclusively as a media player/server. It is connected to my plasma TV via DVI/HDMI which is switched by my AV receiver. I use my Mac mini a few times a week to watch DVDs or listen to music through Front Row and the rest of the time I am watching my cable box, also HDMI switched through the receiver.
Trouble is whenever I switch the receiver to my Mac mini, it does not detect my TV. I have to unplug the DVI cable from the back of the mini and plug it back in to get it to detect the TV. Crawling on my knees and pulling out my components gets annoying when I should just be able to hit a button on my remote to change sources. Does anyone know of a fix? This article sounds like it is in a similar vein.
My mini is set not to go to screen saver, sleep mode, or turn off the display after any period of inactivity. It is set to disable hard drive when possible.

Score one for TUAW using "munged"!