2 or more Monitors?

[Guest]

Forgive the stupid question, but here goes:

Before my HP Pavilion laptop was STOLEN last week I had been working with an
external monitor such that I could be working in one program in one monitor
(i.e. Excel) and another program in the laptop monitor (i.e. Word). I bought
a Compaq desktop computer from Walmart to tide me over until I buy a new
laptop that I really want and would like to be able to have 2 monitors going
again (actually 3 would be ideal). Here's the stupid question -> How can I
do that with the desktop computer?? I imagine it would involve having to
install an extra video card?? So, if I wanted to have 3 monitors then I
would need to buy 2 video cards?? How does that work??

Thanks,
Ralph

 

[DL]

You can install a second card, however apparently not all cards will
coexist, you can also install a dual monitor card - Matrox, Nvidea, ATI all
supply dual monitor cards.
You could also look here http://www.realtimesoft.com/

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Ralph,

Yes, you would have to buy an extra video card, in fact you might have to
buy two, or one with dual heads. The reasons is that desktop systems rarely
support dual monitors using both the onboard video and an add-on card.
Usually, you need to full cards, or one that has dual heads.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Guest]

I think you might ened two video cards, my video card has two monitor ports
though, cheap $50 gforce fx 5200 PCI