Help Needed On Dual Monitor Setup

Ive just purchased a GeForce 7100 GS graphics card and have installed it in into my pc. I didnt need to remove any other graphics card as i had an onboard card. It seems that my pc automatically recognised the card and i just installed the software and the card is now working. I have 2 17" monitors so i have connected 1 in the vga slot and one in the DVI slot with the correct adapter. I can change from one screen to the other so they are both working through the new card but yet i cant get both screens to work at the same time. In the Geforce software both screens are visible but it doesnt give me an option to use them both.

Would appreciate any experts help

Thanks in advance

You need to install the latest Parhelia Matrox Card which enables you to insatall several screens. I have three which act as one.

Phil

gedward3 said:

Ive just purchased a GeForce 7100 GS graphics card and have installed it in into my pc. I didnt need to remove any other graphics card as i had an onboard card. It seems that my pc automatically recognised the card and i just installed the software and the card is now working. I have 2 17" monitors so i have connected 1 in the vga slot and one in the DVI slot with the correct adapter. I can change from one screen to the other so they are both working through the new card but yet i cant get both screens to work at the same time. In the Geforce software both screens are visible but it doesnt give me an option to use them both.

Would appreciate any experts help

Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

Get the geforce software for the card. It would surprise me if it couldn't cope with multiple monitors.

You should have got a disk with it that includes some software called nView that lets you set up multimonitor desktops with different backgrounds etc etc

If not you'll need to go to the website and find it.

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/...new_search=1&p_search_type=answers.search_fnl

As long as the drivers are correctly installed then even Windows should be able to manage multiple monitors for you:

Press the Windows key and Pause/Break, to open the System window. Click Hardware, Device Manager and check that there are no yellow exclamation marks visible. if there are, then those devices need the correct drivers installing. If not, you should be all set for multi-monitors.

Right-click on a blank area of desktop and select Properties. Choose Settings and you should see a graphic for both your monitors. On the second monitor, make sure the 'Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor' is ticked, click Apply, and that should be it.

gedward3 said:

Ive just purchased a GeForce 7100 GS graphics card and have installed it in into my pc. I didnt need to remove any other graphics card as i had an onboard card. It seems that my pc automatically recognised the card and i just installed the software and the card is now working. I have 2 17" monitors so i have connected 1 in the vga slot and one in the DVI slot with the correct adapter. I can change from one screen to the other so they are both working through the new card but yet i cant get both screens to work at the same time. In the Geforce software both screens are visible but it doesnt give me an option to use them both.

Would appreciate any experts help

Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

Not sure if I quite understand your problem, but there is something you didn't mention which might be the cause of the problem.
On one desktop, right-click and select Properties.
Click on Settings.
You should see two icons numbered 1 and 2 showing that your PC recognises the existence of the two screens.
There is a Check-box lower down called 'Extend my Windows desktop on to this monitor.'
If this is greyed out, then left-click on whichever monitor icon is not highlighted, and then click in the Check box. If it's not greyed out, then just click in the Check box.

Glenn

Funilly enough I'm about to upgrade my pc/monitors. At the moment, I use a custom built PC with 3 19" Sony's which act as one monitor. I looked at some Samsung 22" widescreen's and thought a new PC with 2 of those would do the trick - presume I'm not going to be able to buy an off the shelf PC even to control 2 monitors?

Also, will i get almost as much usueable screen space from 2 22" widescreens as I do from 3 19" standard monitors?

CT

Hi Glenn, Ive tried going into the properties and then settings but it doesnt show numbers 1 and 2 for the screens. It only shows screen resolution and colour quality. Its a PCI E card and am i right that i can connect 2 lcd monitors to it and expect them both to work in a Dual View mode. I just cant figure out whats wrong. Do you think i have to disable the old card on my Mother Board so it will recognise the 2 screens.

Cheers

gedward3 said:

Hi Glenn, Ive tried going into the properties and then settings but it doesnt show numbers 1 and 2 for the screens. It only shows screen resolution and colour quality. Its a PCI E card and am i right that i can connect 2 lcd monitors to it and expect them both to work in a Dual View mode. I just cant figure out whats wrong. Do you think i have to disable the old card on my Mother Board so it will recognise the 2 screens.

Cheers

Click to expand...

Seems to me that the GeForce 7100 GS is only meant to drive one screen. Its not a dual-head card like the Matrox G450/550 etc. No point in connecting two screens to it. The two connectors are there so that you can choose between connecting to a VGA cable OR a DVI cable.

Can you connect one screen to the GeForce and the other screen to the onboard card ?
If so, then try what I mentioned before to get your desktop spread across the two screens.

Glenn

CityTrader said:

Funilly enough I'm about to upgrade my pc/monitors. At the moment, I use a custom built PC with 3 19" Sony's which act as one monitor. I looked at some Samsung 22" widescreen's and thought a new PC with 2 of those would do the trick - presume I'm not going to be able to buy an off the shelf PC even to control 2 monitors?

