Post by thread:[EE]mother board VGA for dual monitor?

I have been using dual monitor on my laptops for some time, and curious if I can easily turn my desktops to dual monitor. Most of my desktops' motherboard includes a VGA outputs with sharing video memory, and I have bunch of standard alone VGA video card can be installed into those machines. My question is can I use the motherboard video card together with a standalone alone video card? Or I have to disable the motherboard video card and put two standalone video cards (PCI bus) on each machine? Any tricks to play? Funny N. Au Group Electronics, http://www.AuElectronics.com

:: y question is can I use the motherboard video card together with a :: standalone alone video card? May be maybe not, depends how old your laptop is and what video driver it uses. My Lenovo X61 does allow this, my old HP Zx440 only allowed for an external monitor - whoops just realised you're asking about your desktop. OK- maybe maybe not - early (8 years or more) onboard video did not allow for on board plus video card. Your best bet would be to buy a dual head video card, disable the on board video and gain some ram in the process. Failing that, you could buy two video cards, BUT you would have to ensure that they would be happy in this configuration, not all are. I have a feeling that some motherboards may not be happy with two video cards, but certainly newer machines that use PCI_e have no problem with this. Colin -- cdb, spam_OUTcolinTakeThisOuTbtech-online.co.uk on 29/03/2009 Web presence: http://www.btech-online.co.uk Hosted by: http://www.1and1.co.uk/?k_id=7988359

> On Mar 28, 2009, at 10:01 PM, Funny NYPD wrote: > > I have been using dual monitor on my laptops for some time, and > curious if I can easily turn my desktops to dual monitor. > > Most of my desktops' motherboard includes a VGA outputs with sharing > video memory, and I have bunch of standard alone VGA video card can > be installed into those machines. > > My question is can I use the motherboard video card together with a > standalone alone video card? Or I have to disable the motherboard > video card and put two standalone video cards (PCI bus) on each > machine? Any tricks to play? > > Funny N. > Au Group Electronics, http://www.AuElectronics.com You can try this: www.startech.com/item/USB2VGA-USB-20-to-VGA-Dual-Display-Adapter.aspx I have one that you can try for a while if you wish. It works for me. Shipping will each way will be about $3 in a padded envelope ( inside the US ). MA WFT Electronics Denver, CO 720 222 1309 " dent the UNIVERSE " All ideas, text, drawings and audio , that are originated by WFT Electronics ( and it's principals ), that are included with this signature text are to be deemed to be released to the public domain as of the date of this communication .

On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 9:07 AM, William "Chops" Westfield <.....westfwKILLspam@spam@mac.com> wrote: >> My question is can I use the motherboard video card together with a >> standalone alone video card? > > Usually this works fine. > Sometimes it does not. It did not work on my mainboard (m2n-mx) - it just turned off onboard vga when another card vas inserted. Solution was to buy a cheapest PCIExpress16 card with both VGA and DVI outputs, and connect one monitor straight to VGA, and the other thru adapter, to DVI. Both my monitors do not have DVI inputs. -- KPL

I suggest... do the below but spring for dual DVI output video card, unless you for sure need analog *and* the dual DVI doesn't include the analog as well (there are cheap DVI-A to HD15 adapters). I have a vid card with DVI and HD15, and LCDs are a bit blurrier on the HD15 (at 1600x1200, anyway). Wish I had just gone dual DVI and been done with it. I guess my point is that if you're going to use LCD monitors, get dual DVI, happier/better/easier. J KPL wrote: {Quote hidden}> On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 9:07 AM, William "Chops" Westfield > <westfwKILLspammac.com> wrote: >>> My question is can I use the motherboard video card together with a >>> standalone alone video card? >> Usually this works fine. >> > > Sometimes it does not. It did not work on my mainboard (m2n-mx) - it > just turned off onboard vga when another card vas inserted. > > Solution was to buy a cheapest PCIExpress16 card with both VGA and DVI > outputs, and connect one monitor straight to VGA, and the other thru > adapter, to DVI. Both my monitors do not have DVI inputs. >

