[kakaze]

Not as critical a question as the other one I'm wondering about right now but I'm musing on how I can connect 2 monitors.
I have the 2 monitors, both have d-sub connectors. The trouble is my graphics card (radeon x800 gto) only has one port for this.
However. I notice on my motherboard there is space for another monitor.
Additionally I have a old graphics card lying around.

So. How do I do this?
Display properties has options for 2 monitors but picking the other one does nought and it still shows as no display.
Connecting the new monitor to the motherboard's connector does nought. Is there anyway to activate this link? Or must it remain dead?
Can I run a computer with 2 graphics cards and have my other monitor working this way?

Or must I just go into town some day and buy a adapter (the by far least favoured option since it involves leaving the house and spending money )

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the only option would be to buy a new graphics card with dual outputs....

you cannot have the onboard (the one on your motherboard) and an expansion video card active at the same time...and you can't have two expansion cards active at the same time unless they're SLI (and even then i don't know enough about SLI to tell you if it would let you do dual monitors)

you COULD get a "monitor splitter" (the real name fails me at the moment) that would allow you to display the same thing on both monitors...but what's the point of that?

[dsenette]

the only option would be to buy a new graphics card with dual outputs....

you cannot have the onboard (the one on your motherboard) and an expansion video card active at the same time...and you can't have two expansion cards active at the same time unless they're SLI (and even then i don't know enough about SLI to tell you if it would let you do dual monitors)

you COULD get a "monitor splitter" (the real name fails me at the moment) that would allow you to display the same thing on both monitors...but what's the point of that?

[kakaze]

I can't use a d-sub:dvi converter?

[Digerati]

you cannot have the onboard (the one on your motherboard) and an expansion video card active at the same time...

Sorry, but that is not true. Many motherboards allow you to keep the on-board enabled while using an add-on card. Since XP can support many monitors, motherboards have supported this for years. However, many motherboards will automatically disable the on-board when they sense a card is inserted so you may have to go back into the BIOS to re-enable it.

and you can't have two expansion cards active at the same time unless they're SLI

And I am afraid that is not true either. XP will easily support 6 or even 8 monitors so you can add as many PCI cards as your motherboard and power supply will support. Or you can use PCIe and multiple PCI cards. Or as I have with one system here, a dual DVI AGP card and a PCI card for a 3 monitor setup.

However, the best option is to get another card that supports two monitors then you get a better GPU and little RAM boost when you disable the on-board. Any good card will support DVI-I, which includes an analog signal in the connector for use on analog LCD monitors, and all CRT monitors. These cards will come with the dvi to d-sub adapters in the box.

[dsenette]

i've never gotten an expansion card and onboard to work at the same time....of course i guess that doesn't mean it's impossible...but i've never gotten it to work correctly

at least i was right about the easiest sollution

[Digerati]

at least i was right about the easiest sollution

lol - and the best solution too, I might add.

but i've never gotten it to work correctly

And that's often a problem - even after you get it running. After using dual monitors for years, I still find it frustrating that most software makers do a poor job supporting multi-monitor setups. For example, if I open Control Panel, will come up on the monitor from where I last closed it. But if on monitor 2 and I click on Add and Remove, I expect the new Add and Remove window to come up on monitor 2. It does not, it always comes up on 1. No problems using Word on 2. My spamblocker works great 99% of the time on 2, until it encounters an error connecting to one of my accounts - then it throws the error up on monitor 1 where I don't think at first to look for it.

Still, even with the quirks, I don't know how I ever lived with a single monitor before and will never go without at least 2. For anyone using a multi-monitor setup, I use and recommend UltraMon. This is a great tool to help control and keep track of what is open on what monitor. It is the best of this type program I have found, but sadly, it is not free.

[dsenette]

ultramon is the bees knees... but since it's not free i use MultiMonTaskbar....not quite as powerful...but it gets the job done....though...on occasion if i load my laptop up without two monitors...and i open a program that WAS on monitor 2....i can't see it because it's on a phantom monitor....which is less than cool