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Dual monitor question

Spike

Spike

Diamond Member
Ok, I have a 21" Nokia 445Xpro and a 17" sylania F77. I have the nokia hooked to my Radeon and the sylvania to my old S3 trio PCI card. For some reason, I cannot get them to both work when I am using the radeon as my primary display driver. I am running a ECS K7S5A with a athlonXP 1800+ (not that it matter as this is a monitor issue) and I can change my bios settings so that the PCI card is my primary display driver, then both monitors load up just fine and I am in dual monitor heaven. there is one snag, however. When running the PCI as my main driver, I cannot adjust the refresh rate on my radeon, it is stuck at 60hz, which is not very pleasing to the eyes. However, when I run the radeon as my main card, the other monitor does not work but I can put my res up to 1600x1200 and have the refresh at 85hz. Does anyone know how to work around this? thanks

 
what exactly goes wrong when using your using your AGP as primary? Are both cards still detected?

Do you go into display properties and choose "extend my windows desktop onto this monitor" ?
 
Win XP actually says that I have an error on the second card, under device manager it has a yellow exclamation point and says that "this device cannot start"
 
I did try switching them, though remember that this card worked in this slot when I set the PCI as my main graphics adapter in my bios
 
well, it's been my dual monitor experience that some pci cards just don't play nice with some agp cards.

you don't happen to have another pci card around to try do you?

are you using win2k? have you gone into properties for the pci card when it has the exclamation point and seen if you can manually adjust the IRQ's or whatever to relieve the conflict?
 
I am actually using WinXP, not 2k. The thing I don't get is, dual monitors works fin if I have the PCI card as my main graphics card and the agp as the secondary, but if it is the other way around, only the main monitor works. I cannot play with the IRQ for the pci card because it cannot even start to have conflicts
 
I tried removing both cards and then restarting, but it did not work. The main problem is that the card is not even starting, so it does not have the opportunity to even have irq conflicts
 
My ATI can only be a primary because it needs it's BIOS initialized, it's an Xpert98. I live with it, in 2K (and XP I bet) you can have the OS choose the primary monitor. Nice. In 98, I'll disable the ATI in device manager I guess. I don't 98, except for some older programming stuff so I never played with it.

Also, try changing your "assign IRQ to VGA" setting, some cards want one, some don't, some like to get it on thier own.
 
The only thing is, I don't think it is a IRQ issue. The card just won't start, and I know it works (read above) I can't even get the card to work so that I could get a IRQ peoblem, it just won't work unless the it is set as the primary graphics driver in the bios. If I do set it as the primary I can get win XP to set the AGP card as the primary and the pci as secondary, but then I can't adjust the refresh rates on my primary.
 


<< The only thing is, I don't think it is a IRQ issue. The card just won't start, and I know it works (read above) I can't even get the card to work so that I could get a IRQ peoblem, it just won't work unless the it is set as the primary graphics driver in the bios. If I do set it as the primary I can get win XP to set the AGP card as the primary and the pci as secondary, but then I can't adjust the refresh rates on my primary. >>



just an idea, but what happens when you adjust refresh rates FIRST...and then switch primary and secondary in windows? does it remember settings?
 
ok, I guess I am not explaining myself clearly enough (this is ok as I am an engineer and we are always hard to understand) The only way I can get dual monitors to work is if I set my primary graphics adapter as my pci card in the BIOS, but then I cannot adjust my refresh rates under windows. One I am in windows, I have no problem adjusting the primary/seconday settings. However, when I start with my AGP as the primary graphics in BIOS, the second graphics card (PCI) won't start and I can't get my other monitor to work.
 
that is indeed weird. don't worry though, i'm an engineer as well, so i understand you're difficulty. heheh

not sure if i have anymore ideas though 🙁
 
I was just playing with the settings, and one thing I did notice is that when I do start up with dual monitors and hit identify under display settings, it will identify my 21" as 2 and my 17" as 1, even though I have the box "set as primary monitor" checked for my 21" Any ideas?
 
dude, I want to thank you for all your help so far, just taking the time out to try and help really means alot to me, thanks. 🙂
 
I can't give you a suggestion but you might want to try out this site -- Multi-Monitor Resources. They have a troubleshooter that might help and they also hold a database of video card combinations that have worked for others. Hopefully, it might give you some insight. Good luck. 🙂
 
ok, I have given up trying with my current card, what PCI card do you guys reccomend for dual monitors? I am looking for something cheap (hopefully under $30) Thanks again for the help
 
I used a Matrox Mystique 2D card for my secondary and third monitors in the past...seemed to work ok

you can get them real cheap too...try the for sale / for trade forum or ebay.

good little 2D cards. the g200's are also good
 


<< ok, I have given up trying with my current card, what PCI card do you guys reccomend for dual monitors? I am looking for something cheap (hopefully under $30) Thanks again for the help >>



I know the XPert98 isn't good, but I'd look for an ATI XPert 99 or 2000.
 
Wait!! I had this EXACT same problem. It seems more now that it's something with ATI and WinXP

I have a Geforce 2 in my AGP and a ATI AIW Pro 16mb in my PCI, they worked and played perfectly in Win2k. The day i switched over, my main would power up, but my 2nd wouldnt! I couldnt figure it out for the life of me. IF i set my primary display (in the bios) to PCI, the dual monitors worked, but it wasnt the way i wanted it. If i set it up was AGP default, the AGP would work, but the PCI Wouldnt!!! I finally found another card (After changing slots and reloading drivers, all kinds of stuff), i switfched the ATI PCI With a Matrox G200 8mb and its worked perfect ever since. I have no clue why the ATI just wouldnt work in dual monitor as a secondary card in WinXP, but it would in Win2k. Sounds like a problem with drivers/card and XP.

I never figured out a solution, i just kept the Matrox and let it go. My other card now sits in a closet! Poor thing
 
thanks linus, now I wonder if the problem is my ATI card. I just ordered a 8mb sis card, so that should be here in a day or so and I will tey it again with that. If it continues to be a problem, I am going to call ATI and see if they have any idea what's up. thanks
 
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