Dual Monitors

[Tim]

Hi,
I just purchased an NVidia fx5200 graphics card for the purpose of plugging
in two monitors. When I purchased the card I stated that th ecard is to
support two monitors (IE dual). The guy was adamant it would.

When I boot with this installed, I get identical output on both monitors
instead of two desktops. In Display Settings there is only on Monitor show
so I can't "Extend". In Hardware in the Control Panel it shows only 1 actual
monitor (I have a 21" and a 17"). Previously this worked great with an
ancient S3 V375DX card, but driver support seems to have disappeared.

What do I need to do to have 2 desktops?

TIA
- Tim

 

[Yudi Koeswanto]

Are you sure you install the driver correctly?
I'm using Fx5200 too, and got no problem with this. I have tried to connect
2 monitors but now i'm using 1 monitor and 1 TV.


Good luck

 

[Tim]

Hi,

Just to confirm - I want 2 separate desktops, not 2 identical views of the
same single "monitor" - you know 1 large one where windows will appear on
one screen or the other and you can control the relative positioning of the
Windows. This is characterised by two monitor icons in Display Settings. I
get only one monitor icon. In device Manager I have only 1 monitor listed -
Default Monitor. It should should have Phillips 201B and Phillips 107s...

I have tried 3 times now. Tried the XP built in drivers, the drivers on the
CD, and latest drivers from NVidia. Tried all sorts of silly things. Enabled
hidden devices in Device Manager and pruned out some old stuff. Set AGP
priority to AGP from PCI (there's only 1 card so this should not mnake a
difference). Swapped monitors around on the back of the card. Checked MS KB,
checked NVidia site. Not a mention anywhere.

Only difference is I am running XP SP 2 RC 2. But I doubt this would be an
issue either as dual monitors have been around since Win 98.

Any more ideas?

- Tim

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Download the latest WHQL nVidia Drivers here:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_61.76

Try this:
Right click on the Desktop, click Properties, click Settings Tab, click
Advanced, click GeForce FX 5200 Tab, click nView Display Mode, click the
drop down menu by nView Modes and select Horizontal Span (or Dualview,
but I don't remember which Dualview is since I now use ATI). You can
also expand the Desktop Management and use the nView Configuration
Wizard to set it all up.

 

[Tim]

Thanks Nathan & Yudi.

Still no go. This must be a retarded card or user.

If I do as you say, then there is no nView Display Mode listed in the popout
menu or anywhere else that I can see - nowhere that I can see is there nView
Modes and the option to select Horizontal Span etc.

If I run the Config Wizard, the only options shown are:
nView Menus, nView title bar buttons, Window Transparency, then Finish.

I also tried installing Windows XP SP1a as a Dual Boot just to eliminate SP2
RC2 as a suspect and it behaved exactly the same way. The bloke that sold me
the card is a long in the tooth chap that does not fib, so something is
horribly odd. Are all DVI to VGA adapters created equal? IE it displays
exactly the same image on both monitors but does not seem to realise from a
driver perspective that there are 2 monitors attached. In device manager
there is only 1 Monitor listed and it is "Default Monitor" where I would
expect 2 as mentioned before.

Thanks again,
- Tim

 

[Nathan McNulty]

That is very odd. It should detect both monitors and allow you to span
or clone as you like. Right now it is stuck in clone mode. Basically,
you have done this:
http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_tips523.html

And it still won't work because it doesn't show both monitors, so you
can't enable the second one. Are there any odd options in the BIOS by
chance?

 

[Tim]

Hi,

Nothing odd in bios - its a Gigbyte 8knxp v1 motherboard on conservative
settings with an Intel p4 2.8c. It is not overclocked and runs nice and
cool - 7c above ambient when idle. It does have 2GB or RAM... I might pull
out 1GB and see what happens. (The RAM has been tested overnight twice and
has no errors). RAID 1? TV Card?

- Tim

 

[DL]

I have one of these cards, on the initial install I was unable to access the
dual monitor functions, other than clone. I had to uninstall the graphics
drivers then reinstall, I had to do this several times before it all became
operational. I've no idea why.
Since then I have updated drivers several times without problems, I do
however allways uninstall old drivers, reboot, prior to installing new, and
turn off my AV software.

 

[Tim]

Turned out to be a defective card.
Took it back and the vendor tested it - shock horror! Exactly as I
described.

New card works 100% straight off.

Thanks to everyone that helped.

- Tim

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Awesome. Glad to hear the new one is working for you.