Dual video card problem

[Ken Long]

I have a system with two video cards. One AGP and one PCI. The PCI
card won't work unless I change the bios "Init. Graphics Adapter
Priority" from AGP/PCI to PCI/AGP. Unfortunately, this causes the
initial boot up screens to go to the PCI card and it really confuses
the users with which card is primary and which is secondary in
Windows. All of the dual-monitor PCs on my network are AGP/PCI and
everyone is used to that. The vendor says this is just the way it has
to be but I have older dual-monitor PCs from the same vendor that work
with AGP/PCI .

Mainboard: MSI 865PE Neo2-P
AGP video card: NVidia GeForce FX 5200
PCI video card: Jaton 117PCI
Windows XP Pro / SP2

I also tried an ATI Rage 128 as the PCI card but it didn't show up as
a second video card in Windows Display Properties regardless of the
bios setting. It did get recognized in Device Manager correctly.

Any thoughts?

Ken Long
Albuquerque

(Reply address works as is.)

 

[Andy]

Use a video card that does not have to be initialized during POST in
order to work.
<http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/search.asp>

 

[NAGA.THAI]

I tried for many hours to achieve the above set-up with older systems but hit a lot of problems. I found out many others had also hit problems when I sought assistance on the web. For the benefit of others, this is how I setup MSI MS-6728 (MSI 865g /p/pe neo2 ) with 3 monitors – using NVIDIA AGP FX 5600 & PCI FX5200 video cards. I hope this helps.

A pdf of the solution, with pictures and screen dumps, is here ... http://tinyurl.com/25b79dl

The outline is..

INTRODUCTION

KEY ELEMENTS
1. Motherboard
2. Video cards
3. Monitors
4. Bios
5. Drivers

HOW TO

1. Have only the AGP video card installed with 2 monitors connected.
2. Delete all reference to existing Nvidia drivers. ( Use Control Panel > add/remove programs OR CCleaner ).
3. Restart Computer – do not accept M/soft to look for P&P drivers.
4. Restart Computer and initiate the Bios with the DEL key. Make sure PNC/PCI configuration - Init. Graphics Adapter Priority is set for AGP/PCI as per this photo… Save on exit by pressing F10.
5. Restart Computer - do not accept M/soft to look for P&P drivers.
6. Download and install Nvidia Driver 93.71 (93.71_forceware_winxp2k_english_whql.ex e) from this site .. http://www.nvidia.com/content/DriverDownload-March2009/confirmation.php?url=/Windows/175.16/175.16_geforce_winxp_32bit_english_whql.exe&lang=us&type=GeForce. DO NOT USE THE LATEST DRIVERS – THEY WILL NOT WORK.
7. Restart Computer – set each monitor screen to its native resolution (desktop / right click – properties – settings).
8. Turn OFF computer.
9. Install the PCI video card and connect the 3rd monitor.
10. Restart Computer - do not accept M/soft to look for P&P drivers.
11. Install Nvidia Driver 93.71 (93.71_forceware_winxp2k_english_whql.ex e) This will identify the additional PCI video card..
12. Restart Computer – set 3rd monitor screen to its native resolution (desktop / right click – properties – settings).
13. Set the monitor order to suit by click / hold / move with mouse from this screen..
14. Restart Computer. All should now be working as per the picture of “Desired Result”.