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# 1 07-12-2008 , 01:43 AM
Bluethunder's Avatar
Registered User
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 97

Setting up Dual Monitors

Hey again everyone. Another tech problem here with me.... I just got a "new" (well not really) computer from someone. They got a new computer, and so they gave me their old one for free..

They also gave me their monitor. So, I already had a monitor, and now I have 2. So I was hoping I could hook up both monitors to the same computer. I did this before with a laptop, but this is a little bit different.

So, I'll start by telling you the specs and my problems. The two monitors are a Viewsonic and Dell. I don't know what size they are or anything, but that shouldn't really matter..

Viewsonic ports:
-The blue monitor port... (VGA, I think?)

Dell:
-The blue one, again (VGA?)
-S-Video
-DVI-D
-Composite Video (the yellow one usually used with TVs and stuff)

The cables I can use:
2 Blue monitor cables
S-video
Composite (yellow one)

So basically I can't use a DVI-D cable, because I'm using that one on the 22" monitor over at the other computer.

NOW onto the graphics card and stuff..
ATI Radeon X300 SE 128MB HyperMemory
ATI Radeon X300 SE 128MB HyperMemory Secondary

Now, thats just what I see in device manager. On the back of the computer itself, I see an area that looks like it's all on teh same card, sort of like a little cluster of ports. There's one Blue one (vga?) One S-Video, and One DVI-D.

Then theres one other blue port seperated from those 3 by enough that it doesn't seem to be on the same card or whatever.. I think thta might be the "card" (if that's what it is) that's showing up as secondary on the Device manager.

So my setup is that the Viewsonic is connected via blue port to the card that has the 3 ports. The other one I've tried connecting to both the S-Video on that same card, and to the Blue port that is seperate from the rest.

I updated the drivers via device manager for the X300 and the X300 secondary....

Nothing changed..

Oh, and yes, I have been right clicking, then going to properties, settings, and attempting to enable the second monitor, but the one screen that is already working just goes blank for like 3 seconds, then re-appears, and the computer disables the second monitor I tried to enable.

Help please? Anything you can spot that I'm doing wrong, tell me!

Thanks,
Bluethunder