It seems all the desktop motherboard I have, disabled the on-board VGA automatically when a standardalone AGP Video card was inserted. So I have to buy some PCI bused video card for the second monitor or use a AGP video cards with dual-monitor capability (Luckly I got a few of these). Wondering if there is a way to keep the Motherboard VGA alive? Anyone tried that? Funny N. Au Group Electronics, http://www.AuElectronics.com ________________________________ From: Jesse Lackey <.....jsl-mlKILLspam.....celestialaudio.com> To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. <EraseMEpiclistspam_OUTTakeThisOuTmit.edu> Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 8:57:26 PM Subject: Re: [EE]mother board VGA for dual monitor? I suggest... do the below but spring for dual DVI output video card, unless you for sure need analog *and* the dual DVI doesn't include the analog as well (there are cheap DVI-A to HD15 adapters). I have a vid card with DVI and HD15, and LCDs are a bit blurrier on the HD15 (at 1600x1200, anyway). Wish I had just gone dual DVI and been done with it. I guess my point is that if you're going to use LCD monitors, get dual DVI, happier/better/easier. J KPL wrote: {Quote hidden}> On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 9:07 AM, William "Chops" Westfield > <westfwspam_OUTmac.com> wrote: >>> My question is can I use the motherboard video card together with a >>> standalone alone video card? >> Usually this works fine. >> > > Sometimes it does not. It did not work on my mainboard (m2n-mx) - it > just turned off onboard vga when another card vas inserted. > > Solution was to buy a cheapest PCIExpress16 card with both VGA and DVI > outputs, and connect one monitor straight to VGA, and the other thru > adapter, to DVI. Both my monitors do not have DVI inputs. >

On Mar 30, 2009, at 6:48 PM, Funny NYPD wrote: > It seems all the desktop motherboard I have, disabled the on-board > VGA automatically when a standardalone AGP Video card was inserted. > So I have to buy some PCI bused video card for the second monitor or > use a AGP video cards with dual-monitor capability (Luckly I got a > few of these). > > Wondering if there is a way to keep the Motherboard VGA alive? > Anyone tried that? AFAIK, AGP video is "one per system", while PCI is individual "per slot." Onboard video is almost always "AGP" (hmm. Might be PCIe on modern MBs), so you typically can't have onboard video at the same time as another AGP card, but you CAN add the onboard video at the same time as a PCI video card. When we added a (relatively cheap dual-monitor) PCI video card to our cheap DELL 2400 (onboard AGP, AGP card connector not populated) we had a choice of three displays in the screen setup (onboard plus two on the PCI.) Although finding PCI video cards is an increasing challenge... BillW

Funny NYPD wrote: > It seems all the desktop motherboard I have, disabled the on-board VGA automatically when a standardalone AGP Video card was inserted. So I have to buy some PCI bused video card for the second monitor or use a AGP video cards with dual-monitor capability (Luckly I got a few of these). > > Wondering if there is a way to keep the Motherboard VGA alive? Anyone tried that? > I doubt it, afaict AGP only supports one device so if an AGP card is plugged in the onboard graphics (which is generally also AGP on boards with AGP slots) must be disabled.

Before AGP dominate the market, most of the vidoe card are either PCI or VESA bus, anyone know a good resource for those aged products? It is true and very hard to find some brand new PCI bus Video card these days. Funny N. Au Group Electronics, http://www.AuElectronics.com ________________________________ From: "William "Chops" Westfield" <@spam@westfwKILLspammac.com> To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. <KILLspampiclistKILLspammit.edu> Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 10:10:19 PM Subject: Re: [EE]mother board VGA for dual monitor? On Mar 30, 2009, at 6:48 PM, Funny NYPD wrote: > It seems all the desktop motherboard I have, disabled the on-board > VGA automatically when a standardalone AGP Video card was inserted. > So I have to buy some PCI bused video card for the second monitor or > use a AGP video cards with dual-monitor capability (Luckly I got a > few of these). > > Wondering if there is a way to keep the Motherboard VGA alive? > Anyone tried that? AFAIK, AGP video is "one per system", while PCI is individual "per slot." Onboard video is almost always "AGP" (hmm. Might be PCIe on modern MBs), so you typically can't have onboard video at the same time as another AGP card, but you CAN add the onboard video at the same time as a PCI video card. When we added a (relatively cheap dual-monitor) PCI video card to our cheap DELL 2400 (onboard AGP, AGP card connector not populated) we had a choice of three displays in the screen setup (onboard plus two on the PCI.) Although finding PCI video cards is an increasing challenge... BillW

