Need Dual Monitor Tech Help.

[Signals]

Okay, this should be pretty easy for you guys. I have added a second monitor to my computer system. I installed the video card, properly plugged in both monitors to both video cards, booted up my system, system recognized the new video card/monitor and automatically install the driver for it.

Second monitor is not working!

A number of years ago I had dual monitors on my system that I was running Windows 98 on, and I remember having to go into control panel to tell Windows that I'm running two monitors. But in Windows Vista I can't seem to find in control panel were to tell Windows to recognize the second monitor.

I can't seem to find the answer in online help files.

Do one if you guys know in Windows Vista were I tell Windows to recognize the second monitor?

EDIT:The odd thing is, is the new video card is working, but the old monitor port that plugs directly into the motherboard is the one that my PC is not recognizing. I'm baffled. HELP!

 

[Yeagermeister]

You have to go to the screen where you set the resolution and choose the second monitor and choose extend desktop.

 

[Signals]

You have to go to the screen where you set the resolution and choose the second monitor and choose extend desktop.

Not giving me the option to extend to dual monitors. Do you think that means Vista Home Basic is not capable of supporting dual monitors?

The new vid card is working, but for some reason the original display adapter has been disabled.

One monitor is LCD and the other is CTR. could that pose a problem, Yeagermeister?

 

[Yeagermeister]

Not giving me the option to extend to dual monitors. Do you think that means Vista Home Basic is not capable of supporting dual monitors?

The new vid card is working, but for some reason the original display adapter has been disabled.

One monitor is LCD and the other is CTR. could that pose a problem, Yeagermeister?

I'm not sure about the vista basic part. I try to avoid vista at all costs.

The type of monitor shouldn't matter. It sounds like the second monitor is not being recognized by your system.

What type of card is it? Also make sure you have downloaded the newest drivers for the card.

 

[Signals]

I'm not sure about the vista basic part. I try to avoid vista at all costs.

The type of monitor shouldn't matter. It sounds like the second monitor is not being recognized by your system.

What type of card is it? Also make sure you have downloaded the newest drivers for the card.

Yeagermeister, I swapped the two monitors from one video card to the other, so it's not the monitors that's the problem it's the display adapter. As I mentioned in an earlier post the new video card is working, and swapping the monitors proves that.

What I am stumped about, is why having the new video card has disabled the original video adapter that plugs directly into the motherboard.

To answer your question about what type of video card it is, I couldn't tell you. I had a couple of video cards laying around and had this harebrained idea to install one so I can hook up an extra monitor I had and I didn't look at the name on the video card. In order to find out I would have to shut my system down pull the card out (because the card is upside down) and pull it out, which I really don't want to do that if I have to I will, but that's a last-ditch idea.

The monitor drivers are okay. The video card drivers are okay. What I don't understand is why it disabled the original video card driver when I installed the new video card.

 

[Yeagermeister]

Yeagermeister, I swapped the two monitors from one video card to the other, so it's not the monitors that's the problem it's the display adapter. As I mentioned in an earlier post the new video card is working, and swapping the monitors proves that.

What I am stumped about, is why having the new video card has disabled the original video adapter that plugs directly into the motherboard.

To answer your question about what type of video card it is, I couldn't tell you. I had a couple of video cards laying around and had this harebrained idea to install one so I can hook up an extra monitor I had and I didn't look at the name on the video card. In order to find out I would have to shut my system down pull the card out (because the card is upside down) and pull it out, which I really don't want to do that if I have to I will, but that's a last-ditch idea.

The monitor drivers are okay. The video card drivers are okay. What I don't understand is why it disabled the original video card driver when I installed the new video card.

Ahhh ok I missed that. It's possible that you can go in to the bios and set it to not turn off the on board video card but all of the motherboards I have seen disable the video card for the new card.

In short check your bios settings.

 

[Phoenix]

Vista....yuck! I avoid it too.

http://www.tweaksforgeeks.com/windows-vista/2008/01/how-do-i-setup-dual-monitors-in-windows-vista


http://skattertech.com/2008/04/setup-multiple-monitors-in-vista/


http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/wi...-a-dual-monitor-setup-with-windows-vista.aspx




Hopefully one of these can be of help....

