Adding a second screen to my pc

fullirish

Hi

I have a Dell Inspiron 3847 PC with one VGA output and a HDMI output. I want to add a second monitor - I have a spare 19' dell monitor and a spare dell ATI Radeon X300 Card P/N 102A6280101 that ran on a dell XP machine. I put the card into the new Dell but it did not seem to work - the normal VGA output was turned off but the new VGA on the card would not work.

Is this a driver issue on the new machine or do I need to buy a new VGA card for the machine or is there a better way to add the second screen ?

Thanks
Fullirish

strelok

if you want to add a second screen you'll have to use the same graphics card you had in it originally. so if you're using the vga port, you use the hdmi for the second screen or vice versa. Adding a second gfx card just confuses the computer

if the 19" doesn't support hdmi you can probably get a hdmi-dvi adapter cheap enough on adverts or wherever


if you wanted, you could disable the integrated graphics card your dell has and use the radeon exclusively but i don't know enough about either of them to tell you which would be better to use. i would imagine the integrated card on your computer atm would be newer... the x300's are pretty damn old arent they?

fullirish

Thanks for the quick reply - the spare monitor I was going to use has a DVID connection on it - so if I got a HDMI to DVID cable would that work ?

Thanks
fulirish

strelok

yep, or a hdmi cable and a hdmi-dvi adapter, whichever is cheapest

don't go spending crazy money either, youll see hdmi cables in some shops in town for about 20 quid when you can get them online for 2 or 3. i would imagine the same can be said for hdmi-dvi cables or even hdmi-dvi adapters.

fullirish

Thanks a mill, much appreciated