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[Tommie Hu$tle]

Do I need two video cards for a dual moniter?

Here is my situation, I have a dell latitude 600 laptop and I want to put a second moniter on it so I can display some files on the external moniter and work on them on the laptop moniter is that possible to do?

 

[missAran]

I don't think so. But I could be wrong -- my experience is mainly with Macs.

 

[suikodan]

*stared at avatar for 5 mins before pressing reply*

Humm, if your video card has two outputs, you can plug them into 2 monitors and then go into the display properties and choose to stretch the desktop across two screens. I think it'll work.

 

[sc0la]

YOu shouldn't need two cards, but ou will need one card that supports dual monitors on the laptop.

For instance my iBook won't support dual monitors (though I suppose it could if you order it that way) but the swank powerbooks do support dual monitor Digital/VGA(with adaptor)

You can probably figure out if the laptop already supports it by fucking around with the vid card otions.

 

[jenov4]

YOu shouldn't need two cards, but ou will need one card that supports dual monitors on the laptop.

What he said! It all depends on the laptop. Once you plugin the monitor, have a look on the display settings. If you see 2 monitors there, that means it supports it! Or from what I can recall.

 

[Atari2600]

Most laptops won't do it, based on what I've found looking around. It's just not a function that 99% of the people out there need, so they don't put it in.

 

[Cauliflower of Love]

Depends solely on what video card you got in your laptop. Research is your friend.

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

Depends solely on what video card you got in your laptop. Research is your friend.

This is why I'm starting here. This is a repostiory for all things computer. On top of that where I am they block a lot of sites so it's hard for me to get out.

For the record my card is a Mobility Radeon 9000

 

[Drozmight]

If the laptop has an externalmonitor plug it should work. I used to have a laptop and I'd just plug my monitor in the back and do dual screen with the laptop LCD and external monitor like you're wanting.

 

[Cauliflower of Love]

Multi-monitor management and multi-display support
MOBILITY? RADEON? 9000 provides the highest quality output support for DVI-I, TV and CRTs.
ATI?s HYDRAVISION?* technology brings a rich set of multi-monitor features that are exceptionally easy to use.
Connects up to three monitors at one time and HYDRAVISION? allows user to tailor their desktop to the way they work, improving productivity.

: )

If you got the plugs for it then it should be multi monitor support. Go into desktop properties > settings (where the res stuff is). Dig around there, I think under advanced you'll find the extra monitors and settings for them.

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

Hmmmm where can I find the plugins?

Right now I have two moniters one being the laptop moniter and the second being the Dell flat panel moniter and the both are displaying the same thing. The system knows there is a second moniter there but, won't let me use it as a dual moniter. Maybe the Mobility 9000 doesn't have the feature.

 

[rastex]

Go into Display settings, click the second monitor and choose "Extend desktop"

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

Go into Display settings, click the second monitor and choose "Extend desktop"

Ah now we are getting some where.

1. I right click on my desktop then I select Properties
2. I see Background, Screen Saver, Apperance, Web, Effects, Setting
3. I select Settings
4. On the settings page I have

Display:
(Mutiple Monitors) on MOBILITY RADEON 9000

That is not selectable.

under that I have my Colors and to the right of colors I have Screen Area. Under Screen Area I have the Troubleshoot and Advanced buttons.


5. I select Advanced

I have General, Adapter, Monitor, Troubleshooting, Color Management

6. I go to the Monitor tab

There I see Dell 1500FP and Default Monitor

Other than that it just shows the refresh rate.

I've looked all through the display properties and I haven't see anything about extending the desktop.

 

[rastex]

Ok, in the screen area do you see 2 monitors? (don't go to advanced) They should be numbered 1 and 2. You should be able to click "Identify" and a big white number will flash up on both monitors. Select the new one and there should be a checkbox that comes up underneath the screen area that says "Extend desktop" make sure that's checked. And then you should be good to go.

edit: Select the new monitor (probably numbered 2) in the Screen Area, then the checkbox will be selectable.

