Setting Up Dual Monitors Windows 2000

dvdfan

Hello,

I have a Dell Optiplex GX270 2.6gh 1.5gbram with 15" flatscreen and a 19" Widescreen.

The Graphics card is:
NVIDIA GeForce MX440 with AGP8X

From what i read on the graphics card it does support dual monitors. Both monitors have a vga & dvi connections. I have the first monitor plugged into the back of the tower in the dvi connector and the only other connection beside that is that round connection, i think its called tv out. However there is another 15pin connection presumably a VGA connection up beside the printer connection at the top end of the tower and i tried plugging the 2nd monitor into that but its not displaying anything on the 2nd monitor.

I called Dell and they said i need a split VGA cable for it to work but the thing they sent me out is just a split power connection, i.e you know the power cord that sends the power to the tower (similar to the kettle power cords you see or identical actually) well its just one plug and it splits into 2 connections so i can send power to both monitors. Is this a vga split cable, i doubt it???

So how should i procceed, from what ive read online and dell also said it will work with dual monitors. Should i be changing settings in windows 2000 for it to work and will the current setup with one monitor plugged into the dvi connection on the graphics card and the other plugged into the default vga connection on the tower work or do i need one of these vga split cables.

Please try and explain it simply as ive never done this before but i have a decent knowledge of computers

daywalker

The card will support dual monitor but usually only when the card is made up with two monitor ports, the split cable that dell are talking about will only give you the same signal on two monitors, which is not really dual monitor.

the default monitor port that is above the graphics card will not work, most motherboards turn this off when a graphics card is plugged in, and even if the port works, it would have seperate drivers, so dual monitor wont work.

i'd say your best bet is to purchase a cheap graphics card that has dual monitor capability built onto the card e.g.
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=324392

and use that instead of messing about with split cables or tv out.

xanthor

Sounds rather like my previous vid card. (ie 1X VGA, 1X DVI as secondary adapter)


Your milage may vary from mine, but i found that whilst the vid card would detect a second monitor on the DVI socket, it would not apply the setting permanently, and a reboot would mean i'd have to redetect the monitor again.

dvdfan

Can you recommend specs for a decent graphics card. Im going to my local canTech but i dont want to have the monitors freezing. Will be mostly using for playing poker so dont need anything special but should i request minimum specs and also is it worth the extra money for 2 dvi connections or will a dvi and vga connection do.

Cheers

Theres no point telling me a model just specs please because the Can Tech store will most likely only have a few graphics cards there so ill pick the best of the bunch going by the specs. I know ill pay extra buying it at Cantech but i have no patients and want it today

daywalker

with regards to the dual-dvi or dvi+vga option, if both the monitors have dvi then the dual dvi card would be the way to go. When looking at graphics cards the first thing to check would be the gpu clock speed and then the amount of ram the card has, considering your motherboard has an AGP slot, you will probably be limited in what you can get.

IMO, if its just browsing/poker that you want the card for, then something like the 9xxx series in radeon or the 5xxx series in nvidia would do grand, they would be cheap enough nowadays

if you want to get something more powerful than maybe look at the more recent models of AGP graphics cards, X series(radeon)/7 series(Nvidia)

dvdfan

Thanks or your help so far. Cant find anywhere in Athlone that has AGP graphics cards with dual monitor support :mad:

So it looks like komplett. Would this one be suitable do you think

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=317148&view=detailed

It has 2 dvi connections and 1 VGA but only supports 2 at a time. Looks a good price??

daywalker

Yeah that looks to be a decent enought card, looking at the picture it seems to be one vga and one dvi connector and probably provides a vga-dvi adaptor if you want to use two dvi ports