Also, will i get almost as much usueable screen space from 2 22" widescreens as I do from 3 19" standard monitors?

CT

Click to expand...

"...presume I'm not going to be able to buy an off the shelf PC even to control 2 monitors? "

You're probably right.
However it's easy enough to either add an old PCI card to drive another screen, provided you have a spare PCI slot, or to replace the existing card with something like a Matrox 450 or 550 dual-head. Around £30 off E-bay. Or more modern dual-heads are available at full price ~£300.

"Also, will i get almost as much usueable screen space from 2 22" widescreens as I do from 3 19" standard monitors?"
Your desktop will be spread across the two 22" monitors. How much room your applications take up on the screen is a factor of what screen resolution you use.
Try changing the screen resolution on your existing system to se what I mean.

Glenn

Seems a bit pointless with what i bought as i told the assistant that i wanted a card that would enable me to use 2 monitors from 1 pc. They told me to gt 1 PCI-E card as i had the right slot and the card on my MB would shut down on installing the new card and to buy a dvi to vga adaptor so i could run both screens.

Is my next step to buy a pci card and connect that or do i have to buy a dual head card to enable both screens.

I dont mind paying the money to get where i need to be but its a pain in the **** sometimes.

A phrase comes to mind "THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND"

Just glad ive got the sense to stay away from the SNAKE OIL VENDORS and i will admit ive just had my **** slapped by a spotty 19 year old who new what he was talking about.

As in trading experience counts.......................

gedward3 said:

Seems a bit pointless with what i bought as i told the assistant that i wanted a card that would enable me to use 2 monitors from 1 pc. They told me to gt 1 PCI-E card as i had the right slot and the card on my MB would shut down on installing the new card and to buy a dvi to vga adaptor so i could run both screens.

Is my next step to buy a pci card and connect that or do i have to buy a dual head card to enable both screens.

I dont mind paying the money to get where i need to be but its a pain in the **** sometimes.

A phrase comes to mind "THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND"

Just glad ive got the sense to stay away from the SNAKE OIL VENDORS and i will admit ive just had my **** slapped by a spotty 19 year old who new what he was talking about.

As in trading experience counts.......................

Click to expand...

1. If they sold you a card on the basis that it would support 2 screens, and it won't, then they have to give you your money back (Sale of Goods Act - Unfit for purpose).

2. "Is my next step to buy a pci card and connect that or do i have to buy a dual head card to enable both screens."
I asked "Can you connect one screen to the GeForce and the other screen to the onboard card ?" If you can, and you don't want to take the GeForce card back, then this may be a solution.
There is no point in getting a PCI card unless you happen to have an old one in a PC somewhere which you no longer use..

3. If 2. doesn't work, you could buy a cheap Matrox G450 or 550 dual-headcard off e-bay.
http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle=matrox+dual+head+card
make sure you pick the right one for your Pc graphic card slot and check what the output connectors are in case you need to add adapters for your screen cables.
I've only just stopped using them in favour of a more up-to-date card which really has made no visible difference to screen quality/response other than that it supports 4 screens.


Glenn

Hi Rosso,

Ive installed all the drivers which were on the CD and ive tried going into the properties and changing it tha way. It seems like my card see's both screens but wont let me do a dual mode. I can change the view from one to the other so both screens work through one card. I also have the DVi i adaptor to make both screens work but. I dont have the DVI A port so i really dont know whata going on. I hope that spotty little one was right

Cheers Guys for trying to help

rossored said:

As long as the drivers are correctly installed then even Windows should be able to manage multiple monitors for you:

Press the Windows key and Pause/Break, to open the System window. Click Hardware, Device Manager and check that there are no yellow exclamation marks visible. if there are, then those devices need the correct drivers installing. If not, you should be all set for multi-monitors.

Right-click on a blank area of desktop and select Properties. Choose Settings and you should see a graphic for both your monitors. On the second monitor, make sure the 'Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor' is ticked, click Apply, and that should be it.

Click to expand...

gedward3 said:

Seems a bit pointless with what i bought as i told the assistant that i wanted a card that would enable me to use 2 monitors from 1 pc. They told me to gt 1 PCI-E card as i had the right slot and the card on my MB would shut down on installing the new card and to buy a dvi to vga adaptor so i could run both screens.

Is my next step to buy a pci card and connect that or do i have to buy a dual head card to enable both screens.

I dont mind paying the money to get where i need to be but its a pain in the **** sometimes.

A phrase comes to mind "THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND"

Just glad ive got the sense to stay away from the SNAKE OIL VENDORS and i will admit ive just had my **** slapped by a spotty 19 year old who new what he was talking about.

As in trading experience counts.......................

Click to expand...

Hi there,

I suspect you need a DVI to Dual VGA adapter cable to connect to your graphics card. I'm sure it supports multiple monitors. I'm using NVidea FX5200-256Mb RAM and yours is a more recent graphics card so that should do the works.

You shouldn't have to buy a dual headed graphics card. Ebuyer spec says your card supports multiple displays. Check out specs below.

