win7 Notebook: Persistency of HDMI-ext Monitor/kbd

Gang I'm wondering if there is a trick to this:
I setup a notebook with an HDMI-connected external bigscreen and USB mouse/kbd. Is there a sure way to make that monitor 'default' each/every time Win7 is cranked up?
What seems to be happening is the connection is not re-established when win7 starts up. I tried to reproduce the issue in my lab but only have a VGA connection to ext mon and it works fine. I did not change anything in the [intel in this case] Graphics Properties/Monitors, just set it once using the Fn/Mon key and choices and thereafter it was ok.

I'm guessing that there is some mftr-dependency issues here as to how the monitor/select function is established. The unit in question is a late model HP Pavilion running Win7 Home Premium

thanks for your advice.