Colour Management - like a steering-wheel down the trousers*

OK I am officially confused by monitors and colour calibration.

The trouble all began when I accidentally managed to select the wrong profile in Capture1 without noticing. My images colours had all gone wrong when I got them into Photoshop.

The problem was occurring on my Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop, so I used my spider monitor calibration system and colour plus software to recalibrate the screen. Since then things got worse and worse with images looking fine on the laptop but lacking completely in contrast when viewed on other screens.

The most obvious way to see how the monitor was performing was to use the Monitor Black Point tests. Performance was frankly poorer than a Enron share holder. I tried a few things:

• Setting the right profiles in Capture 1
  
• Removing the monitor profile
• Adjusting Screen brightness
• Uninstalling the Colour Plus Software.

Only the last one actually solved the problem. So what exactly is the monitor calibration software for? If it makes things worse, what exactly is the point of it? Anyone less confused than me?

*It's driving me nuts!