Multi-monitor problem

ivorm

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Hi ppl,

I'm having a problem setting up a second monitor for my system.

I have a Dell Optiplex GX260 running Win 2000 Professional. I have bought an ATI Radeon 7500 Graphics card from Dell (their site says this is recommended for my computer).

I've now installed the card, but the problem is that the system doesn't seem to recognize my originlal monitor. The only output is on the monitor attached to the new card. Also, the original monitor doesn't show up in Control Panel- Display-Settings.

If I take out the new card, then the original monitor works again.

Has anyone got any ideas about how I can get both monitors working at the same time ?

Any help would be very gratefully received.

TIA

Regards,
 
Ivorm

Two thoughts:

Silly point but why are both monitors not attached to the new card? The 7500 is a dual-monitor card I thought.

Get the latest ATI drivers and only install the card driver not the other bells and whistles.

Third thought (I lied) but I vaguely remember having a DM problem when I was running Win 2000/Radeon 8500 - vanished with XP. Pending better advice from the experts have a look at the Microsoft support database.

Good luck
 
Last edited:
If the Radeon is a PCI card, you can try going into the Bios setup and changing it to search for PCI graphics cards before AGP ones.
 
Ivorm

I presume the radion card is a dual headed card and it is AGP and not PCI. Plugging and AGP card in to your dell will make the onboard graphics card redundant and it won't work.

If the Radion card is a PCI, then you should as Tykoon says, search for the BIOS and set it to the PCI card for graphics and it might let you use the original as well, but don't count on it.

You should have both monitors plugged into the Radion card and then it should pick it up automaically.

Cheers

Mike
 
Hi ppl,

Thank you all for your replies.

My card is just for a single monitor ( i guess if I had bought a dual monitor card I could have saved myself all this bother :-(

I've found a setting for 'Primary Video Controller' in the BIOS. It has two options : APG and Auto. I've tried both, but neither seems to work.

What is AGP ? And how can I find out if the card is APG or PCI ?

Thanks again for your help.

Regards,
 
IVORM, when you plugged it in were there several slots that it would fit in (that'll be PCI) or just the one (AGP).

BTW , I notice some recent DELLs are no longer supplied with an AGP slot.

Neil
 
robber said:
IVORM, when you plugged it in were there several slots that it would fit in (that'll be PCI) or just the one (AGP).

Neil

There was only one slot it would fit in. I guess that means it's AGP. So where does that leave me (up the creek in a wire canoe, I suspect) ?

Regards,
 
Hi Ivorm
i had a similar(ish) problem when trying to simply put more memory into my Dell a while ago. After trying 4 different Memory SIMMS from different companies and being advised by several 'experts' of dozens of possible solutions (including getting a whole new motherboard) after several weeks I finally got through to a REAL expert at Dell.
The problem was that the computer was factory installed with NOT a FULL install of WIN2000 but what he called a 'shadow'. which basically meant any hardware upgrade (memory/video card/central processor) different from the factory spec would not be recognised. So i had to reinstall Win2000 from the disk that came with the computer (I put it in as a second copy) and then it worked fine. But that did mess up my desktop and 'program access directory'. So be very careful if you do decide to do this.
Not sure if upgrading to WinXP or whatever would necessarily get rid of the 'shadow' win.

Good luck, try to talk to a Dell technical guy if you can....preferably from someone else's phone! :)
 
monitor lizards

Well if you haven't bought a dual screen card you aint really gonna get anywhere me thinks
 
Not true HarpMan. An AGP card + a PCI card will provide you with a dual monitor feature/facility. Even 2 PCI video cards will work ( a bit old hat).
 
Hi, I hope this may help, taken from a win 2000 training manual :
To support multiple monitor support, a pc must contain a PCI
(periphical component Interconnect) which I belive you do ! or a
AGP, ( accelerated graphics port)video adapter (thats a card) for each monitor or a distinct output channel on a single adapter for each monitor.A single video apapter with multiple outputs is common in laptops, but in most cases it does not support the multiple monitor feature because the video adapter contains two video outputs on a single channel.
A video card embedded on the motherboard to be used for multiple monitor support must bve set to Video Graphics Adapter
(VGA) in the BIOS, the bios detects the VGA device based on slot order unless the BIOS offers an option for choosing which video adapter is to be treated as the VGA device. Typically an embedded adapter will be the first dectected device as the primary adapter. In the case of a motherboard adapter, after installing a second video adapter the onboard adapter becomes the secondary adapter, still with me ! good,
the primary adapter displays the log on box when starting up the pc,In addition most programs will appear on the monitor connected to the primary adapter when they are first opened.Each monitor and adapter set can have a unique configuration based on its conbined capabilities, for example , one set can run 800x600 resolution with 16 bit colour, while another can run at 1034x768 tct.
After you have installed the cecond video adapter or output channel and it is detected you configure multiple monitor suppor using the settings tab in display properties (located in control panel) phew are you still there ! I hope this of some help if not go into y
start > help > type in video adapters and look for help resourses, as you can imagine is difficult explaining this but perservere your nearly there........good luck
 
HarpMan, you can either stretch the whole desktop or whatever you are displaying, across the two screens, OR you can open up different applications in each one. i.e. charting on one, trading platform on the other.
 
Dell

I had a dell - I gave up on trying to upgrade it - there were so many "customised" thing inside, it was a nightmare. better to build your own (it really is straightforward with a bit of common sense) and then upgrading is easy.
I agree with the comment about Dell's windows version - its not full and it is a proprietary version (ie NOT standard).
 
Multiple Monitor Problems

Can anyone help!!

Trying to run two monitors off one PC. Guy in the shop said it was easy, so being a tight wad, I thought I'd give it a go.

Bought a Nvidia GeForce 6200 8x AGP DVI + VGA graphics card. He said it was compatible with my PC.

Took out the old GeForce 2 AGP card and put the new one in. Connect up both monitors to DVI and VGA

Fire up the PC and getting a lot beeping sounds and neither screen fires up. Can't even get to the BIOS menu.

Put my old card back in. Works fine. Uninstalled the old drivers and installed new drivers, still no luck.

So a few questions.

I done a google search, and there was many answers, but all too techy for me.

i.e. go into BIOS mode and change boot up procedure, how do you check if compatible with motherboard, also some think it could be a power problem. Need a minimum of 250w. How do I check the PSU?

I need to try and do this myself as can't afford downtime.

Regards
 
The beeping is the PC making its POST (power on self test) checks on boot. You should be able to diagnose the error by googling for the error codes and the PC manufacturer.

ref. the PSU - if you've got the side off the case, the easiest way is to look at the PSU itself - it'll give you the power output somewhere on the case, but if you've a reasonably modern PC it will probably be 300-350W anyway.
 
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