Part configurations in ePDM

I have read several threads that come close to addressing this issue, but don't quite "hit the nail on the head".  Here is the issue I am running into:

I will use the hypothetical assembly that contains a part with two configurations (I will call it "Part A").  Part A has a left hand and right hand configuration.  When I check the assembly out of the ePDM vault, I immediately get a warning that I am changing Part A which I do not have checked out.  Once the assembly loads, I will reload the part.  This makes no difference because SolidWorks still views the configuration of the part in the assembly which is not the "active configuration" as a change to the part which must be saved.  Since I have two configurations in the assembly I can never get the assembly to come in "clean" with no errors or warnings.

Since I am fairly new to ePDM, I am hoping that maybe I am missing a setting somewhere that will stop SolidWorks from viewing a configuration change as a change to the file.  Some of our large assemblies have many parts with multiple configurations (fasteners) which leads to a large number of warning messages.  I know that I can check the box that says "do not show message again", but I want that message to show up if there is a legitimate file change. 

Maybe I am being too nit-picky, but I want my parts and assemblies to open without the "needs saved" asterisk appearing immediately after opening.  Before we had ePDM, it was just an annoyance but now I am getting warning messages.

I am running SW'10 SP 4.0, HP Z200 i5 3.33 GHz processor, Windows 7 SP1, 64 bit, 12 GB RAM.  NVIDIA Quadro 2000 video card.

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