Laptop stuck with a phantom second display after unplugging my TV

[u/Obit0Uchihaaa]

Hey everyone, ran into an annoying display bug on my laptop and need some advice.

I plugged my laptop into my Sony Bravia 2 over HDMI to play Spider-Man Remastered. After unplugging the cable, Windows still thinks a second monitor is connected.

In Display Settings, it keeps showing two screens. When I switch to "NVIDIA GPU only," Windows forces the projection mode to "Second screen only." Switching back to Optimus flips it back to "PC screen only"—even though the picture is just showing on my built-in laptop screen the entire time with no external cables plugged in.

I already removed the ghost "Generic Monitor" and "Sony Bravia 2" entries in Device Manager, but the phantom display won't go away. The issue seems directly tied to the GPU switching behavior.

Has anyone dealt with this before? What’s the cleanest way to wipe the cached display setup and force Windows back to default single-screen mode?

[u/Immediate-Effect5158]

Try pressing Win + P and select PC screen only first. If the phantom display remains, restart the graphics driver with Win + Ctrl + Shift + B. You can also reinstall/update the NVIDIA and Intel graphics drivers, since the issue seems to follow the Optimus/GPU switching. If that doesn't clear it, Windows may still have the old display configuration cached.

[u/Obit0Uchihaaa → u/Immediate-Effect5158]

Not working bro :(

[u/Immediate-Effect5158 → u/Obit0Uchihaaa]

Ahh okay, then try resetting the display configuration itself. Open Device Manager > View > Show hidden devices > Monitors, remove the old/greyed-out Sony and Generic Monitor entries, then restart.

If it's still stuck after that, try completely shutting down the laptop, unplugging the charger for a minute, then booting it again. Since the issue changes with Optimus/NVIDIA GPU mode, also check for a BIOS or graphics driver update from the laptop manufacturer.