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/120939

Are you sure you have the correct device drivers?

I haven't read all the threads below but your card is good. PCI-E is better than PCI.

Finally, checkout this site too for multiple lcd solutions Check out this site.... http://www.computermonitors.co.uk/multiple_screen_lcd.htm


Good luck,

Hi Gedward
you should be able to get dual monitors using the onboard vga and also the card you have bought. plug one monitor into the onboard VGA and one in to the card VGA restart the computer and enter BIOS change primary graphics to PCI and select yes for Allocate IRQ to PCI VGA then save and exit BIOS this should allow motherboard and pci slots to work as 2 separate controllers.

Product
Product name Biostar GeForce 7100 GS 256MB DDR2 / PCI-E / SLI / DVI / TV-OUT
Prices
Best price $54.99
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Type
Chipset GeForce 7100 GS Shows the chipset that the graphic card is based on.
System PC Some graphic cards can only be used on PC and some only on MAC. Its important to find one that fits your type of computer.
Interface
Interface PCI-E Indicates the type of interface the graphics card uses. AGP gives the fastest transfer rate to the computer. The PCI interface is a slightly older standard.
Interface type x16
RAM
Memory 256.0 Indicates the memory size of the card in megabytes. More memory gives faster graphics handling and enhanced resolution.
Memory type DDR2 The DDR-models are the most popular type.
Speed
GPU Speed 350 MHz
Memory speed 533 MHz
RAMDAC 400 MHz Random Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter. The part of the video card which converts digital intensity levels for RGB to analog voltages sent to monitor. A DAC can have RAM to store look-up-tab ... More info
Graphics
Max resolution 2048x1536 pixels
Graphics support DirectX 9.0c, OpenGL 2.0
Connections
DVI Yes Short for Digital Visual Interface, a digital interface standard to convert analog signals into digital signals to accommodate both analog and digital monitors. DVI handles bandwidths in excess of 160 ... More info
D-sub (HD-15) Yes The standard display-connection for many years before DVI entered the scene.
Dual monitor Yes Lets you connect more than one Monitor to your graphics card.
TV-Out connection Yes Indicates if the graphics card has a TV-out connection which makes it possible to connect the computer to the television.
TV-Tuner No Lets you receive TV signals on your computer.
Features
HDTV-compatible Yes HD (High definition) is a term for high quality video-signals used for TV broadcasting.
Multiple GPU support SLI Does the graphic card have any support for either Crossfire or SLI?

dc2000 said:

Hi Gedward
you should be able to get dual monitors using the onboard vga and also the card you have bought. plug one monitor into the onboard VGA and one in to the card VGA restart the computer and enter BIOS change primary graphics to PCI and select yes for Allocate IRQ to PCI VGA then save and exit BIOS this should allow motherboard and pci slots to work as 2 separate controllers.

Click to expand...

To clarify this a bit if you have onboard VGA, you usually will have to disable it in the BIOS to make use of an AGP card.

If you have onboard VGA, you should be able to use it in addition to PCI cards.

Glenn said:

"...presume I'm not going to be able to buy an off the shelf PC even to control 2 monitors? "

You're probably right.
However it's easy enough to either add an old PCI card to drive another screen, provided you have a spare PCI slot, or to replace the existing card with something like a Matrox 450 or 550 dual-head. Around £30 off E-bay. Or more modern dual-heads are available at full price ~£300.
Glenn

Click to expand...

Nvidia NVS280 and NVS285 are also good choices for dual-head cards. I think they are a bit quicker than G450. Fanless and low power which means less noisy and potentially more reliable. You can get them very cheaply on eBay.

For quad head there is NVS400.

If buying from eBay make sure they come with the Y-cable. This is known as a DMS-59 cable. And make sure it is the right sort of cable for your monitors ie DVI or VGA.

gedward3 said:

Hi Rosso,

Ive installed all the drivers which were on the CD and ive tried going into the properties and changing it tha way. It seems like my card see's both screens but wont let me do a dual mode. I can change the view from one to the other so both screens work through one card. I also have the DVi i adaptor to make both screens work but. I dont have the DVI A port so i really dont know whata going on. I hope that spotty little one was right

Cheers Guys for trying to help

Click to expand...

Gedward,

I would disable the onboard VGA display as this is more than likely to be cheap and cheerful graphics card compared to your 7100 super duper PCI-E is bound to be better.

Points everyone else makes are also correct and probably would work but I'd guess you may have a performance impact and refresh problems depending which you select to be primary or secondary. ie Screens not refreshing on your secondary etc.

I would strongly recommend buying your self the DVI to - Dual SVGA adapter for £20-£40.

As Glen explained then you merely select primary 1 and 2 displays as one desktop and that's it.

Don't give up.

What's the point in wasting money on a DVI to - Dual SVGA adapter? DVI is a superior technology. His graphics card supports one VGA and one DVI. It should work fine. Have you right clicked the NVIDIA quicklaunch item and fiddled around with the settings?