Dual monitors in Win2K....can the workaround work for EVERY card?

[DesignDawg]

Hey all,

As many of you may know, dual monitor support under WIn2K is not as robust as Win98 in the number of cards supported. I have always run Win98 with dual monitors, and my secondary (on every system I have built) has always been an S3 Virge-based card. Well, that card is NOT supported in Win2K as a multimonitor card, and is specifically EXCLUDED from the possible cards that COULD be. --But I found a workaround at the Multi-monitor FAQ
http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/faq.asp?#S3Win2000
whereby you can set your BIOS to boot the secondary first, then tell Win2K to use your primary as your primary. I do this now, and it works like a charm! I was so happy to find that out. Win2K gets ALL THE WAY through the loading process, and BAM, the monitors switch.
--But now I'm wondering: Can this workaround make ANY video card compatible with Win2K multimon? If so, I can get a secondary for the next system I am building for cheaper. If anyone knows for sure, please LMK.

Thanks,

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[The Stigenator]

cool info.. I will be getting some new cards in for W2K machines..
it will be fun to know if they work that way.. for I am not sure if those cards are dual monitor supported..

Where Can I check up on teh 2 monitor support under W2K
.

 

[DesignDawg]

Check the link in my above post. You will find the most info there.

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[DesignDawg]

OK...

Well, it is starting to look like you CAN use the workaround for any card. As long as the card is supported by Win2K, I think you can use this workaround to use it as a secondary. I say this because I just borrowed another vid card that I am SURE is not supported by Win2K. I installed it, set the BIOS to boot on AGP, and Win2K did NOT use the second card. It installed it, bnut just like the S3 card, it said it could not start it, even after a reboot. --But then I switched to boot from the PCI card in the BIOS, and VOILA! I now have 2 cards working under Windows 2000. So, I am gonna say for now, until my theory is disporven, you can use ANY card with drivers for Win2K as a secondary. That makes things A LOT simpler.

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[Warrenton]

I am going to get another monitor for my other system and put the 17" as a second display on this one.

 

[ndee]

Do the cards have to be the same? Could I mix my Voodoo 3 2000, with my old Diamond Viper V330?

 

[Howard]

No, they don't

 

[SUOrangeman]

OK, ...

The real issue here is whether the *drivers* allow support for multiple displays in Win2K (or any OS for that matter). For example, I have seen some drivers that require the "driven" card be primary in a multi-display setup. So, it's not that the hardware can't handle it, but whether there is enough support for the card to write drivers that will allow it to be used in a multi-display configuration. And this is not limited to one specific card over all the Windows OSes. I had an S3 ViRGE-Intel i810 combo that could be flip-flopped in Win98 but the S3 needed to be primary in Win2K.

What DD has found is that you can change the primary display on the fly in Win2K. Win9x/ME is a bit different in that BIOS selections determine which display is primary. Since not all drivers are created equal, there may be the need for tweaking the primary/secondary settings for Windows to find a configuration that works. To my knowledge, the Win2K on-the-fly switch works on every card that Win2K supports in general.

-SUO