Problems with mutliple monitor system

[Rajah Donalt]

Just set up my first multi-monitor system for work and gaming and I'm
looking for some help in ironing out the bugs. The relavent specs
are:
* Asus K8N-e motherboard
* BFG nVidia 6800 GT OC AGP video card - drives an LCD monitor via DVI
* (Qty 2) Powercolor ATI Radeon 9250 PCI video cards - each card
drives an LCD monitor via DVI
* (Qty 3) Dell FP2001 LCD monitors
* Windows XP SP2
* All monitors are set to 1600x1200, 32bit color

The computer assigns the monitor #s as follows: 1) AGP DVI; 2) PCI1
DVI; 4) PCI2 DVI. I have arranged the monitors on my desk with 2 as
the left monitor, 1 as the middle (primary for gaming) monitor, and 4
on the right. I have also changed the physical order of the monitors
to match in the Display Properties->Settings dialog box, set 1 as the
primary monitor, and extended the desktop to 2 & 4.

Here are the 2 issues I'm looking for help with:

1) The most serious is gaming. Whenever a game changes the display
resolution it affects both of the other monitors. It appears that
when the resolution goes down the middle monitor "pushes" the "extra"
desktop out onto the other monitors, making anything on them shift off
the edge of the screen. If a game changes the color depth it's even
worse as it completely distorts the images on the other monitors. Is
there any way to make the middle monitor more independent and react to
"temporary" adjustments without affecting the other screens?

2) Less serious but still annoying is the desktop background. When
set to a single pic to cover all 3 monitors (4800x1200) and position
of "tile", it seems to start with monitor 1 instead of the first
physical monitor (2 in my case). For my setup this mean the left part
of the picture shows up on the middle monitor (1), the middle shows on
the right monitor (4), and the right shows on the left monitor (2).
Is there any fix for this? I have worked around it by using the video
card driver's ability to set a specific wallpaper for each monitor and
chopping up the 4800x1200 pictures - not very eloquent in my opinion.

I have done a fair amount of Googling for answers and haven't turned
up anything. I appologize in advance if, through lack of keyword
skills on my part, I am relating issues which have been covered
somewhere else.

 

[Woodsy]

Just set up my first multi-monitor system for work and gaming and I'm
looking for some help in ironing out the bugs. The relavent specs
are:
* Asus K8N-e motherboard
* BFG nVidia 6800 GT OC AGP video card - drives an LCD monitor via DVI
* (Qty 2) Powercolor ATI Radeon 9250 PCI video cards - each card
drives an LCD monitor via DVI
* (Qty 3) Dell FP2001 LCD monitors
* Windows XP SP2
* All monitors are set to 1600x1200, 32bit color

The computer assigns the monitor #s as follows: 1) AGP DVI; 2) PCI1
DVI; 4) PCI2 DVI. I have arranged the monitors on my desk with 2 as
the left monitor, 1 as the middle (primary for gaming) monitor, and 4
on the right. I have also changed the physical order of the monitors
to match in the Display Properties->Settings dialog box, set 1 as the
primary monitor, and extended the desktop to 2 & 4.

Here are the 2 issues I'm looking for help with:

1) The most serious is gaming. Whenever a game changes the display
resolution it affects both of the other monitors. It appears that
when the resolution goes down the middle monitor "pushes" the "extra"
desktop out onto the other monitors, making anything on them shift off
the edge of the screen. If a game changes the color depth it's even
worse as it completely distorts the images on the other monitors. Is
there any way to make the middle monitor more independent and react to
"temporary" adjustments without affecting the other screens?

2) Less serious but still annoying is the desktop background. When
set to a single pic to cover all 3 monitors (4800x1200) and position
of "tile", it seems to start with monitor 1 instead of the first
physical monitor (2 in my case). For my setup this mean the left part
of the picture shows up on the middle monitor (1), the middle shows on
the right monitor (4), and the right shows on the left monitor (2).
Is there any fix for this? I have worked around it by using the video
card driver's ability to set a specific wallpaper for each monitor and
chopping up the 4800x1200 pictures - not very eloquent in my opinion.

I have done a fair amount of Googling for answers and haven't turned
up anything. I appologize in advance if, through lack of keyword
skills on my part, I am relating issues which have been covered
somewhere else.

What drivers are you using?
The latest nVidia drivers made a huge improvement with my system.
The performance went down, but the system will play video on any
monitor full screen and let you work with the others at the same time.
I am not a gamer, have not tried any!
I run older used hardware, Vanta, with Appian Jeronimo PCI now.
I have tried dual J2000's, dual Hurricanes from Appian.
and the mix of above with the Vanta.
So many mixes of drivers, my advice is to just keep trying combo's till
it works for you.

 

[Rajah Donalt]

What drivers are you using?
The latest nVidia drivers made a huge improvement with my system.
The performance went down, but the system will play video on any
monitor full screen and let you work with the others at the same time.
I am not a gamer, have not tried any!
I run older used hardware, Vanta, with Appian Jeronimo PCI now.
I have tried dual J2000's, dual Hurricanes from Appian.
and the mix of above with the Vanta.
So many mixes of drivers, my advice is to just keep trying combo's till
it works for you.

I hit both nVidia and ATI sites for the latest drivers right after
getting the OS installed. I will try some alternate drivers,
including the ones that shipped with the cards - maybe the
manufacturers have tweaked the drivers in ways that might help me.
Thanks for the advice!