2 video cards under XP to get dual monitor

[MrPG]

I installed a secondary PCI card under windows xp along with my AGP card to enable me to use 2 monitors. I can't get it to work, just says there is a problem with my PCI Video card and no real details. Everything seems OK and I don't see where the problem could be other than XP doesn't support this, which i thought it did.


motherboard is a amd760 chipset + XP1600
pri vga is AGP GF3
sec vga is PCI ATI Rage Pro

anyone messed around with 2 vga cards under XP?

 

[John]

I tried it as well and no success. I didn't spend much time trying to troubleshoot it though. I welcome a "quick" fix.

 

[powerMarkymark]

I'm triple monitoring in WinME with little or no fuss and I've heard that WinXP supports two or more monitors just fine.

That being said, do you have latest updates for XP and latest drivers for your vid cards?

Is the sec vga is PCI ATI Rage Pro new or did you buy used? Can you try the sec vga is PCI ATI Rage Pro vid card in another machine?

Keep at it boys, one you multimonitor you never go back to just one, you miss the additional real estate.

 

[MasterHoss]

That's weird. I am dual monitoring using a PCI and AGP card--clean install of WinXP and no problems at all. WinXP should've installed its native drivers for both your AGP and your PCI card. I believe both support dual monitors but are you running XP Pro or XP Home? (I'm running Pro).

MrPG, where does it say that there is a problem with your PCI video card? Just double check your BIOS to make sure you picked a primary video source...I really don't understand why it's not working...did you upgrade to XP???

 

[MrPG]

yep.... the card works in annother machine.

I use XP Pro also... after inserting the card windows boots up and detects it install native drivers then finished with a popup saying something to the effect "your hardware has been installed but due to problems my not function properly" thats all no detailed message in device manager.. it has its own irq.. not shared.. i changed slots to get this thinging it might not like sharing its IRQ.

 

[MasterHoss]

I don't think it's an IRQ problem since that really doesn't matter under WinXP or Win2K.

Hmm--what PCI card is it? Maybe try updating the drivers????

 

[powerMarkymark]

I know this may be obvious but did you tell Windows to extend your desktop to this monitor in Display properties_Settings?

If yes, do you get a message on the second monitor on bootup?

 

[MasterHoss]

<< I know this may be obvious but did you tell Windows to extend your desktop to this monitor in Display properties_Settings?

If yes, do you get a message on the second monitor on bootup? >>

Well, he wouldn't see the blue screen with the "if you can read this, then your card is working properly" that you're probably referring to because they don't have those messages under Win2k/XP...that was only a WinMe thing.

 

[MrPG]

it doesn't give that option... i guess cause the card isn't "usable"

 

[SUOrangeman]

CHANGE THE PRIMARY VIDEO CARD IN BIOS. If the AGP is primary, change it to PCI. Some cards just act that way.

WinXP should be able to reverse the matter once it is loaded.

-SUO, been there, done that

 

[MrPG]

yep.. mucking around i just tried that and it works..... strange.

setting "vga init, whatever" in bios as pci instead of agp does the trick.


thanks

 

[MrPG]

weird thing is its seem'd to screw openGL on both ends... as now my gf3 is jerky when using openGL where as before doing the sames type of stuff was pretty smooth

 

[MrPG]

some odd things going dual monitor with 2 cards..

anyone know of any desktop management utils designed for dual monitor environments... like the managers that come with most dualview cards?

and anyone know a fix to extent the taksbar across the 2 monitors.

 

[HGC]

I believe there are compatibility probs with some cards used for dual monitors. Have you checked the MS compatibiliy list? I have a Matrox Millenium in the PCI slot under XP, works fine.

 

[SUOrangeman]

What is the problem with the taskbar? Is it currently spread across both displays ... or do you want to spread it across both?

-SUO

 

[MrPG]

currently the task bar only appears on 1 monitor. where as i'm used it spreading across both with other dualview single cards.

 

[SUOrangeman]

Well, I'm using QuickLaunch. So, my regular task bar and tray are on one screen, while QuickLaunch stuff is on the other. Anything else really isn't worth it. It like asking windows to maximize across both screens on purpose.

-SUO