 

[Kangaroo]

Ok let me clarify a few things you will never be able to plug in a video card and not have it over ride the onboard video and turn it off.

Unix, Vista what ever it won't work.

The on board video card use ram to drive your video card and it would not be able to render and keep up with your installed extra video card.

If you want dual monitors there are only two ways to do it. By a Video card with dual output, or one that has a splitter that supports dual out put it is the same thing just process the dual video different via a cable or two ports on one video card. The splitter is is generally only found on business class HP, Dells etc small form factors series that I have run across there are a few video cards that work like this but the majority have two connections on the video card that support dual monitor.

The other option is two buy a higher end mother board or PC that has SLI which can support two video cards with a SLI cable attached between the two video cards that sync and allow rendering being passed back and forth between the two video cards (it is an SLI bridge a small cable and cost about $30-$60). This setup is not onboard video all it is is a motherboard with two pci express video card slots instead of 1 and a special bridge on it and take a special cable you have too plug one end on one card and another on the other card

These systems and Video cards tend to cost a little extra just an fyi

It is all about the type of type of Video card and motherboard you have

 

[Yeagermeister]

Ok let me clarify a few things you will never be able to plug in a video card and not have it over ride the onboard video and turn it off.

Unix, Vista what ever it won't work.

The on board video card use ram to drive your video card and it would not be able to render and keep up with your installed extra video card.

If you want dual monitors there are only two ways to do it. By a Video card with dual output, or one that has a splitter that supports dual out put it is the same thing just process the dual video different via a cable or two ports on one video card. The splitter is is generally only found on business class HP, Dells etc small form factors series that I have run across there are a few video cards that work like this but the majority have two connections on the video card that support dual monitor.

The other option is two buy a higher end mother board or PC that has SLI which can support two video cards with a SLI cable attached between the two video cards that sync and allow rendering being passed back and forth between the two video cards (it is an SLI bridge a small cable and cost about $30-$60). This setup is not onboard video all it is is a motherboard with two pci express video card slots instead of 1 and a special bridge on it and take a special cable you have too plug one end on one card and another on the other card

These systems and Video cards tend to cost a little extra just an fyi

It is all about the type of type of Video card and motherboard you have

That's what I thought but wasn't positive because I had never tried it. Integrated cards are usually pretty bad so I never had a reason to keep it.

 

[Kangaroo]

I forgot to add if you want SLI you have to also make sure the video card says SLI on it just because you have a fairly highend Video card does not mean it will support SLI. Look for the logo the has SLI

Man all the little things I forgot

ATI version is called Crossfire

 

[TheCount]

Okay, this should be pretty easy for you guys. I have added a second monitor to my computer system. I installed the video card, properly plugged in both monitors to both video cards, booted up my system, system recognized the new video card/monitor and automatically install the driver for it.

Second monitor is not working!

A number of years ago I had dual monitors on my system that I was running Windows 98 on, and I remember having to go into control panel to tell Windows that I'm running two monitors. But in Windows Vista I can't seem to find in control panel were to tell Windows to recognize the second monitor.

I can't seem to find the answer in online help files.

Do one if you guys know in Windows Vista were I tell Windows to recognize the second monitor?

EDIT:The odd thing is, is the new video card is working, but the old monitor port that plugs directly into the motherboard is the one that my PC is not recognizing. I'm baffled. HELP!

Monitors don't need drivers, what probably got installed was a default driver for your video card.

What brand is your video card? You will want to do the following (in this order):

1. Download the latest drivers from the website associated with your card
2. Go into System Manager and remove the driver currently installed for your video card and reboot if it asks you to.
3. Install the latest drivers you downloaded.
4. At this point you should be able to get into the advanced setup of your graphics card from the control panel->display->settings->advanced (I don't have a PC at work to detail the exact flow here, but should be something similar), and you should then be able to figure out your way to the correct panel for configuring dual displays.