On Mar 30, 2009, at 7:49 PM, Funny NYPD wrote: > Before AGP dominate the market, most of the vidoe card are either > PCI or VESA bus, anyone know a good resource for those aged products? We got both our PCI video cards from newegg.com; they have a pretty good selection, and a parametric search that lets you find the PCI cards easily... I haven't seen a VESA video card in ages; they pre- date PCI, as far as I can tell. BillW

> Although finding PCI video cards is an increasing > challenge... > I wouldn't call it a challange to find them just yet. I just checked the three computer parts vendors I have used most recently (dabs, MD and insight) and they all had at least one dualhead PCI card in stock. The choice of dualhead PCI cards is thin though, dabs had a £40 pny geforce and a load of insanely expensive cards. MD only had an £85 matrox. Insight seemed to have both of the aforementioned cards and a load of insanely expensive cards.

On Mon, 2009-03-30 at 19:49 -0700, Funny NYPD wrote: > Before AGP dominate the market, most of the vidoe card are either PCI or VESA bus, anyone know a good resource for those aged products? > > It is true and very hard to find some brand new PCI bus Video card these days. PCI cards are pretty to easy to find locally. While you won't find the "latest" cards, that usually isn't an issue since most people who want a PCI card aren't dreaming of gaming on them. That said, PCIE slots are becoming more and more common, if you system has a PCIEx16 slot and onboard video that would be the easiest way to get dual support. VL-bus hasn't been around for a long time. Only place you'd find a card is the used market. TTYL

On Mon, 2009-03-30 at 20:03 -0700, William "Chops" Westfield wrote: > On Mar 30, 2009, at 7:49 PM, Funny NYPD wrote: > > > Before AGP dominate the market, most of the vidoe card are either > > PCI or VESA bus, anyone know a good resource for those aged products? > > We got both our PCI video cards from newegg.com; they have a pretty > good selection, and a parametric search that lets you find the PCI > cards easily... I haven't seen a VESA video card in ages; they pre- > date PCI, as far as I can tell. VL-bus was first, but shared the space with PCI for a few years. At the time I actually prefered VL-bus because every VL-bus slot was also a ISA slot, while PCI cards were rare and very expensive. That said, on the technical side VL-bus was mostly rubbish. It directly tied in to the 486 bus, limiting most boards to only 2 slots. It was notoriously unstable due to less then perfect cards mucking things up. It was very common on some boards for the insertion of a second VL-bus card to completely hang the system. The cards were VERY long, making them hard to install safely, and prone to popping out. Being based on ISA tech they had the same plug and pray issues that ISA had (that said, at the time OS support for plug and pray was horrendous, so not all blame can be laid with just the VL-bus). In the end VL-bus had no chance. Being tied to the 486 bus meant putting a VL-bus slot was very difficult on anything but a 486 board; most importantly the Pentium cpus used a completely different type of interconnect. In the end while there were a few Pentium boards with VL-bus slots, PCI won. Of course, there was also MCA and EISA, neither got anywhere near as popular as even VL-bus. TTYL

"peter green" <RemoveMEplugwashTakeThisOuTp10link.net> wrote in message news:spamBeGone49D18289.10200spamBeGonep10link.net... > Funny NYPD wrote: >> It seems all the desktop motherboard I have, disabled the on-board VGA >> automatically when a standardalone AGP Video card was inserted. So I have >> to buy some PCI bused video card for the second monitor or use a AGP >> video cards with dual-monitor capability (Luckly I got a few of these). >> >> Wondering if there is a way to keep the Motherboard VGA alive? Anyone >> tried that? >> > I doubt it, afaict AGP only supports one device so if an AGP card is > plugged in the onboard graphics (which is generally also AGP on boards > with AGP slots) must be disabled. How about a PCI card with four video outputs? Newegg.com has a couple of these, but they're kind of expensive at $135 and $200. Jeff -- "Many things that were acceptable in 1958 are no longer acceptable today. My own standards have changed too." -- Freeman Dyson