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

No I only see one. I'm on the ati website and the spec sheet says that the 9000 supports dual moniters.

 

[Shogmaster]

Normally, Radeon 9200 based laptops will do dual monior. I don't know if your does though.

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

The spec sheet says that it does support dual moniter. I'm beginning to think I'm a retard.

 

[Chrono]

Sort of OT but does running 2 or more monitors require extra processing power from the
Vcard -- does it take a hit in performance? Is there anything like that that one should know when doing a dual screen set up? I'm thinking about one myself so I thought I'd ask in this topic...


(sorry for not helping, Tommie Hu$tle...)

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

Sort of OT but does running 2 or more monitors require extra processing power from the Vcard -- does it take a hit in performance? Is there anything like that that one should know when doing a dual screen set up? I'm thinking about one myself so I thought I'd ask in this topic...


(sorry for not helping, Tommie Hu$tle...)

Don't worry about it we can make this the Video catchall.

 

[Uncle Dukey]

Just for reference, what you want to see is this.

I assume you have the latest/recent drivers for the card?

 

[Dilbert]

I've seen this done before, but I don't entirely know the trick. I seem to remember something about it not being a "dual monitor" mode so much as a "double wide" mode. In other words, if you have two 1024 x 768 monitors, what you really want is a 2048 x 768 "monitor" which the video card is smart enough to split over two displays.

"Multiple monitors" usually means that you're cloning the display to more than one screen -- for example, a DLP projector for a meeting AND the LCD in the laptop.

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

Just for reference, what you want to see is this.

I assume you have the latest/recent drivers for the card?

I'm assuming I do but, I don't think that I do. Let me head back to ATI

 

[rastex]

On your laptop, check the special function keys as you might need to press one of them to enable dual monitors.

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

"Multiple monitors" usually means that you're cloning the display to more than one screen -- for example, a DLP projector for a meeting AND the LCD in the laptop.

This is what I think I have. Right now I'm just cloning what is seen on the second moniter.

 

[Shogmaster]

If you are running Windows 2000, you usually have to span the monitors left to right, meaning the two monitors must be set to the same vertical resolution to work. In Windows XP, you can have two independant resolutions. Are you running W2K or XP?

 

[way more]

What is the point of dual moniters? My card supports it but I can't figure out what I would do with two. Could I have one devoted to iTunes or eBay all day?

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

What is the point of dual moniters? My card supports it but I can't figure out what I would do with two. Could I have one devoted to iTunes or eBay all day?

Trust me once you go dual you won't go back. Actaully it's good if you have a lot of work on your desktop. For example I'm populating several Excel worksheets with data from about 30 other Excell Spreadsheets that don't have a similar format so I have to go into these other
spreadsheets manually to pull the data.

SO, I have on moniter for showing the worksheet(s) I want to populate and another for the other source data. It just makes it easier to manipulate. And I don't have to bother with max and min windows every 10 seconds.

To all I "solved" my problem. I don't have dual moniters set up BUT, I went to dell and d/l their latest drivers which allowed me to use an extended desktop (like Jinx was hinting at). It seems XP has dual moniter support built in but, 2000 only has extended moniter support. I'm looking around for 2000 dual moniter drivers but, for what I need to do extended desktop is working out pretty well.

 

[Great King Bowser]

My Inspiron 8600 supports dual monitor if that helps. Just plug the second monitor in via the VGA out port on my laptop and you can setup dual monitor quite easily, (right click desktop, properties, setting...), hell I can do it through S-Video with a television. :lol

Watching movies off my my laptop on the seperate monitor whilst surfing the interweb is awesome.

EDIT - Reading the thread, I can't seem to help you. I'm using a Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo and XP, multiple monitors seems to be already configured or something. I just drag the second monitor around under the settings tab to reflect the layout of the two screens and it asks if I want to activate multimon.