The default drivers the system installs will work but don't always support all functions, you want to be sure to use the latest drivers.

You probably don't want to use both onboard and video card graphics at the same time, most motherboards will automatically disable the onboard graphics when a graphics card is present.

Also I don't think you need SLI to run two graphics cards, SLI is for a different sort of application (primarily gaming). You don't need SLI to run two cards and you don't need SLI to run two monitors off two different cards. SLI just primarily allows two matching cards to share the graphic workload.

 

[Yeagermeister]

Monitors don't need drivers, what probably got installed was a default driver for your video card.

What brand is your video card? You will want to do the following (in this order):

1. Download the latest drivers from the website associated with your card
2. Go into System Manager and remove the driver currently installed for your video card and reboot if it asks you to.
3. Install the latest drivers you downloaded.

The default drivers the system installs will work but don't always support all functions, you want to be sure to use the latest drivers.

You probably don't want to use both onboard and video card graphics at the same time, most motherboards will automatically disable the onboard graphics when a graphics card is present.

Also I don't think you need SLI to run two graphics cards, SLI is for a different sort of application (primarily gaming). You don't need SLI to run two cards and you don't need SLI to run two monitors off two different cards.

If you want the full resolution it's best to load the drivers especially for digital monitors. You don't have to but it helps.

 

[TheCount]

If you want the full resolution it's best to load the drivers especially for digital monitors. You don't have to but it helps.

Digital monitors, not sure I know what you mean... VGA vs DVI?

I don't think the monitor driver has much to do with the resolution a monitor is capable of, that is up to the display drivers. All the monitor driver contains is identifying information on the monitor and it shuts off resolutions your monitor doesn't support, but it doesn't limit or enhance what resolutions the monitor itself is capable of, in my experience.

 

[Yeagermeister]

Digital monitors, not sure I know what you mean... VGA vs DVI?

I don't think the monitor driver has much to do with the resolution a monitor is capable of, that is up to the display drivers. All the monitor driver contains is identifying information on the monitor and it shuts off resolutions your monitor doesn't support, but it doesn't limit or enhance what resolutions the monitor itself is capable of, in my experience.

VGA is analog
DVI is digital - sharper resolution and better for gaming. The refresh rate is high.

 

[TheCount]

VGA is analog
DVI is digital - sharper resolution and better for gaming. The refresh rate is high.

Yeah, I'm aware, just never heard them referred to as "digital monitors" before, especially since only very recently have LCD monitors stopped coming with VGA inputs in addition to the digital inputs.

 

[Yeagermeister]

Yeah, I'm aware, just never heard them referred to as "digital monitors" before, especially since only very recently have LCD monitors stopped coming with VGA inputs in addition to the digital inputs.

I buy monitors all the time at works and I always have to specify analog or digital.

 

[TheCount]

I buy monitors all the time at works and I always have to specify analog or digital.

Do you guys use CRTS still? In my office when I showed up first day they tried to stick me with a CRT that was old as dirt, screen was yellowing and fading.

Where do you order from? I can't even remember the last time I saw a new monitor for sale that had VGA as the only option. Maybe if a company is still running old legacy stuff, they might need to specify because they do need VGA monitors to be compatible.

I'm sure retailers and stuff still use VGA for registers and what not. I don't think you can walk into say a Best Buy and ask for an analog monitor though, you'll just end up with a LCD that also has VGA inputs.

 

[Yeagermeister]

Do you guys use CRTS still? In my office when I showed up first day they tried to stick me with a CRT that was old as dirt, screen was yellowing and fading.

Where do you order from? I can't even remember the last time I saw a new monitor for sale that had VGA as the only option. Maybe if a company is still running old legacy stuff, they might need to specify because they do need VGA monitors to be compatible.

I'm sure retailers and stuff still use VGA for registers and what not. I don't think you can walk into say a Best Buy and ask for an analog monitor though, you'll just end up with a LCD that also has VGA inputs.

We still have a few crts but mostly flats. I buy from Dell. My monitors at works are analog only but both of mine at home are digital.