3 external monitors on laptop docking station

[dum]

I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to have use 3 external monitors connected to my docking station (leaving the laptop display closed).

I have a Dell Latitude D830 with docking station at work. I have an ATI FireMV 2200 PCI card installed in the dock. Currently I have two monitors connected to the ATI card and they work fine. I have a 3rd monitor I want to connect to the DVI port on the back of my docking station but I can't get a display from it. I've read that some laptops will disable the video on the dock if the laptop is open, but mine stays closed.

When I look in Device Manager I see two entries for the laptop video chipset (Intel 965), one is working normally and the other has a warning stating the device could not be started. I've tried removing and reinstalling the Intel drivers but I just get back to this point. I'm not sure if the Intel driver is being disabled because the ATI card is installed but I'm starting to lean towards this.

Does anyone know what I could try to get the DVI port on the dock to work with the ATI card?

 

[hans007]

i have that same docking station but with a d630.

the problem is the pci card , over rides your onboard video most likely. My d630 has the quadro option so maybe if you had a quadro one it would be ok, though it might be possible to reenable the igp in the bios, or in drivers or something.

 

[brblx]

aren't there some workstation cards that support four monitors? that would seem like the only solution.

 

[Pantlegz]

Originally posted by: brblx
aren't there some workstation cards that support four monitors? that would seem like the only solution.

or run more than one video card in the desktop.

 

[skipdogg]

I've got a D830 working in that same docking station with a NVS280 PCI card in the dock running 4 monitors total. 2 x 1680x1050 off the onboard NVS140, and 2 x 1280x1024 off the docking station video card. I just installed Win7 Enterprise as well.

It's not easy to get working, it took a few days playing around with different BIOS versions, driver versions, etc. But once you can get it working it's stable enough for basic 2D stuff. Personally I love the real estate and won't ever give it up.