Complications with a dual monitor system

[Zanthadar]

About a month ago I purchased an All-In-Wonder ATI 9800 Pro 128mb video card, thinking that down the road I'd be able to buy a new monitor and have two monitors running on my one system. At the time I had my TV as a second monitor for movies and stuff, pretty simple.

Today I bought a 19" LCD Acer AL1913 Monitor (below). Set it up with no problems. Then I decided I would try to add my old monitor as a secondary monitor, when to my dismay I find that my 9800 Pro (which claims support for two monitors) doesn't have the inputs I need to do this. I had been initially just working on the pdf file they had given me to see how I could do this, but when I actually went behind my computer to do as they describe, I find that the diagram in the pdf is different than on my card.

This is a screenshot of the diagram, fairly simple.

This is what I have to work with. I have to use a dvi-i to vga adapter to connect my monitor, but all I have left to use are video in, out, a tv cable input, and s-video out (or a rca video out).

Are there any simple adapters that I can buy to convert my normal vga monitor end to something like s-video or something? I'd rather not have to buy a second video card, because I thought I would have been able to accomplish this with the one I already have.

 

[Bozz]

I don't know the answer but a picture paints a thousand words so they say. It's a change from some of the badly described problems we get sometimes.

Ian Boys
DTE Systems Ltd

 

[Crowley16]

I would suggest you rma that video card...

if your ordered card should have a vga and dvi output, then you definitely didn't get the card you ordered.

As for converting s-video to vga, I don't think there's any sort of connector to do that, it's something that has to be built into the monitor, but I could be wrong about this...

--------------------
Procrastinate Now!

 

[jlshelton]

S-video cannot be easily converted to VGA- too much information has been removed. A VGA connection provides separate signals for the three colors (R, G, B). S-video mixes the colors together, reducing quality somewhat. (S-video is still higher quality than composite video, though.)

Once you have the right PC card, you should have no trouble hooking up both monitors. Good luck with the exchange.

 

[wooglin]

Is that the card that is suppossed to come with a 'dongle' for the extra video output? That definitely isn't a S-Video connector.

BTW - by the diagram you posted, it looks like the backside of the regular ATI 9800, not the AIW model. The AIW includes support for video input, the regular 9800 is output only.

 

[wooglin]

per:

http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9800/aiw9800pro/specs.html

Display Support

* One display (VGA or DVI) simultaneously connected with a TV or VCR

You need the 'dongle' to plug into the card's output to enable the video out to your television set. The All-In-Wonder card does not support dual monitors.

The regular 9800 Pro, on the other hand, does.
The output diagram that you posted is that of the regular 9800, not the AIW.

 

[Zanthadar]

Ahh, you seem to be right. Odd that the documentation I have is for the regular AIW. I wish I had known at the time that the card I was buying wouldn't support two monitors. I'm attempting to get my card replaced as most of the AIW features are useless to me.

Thanks for the help!