3 monitors (or more) on a desktop

[hubieb]

I got a new desktop (Dell 531 Inspiron). Came with an onboard video output, and I added my own nVidia 6800. Now I can 2 monitors out of the nVidia...but my onboard output seems disabled.

1. Where do I go in BIOS to re-enable the onboard video output? (From my research it shows that some bios's turn off the integrated when it detects another video card present)

2. I've tried adding ANOTHER video card, but it wont run along with my nVidia. One works (and the other doesnt)...never both at a time. What gives?

 

[SimonDavies]

What OS are you using?

SimonD.

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[Lemon13]

1. most dell pc´s will recognize the add-on card and automatically disable the onboard card (afik no workaround to that)

2. when u use external video cards they must be able to use the same driver (ie. a 6600gt and a 6800 gt should work, a 6600gt and a 8600 wont)

 

[hubieb]

ahhhhh....gotcha. thanks Lemon. Simon, I'm on Vista.

So you are saying, if I use two nVidia cards it will work? The only problem is, I dont have 2 slots that will fit that same video card. I'm a newbie so I dont know what it's called, but the nVidia card I am using now has that little 'hook' at the end. There is only one slot that will fit a card like this. Aside from this, I have regular PCI slots.

if i'm using an nVidia 6800, what kind of card can I use for the 2nd slot? or do you recommend i simply get 2 new video cards?

 

[theo1881]

or a quad card !

Laters, phat, headshape

 

[ghrark]

the slot is called AGP and theres usually never more than 1 slot on a motherboard. you might have to get the card in a PCI format to work. like the dude said above, youve gotta have compatible cards that can used the same drivers but one has to be PCI while the other can be AGP. hope that helps dude!

 

[pudda]

My work computer running XP Pro has two video cards: Primary is an HIS Radeon X1650PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X, dual output with two 19" WXGA ViewSonic monitors, the second is an ancient pci ATI video card (2200 I believe) with ATI drivers. Tried many different older cards- Nvidia, Matrox, etc. with no luck, and as lemon13 and ghrark mentioned, both using ATI drivers. FYI- the second one has VirtualPC running Win2K for older software. This gives me copy/paste ability across two different OS's without taking up space on my two good monitors!

The test continues...