Can't get dual monitors to work

[Peter Steele]

I bought a second video card for my Dell 4600C, a GeForce 4 FX 4000
compatible card, augmenting the onboard video card already in the PC. When I
booted it Windows automatically detected the new card, installed the
necessary drivers, and then made that the primary video card. The onboard
video card was disabled, and in fact did not even show up in the device
manager. When I went into the Display control panel it showed only the one
monitor. When I took the new video card out, XP reverted to using the
onboard card again.

How do I make XP recognize both video cards at the same time?

 

[Guest]

It may be that the motherboard BIOS disables the on-board video automatically
if another card is plugged in - maybe there is a setting to control this?

The on-board card probably is connected via the PCI bus (but could be
connected via the AGP) - I don't think that you can have two AGP cards, so if
the on-board one is AGP, you may have to use a PCI card as the second card if
you want dual.

If the new card is an AGP card, see if there is a setting in your computer's
BIOS to select the PCI/on-board card as the first/primary video card.
Sometimes if it selects the AGP card as first/primary, it then ignores PCI
cards. Note that there is a setting in the Windows display control panel to
select which display is primary, and it can be set to the opposite of the BIOS
setting, if you wish (this controls which side things first pop up on, for
example).

Some cards just don't seem to work in a dual-card configuration. I have only
seen this with older PCI cards, but it could be the case with newer ones, as
well.

If you get it working correctly, you will usually see the same image (BIOS
screen, etc) on both monitors during bootup (before Windows loads). Once
Windows loads, it can then "extend desktop" onto the secondary monitor.

|I bought a second video card for my Dell 4600C, a GeForce 4 FX 4000
|compatible card, augmenting the onboard video card already in the PC. When I
|booted it Windows automatically detected the new card, installed the
|necessary drivers, and then made that the primary video card. The onboard
|video card was disabled, and in fact did not even show up in the device
|manager. When I went into the Display control panel it showed only the one
|monitor. When I took the new video card out, XP reverted to using the
|onboard card again.
|
|How do I make XP recognize both video cards at the same time?
|
|

 

[Kenny S]

you cannot have one onboard and one AGP to make 2 monitors,
you need a PCI card to use in combination with the onboard one.
or you can use the AGP one plus a PCI one.

If the GeForce 4 FX 4000 has one DVI out and one VGA out
try to find out if it can work as a dual head (there are adaptors that are
dvi to vga).

My ATI is like that and I am driving 2 monitors from that card, plus one
more monitor
from a pci card.

 

[Peter Steele]

Okay, that explains it. My previous experience has been with dual headed
cards. The card I'm using has a VGA out plus an S-Video out. Not sure if
it's intended for dual headed use but I think I'll return it and get a PCI
card....