Second monitor is sluggish in Windows

[bobsmith1492]

Hi all,

My computer at work is bugging me. I have two monitors (primary at 1680x1050, secondary at 1920x1080). Whenever I have something up on the secondary monitor, graphics refreshes are super-slow. For example, if I scroll down an Excel spreadsheet it will pause frequently, the whole sheet goes white, and it re-draws down from the top. It's very annoying! Minimizing a window also takes a second or so as it draws in the desktop.

What would be causing this and what can I do to fix it? Is that normal for two monitors?

Thank you!

__________________
System:

Windows XP
Nvidia Quadro NVS 290 video card, DVI out to each monitor, driver version 190.38, 256MB RAM
C2D 3GHz
4GB RAM
WD Raptor 160GB

 

[bobsmith1492]

Any ideas? Does this question make sense?

 

[lopri]

Is the Quadro card PCIe or PCI? Can you post a gpu-z screen? You can download it here.

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

 

[bobsmith1492]

It's PCIe... I'll post a screenshot when I'm back at work. It has 16 stream shaders, something like 900MHz RAM clock with 256MB of RAM. It's definitely not a gaming card but I'd think it's quick enough to draw two monitors.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

I can't remember where you can set it, but you can tell Windows to not allow GPU acceleration. Poke around and find that slider and make sure full hardware rendering is enabled.

 

[bobsmith1492]

Here's the card info... I tried changing around the hardware rendering control but it didn't speed things up at all (it was already set to full hardware rendering).

 

[ModestGamer]

Taskmanager and check process. this is usually a sign of system useage. IE there are not enough resources or something is hogging them.

 

[bobsmith1492]

No, I watch the TM closely; CPU use is low and there is more than 2.5GB free RAM... it's not a system-wide slow thing, it's only the redrawing of the secondary monitor.

 

[Oyeve]

refresh rates set up?

 

[bobsmith1492]

refresh rates set up?

Yes, I think being LCDs it's 60Hz or bust.

Although I noticed on the second monitor, at full resolution (1920x1080), it can only do "medium" (16-bit) color... why would that be?

The card has a cable in the back that splits a big connector out to two DVI cables; is it sharing a DVI link for two monitors, perhaps? I know DVI has an upper limit to the data it can transfer.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

Make sure you have proper monitor drivers installed. When you look in display properties and click on each monitor, it should list the exact model of each monitor. If not, just go find the monitor driver from the manufacturer's website.

I have a DVI splitter like you describe on my computer at work running dual 1920x1200 monitors, so it isn't bandwidth limited.

EDIT: Ah yes, I look closer at your screenshot and in the title bar it says "plug and play monitor". Get proper monitor drivers and see if that fixes your problem.

 

[bobsmith1492]

Interesting, I've never tried using monitor drivers before.

Unfortunately, Dell's site doesn't show my model in their driver download screen:
http://support.dell.com/support/top...t_support/en/monitor_download?c=us&l=en&s=gen

Mine is an S2209wb. I tried drivers for the S2409w and 2209wa with no success, however. They didn't seem to make any difference.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

Take the "b" off the model number and I think you'll get better search results. S2209W.