External display fails after Snow Leopard update

I just updated to Snow Leopard yesterday and found that my external display (Vizio HDTV) no longer works with my MacBook. When I plug in the adapter my screen flashes to blue for a second (as usual) but then doesn't recognize the device. Nothing on the TV, nothing in display preferences, nothing when I detect displays.

I found a few hints and tried deleting the com.apple.windowserver.plist files and resetting my PRAM. No change.

Also, if I try to switch my MacBook's resolution to any other resolution than what its set on my screen goes blank and the computer freezes (no response from volume change click, cannot esc). I have to boot into safe mode to reset everything.

Any suggestions? I'm very frustrated that Snow Leopard did this to my laptop. We use the computer for our TV. We don't have cable and can't receive broadcast TV. We get all our TV through Hulu and NetFlix streaming. We're lost right now! HELP!

 

I was able to get system preferences to at least detect that a display is present, but still nothing on the screen. The resolution options for that monitor are empty and below it says < < DO NOT LOCALIZE > >

 

There were a few other bugs that were also resolved by an archive and install of osx