Dual monitor color settings seems to be messed up cs4

Question

Hi
My daughter has this setup
AMD 9550 quad 2.2mhz machine, Windows 7 ultimate. latest updates
ATI Radeon HD 5700 gpu card (latest driver)
Two LCD monitors
          1. LG 2361V HDMI (main)
          2. Cintiq 21UX (Extended)
Both monitors are calibrated, and have the latest driver updates. It does not matter which monitor is the main one.
PS cs4 also has the
1. If i load a photo in fireworks and drag the application back and forth accross the two monitors, the image looks virtually identical.
2. If i load the same photo in PS (cs4 11.0.1) and do the same, the image looks perfect in the LG but immediately darkens when on the Cintiq.
          a. The darkening is not instantanious. It looks good for about one second before it changes.
          b. If I hover the image between the two monitors, then the darkening only is applied to half of the image.
3. If i change the preferences to not "color match" (in the performance->open GL) then the image does not darken and it remains loyal to the color profile in place. But!!!! the navigator and color selection tools remain darkened while on the Cintiq. So if she chooses a color from the tool, it paints a different color on the canvas.
          a. If I modify the color settings, then the modification affects both monitors display and the difference issue does not go away.
Ideally we want to be able to select a color from the palette and have that color be what is painted onto the canvas. We also want the image to appear as similar as they do in fireworks.
While Color Matching is checked:
On the cheaper monitor, the image and the navigation pane always has the same color appearance. when i change the color profile, the change is reflected in both the canvas and the navigation pane.
The same is true on the Centiq, but the image and navigation pane is always darker than on the other monitor.
While Color Matching is UNchecked:
The color selection tool and the navigation panel are affected but the canvas is not. But the two monitors canvases match.
So. in order for the navigation and color selction tool to match the canvas, the color matching needs to be checked.
But this creates the darkening on the cintiq. No matter what profile i choose, the cintiq is too dark. and photoshop is doing it because fireworks does not do this.
How can i set it up so that all the colors are true to the profile, and match the nav and color tools?
Thank you
Any ideas will be appreciated.
Jerry C

Answer 1

Thanks
@Noel
It sounds as if the monitors are using two quite different profiles, which may indicate the calibration is off a good bit on one of them and the profile was generated to compensate.  The clue here is that you see a change when you move a document from one to the other, and that temporarily (while an image crosses both monitors) you see quite a difference in it.
If you drag an image in a non-color-managed application across both monitors, so that specifically part of it is shown on one and part on the other, how different do they look?
Using fireworks or MSpaint or IExplore, an image looks pretty much exactly the same on either monitor as well as when spanning accross both.
The two monitors are clibrated so that all colors match on both monitors.
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/
The Cintiq has a better contrast ratio so the whites are slightly brighter.
But!!!  If the moitors were not calibrated, then a fireworks image would look different on each screen. In fact they look exactly the same on both.
Even when the image spans accross the two screens.
It is only Photoshop that darkens the part of the image that hangs onto the Cintiq. And it is very dark.
Even in the famed "Monitor mode", the image is much darker than is is in IIE or MSPaint or Fireworks.
I dont want to disable the color profiling, as it is important to see what the target will look like.
But i do want to see what the target will look like! right now it is way to dark. No matter what profile i choose.
Also my examples are more to demonstrate the comparrison between the two monitors, but the goal is to get PS CS4 to work on the centiq. It would be nice to have the navigator and some panels on the other monitor and have the colors match, but more important is to have the colors on the cintiq look normal at all!
Thanks so far. but we are still messed up.
Jerry C