I have an extra monitor and I'd like to use it as a second display. I was hoping to use the onboard VGA adapter to do this. My current monitor is hooked via DVI to a geforce. When I connect the second monitor to the VGA I can't configure it and nothing is displayed. The VGA adapter isn't even listed in device manager, and under display settings, there is not drop down box to select the adapter. So is this even possible? To run multiple displays from two different adapters?

Thanks

1/23/2009 3:11:25 PM

You usually want to have two video cards that can use the same drivers. Before PCI-express, I'd always have a pair (1 AGP 1 PCI) that were the same brand. Not that this can't be done, it's just usually a lot of trouble in my experience.

[Edited on January 23, 2009 at 3:36 PM. Reason : w]

1/23/2009 3:36:16 PM

this is very possible and it sounds like you're doing it wrong, but without any idea what graphics board you're running I doubt anyone's going to be able to help you

1/23/2009 4:05:59 PM

usually it's either-or

if you have a graphics card in the agp/PCIe slot, the onboard graphics are disabled

1/23/2009 4:38:52 PM

Really its either/or? I'm not sure exactly what my chipset is but it's whatever chipset Dell gives a inspiron 530s with a Core 2 Duo E4500. This PCI Bridge device in Device Manager is listed as an Intel 82801.

1/23/2009 6:32:43 PM

I've seen a few computers that were either/or. Yours is probably one of them.

[Edited on January 23, 2009 at 6:58 PM. Reason : Look around the settings in the BIOS to see what you can do.]

1/23/2009 6:57:42 PM

I messed around with the BIOS and it doesn't look like this is happening for me. All I want to do is to be able to run a secondary VGA device (it would be nice if it had DVI as well). Can anyone recommend a cheap pci-e card to do this?

1/25/2009 4:18:10 PM

if you have the open slot and it's just going to be a secondary monitor, get the cheapest geforce you can find on tigerdirect or newegg

1/25/2009 4:38:42 PM

Should I be concerned with any sort of compatibility issues?

1/25/2009 4:50:24 PM

slightly, you're going to want something that uses the same brand of drivers. I think nvidias are usually pretty good about that.

1/25/2009 5:00:55 PM

I have :

GeForce 8300 GS

I'm thinking of adding:

GeForce 7200 GS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130098

Think I should be good?

1/25/2009 5:11:33 PM

Yeah you should be fine, according to nvidia's driver download site (might want to check for yourself) they use the exact same drivers.

1/25/2009 5:47:37 PM

Great, I'll order now.
I really appreciate the advice.

1/25/2009 5:54:12 PM