Display Preferences refuse to stay set.

Brand new 2010 8Core 2.4Ghz MacPro. ATI 5870 video card. Running 3 displays - 2-24" Dell UltraSharps and a 30" Apple Cinema Display.
Using 2 Dual Link DVI to Mini Display Adapters in order to drive all 3 displays.
Card ports =
MiniDisplay #1 - Apple 30"
MiniDisplay #2 - 24" Dell
DVI Port - 24" Dell
The Dells have a max resolution of 1920x1200. I have them rotated to portrait (90°) via Display Preferences.
I HAD to set the Apple 30" in Mini Display port #1 so it would be seen as the primary monitor at all times. Simply dragging the menu bar in Displays > Arrange works for a while.. but read on....
System runs and operates fine overall. I set the Display Preferences, arrange the three monitors (24 - 30 -24) and set the rotation for the Dells. All works and is great while I'm sitting there.
I leave the system for 15 minutes or more and come back to it sleeping. When I hit the spacebar to wake, the Dell displays reset to either 1200x1600 resolution (stretching the picture), lose the 90° rotation, or both. If the Apple 30" isn't plugged into MiniDisplay Port #1, then whatever monitor IS plugged into that port becomes the primary. If I reset things, via Display Preferences, it's all great again until the system sleeps for more the 15 minutes again.
I've tried everything I can think of - zapping PRAM - reinstall the OS - trashing com.apple.windowserver.plist - locking com.apple.windowserver.plist (well setting permissions to read only, you can't lock that file).
Nothing I do will allow the monitors to retain their settings. Am I missing some trick somewhere?
Long time Mac User, previous MacPro with two nVidia cards didn't have this issue.
In addition.. not display related, but I'm finding disk access on the new MacPro horribly slow. Initial disk access takes 3-5 seconds every time. This is exceptionally abnormal for me. I'm not certain if it's an issue with the machine or the OS. This new system purchased last month is my first real exposure to OS10.6.4 on a regular basis. I did completely erase and install the OS when the system arrived as I always do.
Any ideas?

Wasn't due to a bad machine.
I have had 2 machine swaps since my October purchase of a 2010 MacPro. First system had a hard freeze at ~80% load and Apple requested a swap. Second system shorted out after 44 days of use. Short was not in the power supply ro logic board, it was deeper. I requested a new machine at that point.
So I'm on my 3rd new MacPro since October.... display issues have been the same on all three systems. It's obviously a firmware/video driver issue.
Let's hope this third system actually lasts longer than 45 days. So far, I'm swapping machines due to bad hardware every month and a half.

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Guys I appreciate your help but nothing is working.
I tried deleting the preferences file and the same thing happened again anyway.
I then uninstalled the whole Creative Suite and deleted all files associated with it and all entries in the Windows Registry related to it.
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Does anyone have any ideas?
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Guys I appreciate your help but nothing is working.
I tried deleting the preferences file and the same thing happened again anyway.
I then uninstalled the whole Creative Suite and deleted all files associated with it and all entries in the Windows Registry related to it.
I then reinstalled everything ( spending the hours it took) and it is doing the same thing again. I can not think of anything that has changed on the machine at all and I have never had this happen before in the years I have been using Premiere.
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Does anyone have any ideas?
My last option is to reformat my drive and reinstall everything from scratch but that will take me a day and a half.
I can not understand what is making it do this when it never did it before.
Here is what I am using:
Premiere Pro CS4 with a Canopus ADVC-300 Capture Box. It is installed via Firewire and goes to the Firewire Port on the Motherboard.
I am using XP Home SP3 on a Core I7 Computer with an Asus motherboard.
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