[czanzibar]

 

Hello!

 

I tried to look for a similar answered question, and I'm not very tech savvy so I'll try to explain as clear as possible:

 

I want to connect the video output of my PC to both a monitor and a TV using VGA cables (clone the image). Currently my monitor is plugged through a 1m VGA cable using the VGA output of the PC and works fine.

 

I bought online a cheap Y splitter cable (M->2F) and a cheap 10m long VGA cable (M/M) to duplicate the image but they didn't work, so I tried only the 10m cable from my PC to the monitor only (without the splitter) to see if the long cable was faulty but there was no video image. I also tried plugging the regular 1m VGA cable (that I always use with my monitor) to the splitter and then to my PC, leaving one of the two female outputs of the splitter empty, but no video image either.

 

My hunch was that the cheap cables I bought online ($3 and $10) were the issue, so I contacted the seller and he replied saying: "...usually cables work fine and its a setting at the users end. A 10m VGA takes a very good signal to push an analogue signal that far, otherwise you may need a booster. I can just about 99% say its not the cable, but the strength of your signal."

 

But I googled a bit and found out my graphic card is meant to be good (Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT, and Intel Core2 Duo [email protected] GHz processors) and should be able to push the signal the 10m. But if only connecting the monitor doesn't work, of course splitting doesn't either.

 

I updated the driver and since I can't even look at the Screen Resolution options for enabling a second video display (if I use the 10m cable, there's no image; if I use the splitter, there's no image; there is only an image when I leave it as is with its original 1m cable and then obviously there's no second display to detect or enable on settings). 

 

I live in New Zealand so it's either cheap cables (I could get another generic online) or just one super expensive ($80+) goldplated 10m cable, and I can't afford it. Do you guys think the seller is right, that my graphic card is too weak and needs a booster? or should I just get another cable. My TV (LCD Sony Bravia KLV-S26A10. // PC Monitor is an HPCompaq WF1907, and res. is 1440x900), only has VGA, S-cable and RCA inputs, so I'm not considering even an HDMI adapter since the basic VGA can't go through.

 

Sorry if this seems like an idiotic question, I never really deal with tech much. Any guidance would be very very welcome.  

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Best Answer

being analog, VGA is very picky about distances. that said, i've got a few 50 foot VGA cables in use here at work and they work fine (one of them is also through a splitter, but it's an active splitter not passive, so there is a power boost).

 

if you have the ability, I would try the cables with a different computer and see what the results are. that's a good way to test if it's the cable or not.

 

also, for the inability to detect/change settings for the second monitor, I would try rolling back the video card driver to the previous version and see if that fixes that issue.

[dsenette]

Best Answer

being analog, VGA is very picky about distances. that said, i've got a few 50 foot VGA cables in use here at work and they work fine (one of them is also through a splitter, but it's an active splitter not passive, so there is a power boost).

 

if you have the ability, I would try the cables with a different computer and see what the results are. that's a good way to test if it's the cable or not.

 

also, for the inability to detect/change settings for the second monitor, I would try rolling back the video card driver to the previous version and see if that fixes that issue.

[Matty1971]

Thanks so much dsenette.

This does not work as the drop down menu only shows one option, the generic PnP monitor on Standard VGA graphics adaptor.