Dual Monitors In Vista ... Need Help!?

[newsektor]

I recently built a computer and the motherboard choice was one that has on board video. I planned on installing another video card (PCI) and having a dual monitor setup in windows vista home but when i try to do that the card gets disabled in windows, I tried this with 3 different cards and the result is the same. I forget the exact message but it leads me to believe that windows is confused thinking that the drivers for the second card are not the right ones for the first card ?!? I have tried everything, I disabled the on board video card and put in two pci cards and i get the same thing ... one of the cards works and the other gets disabled by windows.

If anyone can shed some light on this i would be very much appreciated.

I guess what it all comes down to is i want to install 2 video cards in the computer and have them work with vista.

Thank you.

[Honda_Boy]

Are you saying that you are trying to run dual monitors using both your integrated video and a dedicated video card? If so, you can't do that. Onboard video is supposed to be disabled when a dedicated solution is installed though it being a PCI card it may be different. Also are you sure you mean PCI and not PCI Express?

Does your system have a PCI Express slot? If so then just buy a PCI Express video card with dual outputs. My last 5 video cards have all had dual outputs (2 AGP and 3 PCI Express cards). I use two monitors on my GeForce 8800GT. I use to have twin GeForce 7600GT's back in the day running in SLI but I used to disable SLI when I wasn't gaming and ran 3 monitors at once.

Running dual monitors should be real simple and straight forward. All I did was hook them both up to the GeForce 8800GT, start the system, right click the desktop and click Personalize. From there I would click display settings. Once there you just have to right click the monitor that's grayed out and click Attached. Just set the proper resolution and you are pretty much set.

Edited March 10, 2009 by Honda_Boy

[sethook]

Can you tell us which mobo (make/model) and video board (make/model) you are trying to use. That info may give the hot dogs here a better chance at helping you out.

[newsektor]

Yeah i'm very sure it's PCI and not PCI express, I wanted to use an old PCI card because the 2nd monitor will do nothing more then display a database input screen. I have since done the same thing to my work computer (windows xp pro) .... I have an on board Nvidia 6100 and i borrowed a PCI card which is an Nvidia 6200. At first i was getting the same thing whereas one of the cards would get disabled but then i removed the drivers for the on board card and plugged the monitor into the PCI card and then that became the primary display, it asked for the drivers when it got into windows and whala both cards are in there and running !! go figure!!

now i'm really perplexed, on the vista machine did i just need to uninstall the drivers for the onboard video, restart the machine and then reinstall both drivers? or is this just an issue with Vista?

I do have a dual monitor video card coming but it would be nice to figure this out.

[newsektor]

the motherboard is a

JetWay JM26GT4 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

and the video card is an old

ATI Rage 8mb PCI

[Pete_C]

Here is my general guide to installing a new or second video card when you have onboard video.

(note that much of this does not apply if you are replacing an existing card with a new card of same slot type)

It is simplest if you have two monitors so you can connect one to each card.

It is also simplest if to begin with you set the resolution of the onboard to 800x600 with 60hz refresh rate as this will be compatible with most cards . (See later about incompatible refresh rates if you skip this step).

First install the new card in its slot. AGP or PCI-X is preferable if your board has them. If it only has vacant PCI slots , then that will have to do . Just make sure you get the correct type of card for the slot you have.

When you install it , pay special attention to any secondary power connections it requires, read the documentation, check the card for power connectors. Often you buy a bare card which requires power connection but does not include the necessary adapter. In this case you will need to buy the adapter separately if your power supply does not have the appropriate connector.

Make sure the card is properly seated and locked down per the manufacturers instructions.

Now close up the PC , plug it back in (never work inside a PC which is plugged in as you could damage components since a switching power supply remains energized and so does the mother board even in the shut down state).

Boot up, your bios and windows will still show on the old original onboard video monitor; but on the new secondary you should see a notice "if you can read this you have installed your card correctly and are ready to proceed"

Once in windows load the driver and software cd for the new card and run the install.

Once it finishes it should prompt you to restart.

At this point the new card will probably stay black when you boot to windows. Go and right click the desktop of the onboard video monitor and choose properties => settings

You should now see that you have two monitors connected and it will ask how you want to use the second, as a mirror of the desktop (i normally do this first just to check it out) or as an extension of the existing desktop (and then do you want your wall paper mirrored, or extended ).

Once you have chosen it as an extension drag an icon or open window from the old to the new and confirm it is working.

If there are problems it is most likely due to the two having different supported resolutions. Check the documentation or reduce the resolution of your onboard to 800x600 and 60hz refresh rate. Then check to see if the new supports this setting and then from the list of supported resolutions choose one which is supported by both cards.

If you are going to use the new card as the master or default you now boot to the bios setup and change the default video from onboard to PCI or AGP as appropriate. Save settings and exit and again check the desktop settings.

[newsektor]

Thank you for your reply Pete, I will give this a try.