Hi Kris, if nobody bites here, I know a guy, Jay is his name, in
computerhaven.com that does dual monitors, is a tester for Vista (Ultimate),
if no one here can help, maybe he can
not guaranteed that he uses
different drivers tho.
katy
"Kris" <kris@lunarspells.com> wrote in message
news:FB11F2E1-C721-4BDE-9C9B-ECD9258C485E@microsoft.com...
> Wow, no one wants to touch this one, eh? LOL
>
> How about another direction? I'll switch cards if I have to... Can anyone
> recommend a completely different card, (Nvidia maybe?) that would run two
> digital monitors well on Vista Ultimate, and use completely different
> drivers? Something that Vista seems to get along with, of course...
>
>
> "Kris" <Kris@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:FCA6D8EF-E3EB-4B4D-A47A-FE348373DA3C@microsoft.com...
>>I have been running Vista Home Premium with an ATI x1600Pro for a couple
>>of
>> months, and it always showed the video adapter driver twice in the Device
>> Manager (Primary and Secondary - the card supports 2 monitors). I ordered
>> a
>> second monitor (same model as current one, Dell 1907fp ultrasharp) and
>> upgraded to Vista Ultimate at the same time. Now under Ultimate in the
>> device
>> manager, there's only one video adapter showing, and it refuses to
>> acknowledge the second monitor (the light on the monitor is solid amber).
>> The
>> secondary port DOES show up in the Device Manager in safe mode! I am not
>> sure
>> if the secondary port disappeared after upgrading to the 7.4 ATI drivers,
>> or
>> after the upgrade to Ultimate; unfortunately I wasn't looking at that at
>> the
>> time 
but it seems like one of them must be the culprit.
>>
>> I've tested the monitors and cables on another system, done all the
>> updates
>> for both ATI and Dell, reseated the card, and swapped cables and
>> monitors,
>> and finally even bought another video card (this time the ATI x1650 Pro),
>> same results. When the monitor 2 is unplugged, it shows the self-test
>> screen,
>> when plugged in it says "2: Digital Input In Power Save Mode" when I push
>> the
>> Menu button.
>>
>> When I picked up the new video card, I uninstalled the ATI drivers, and
>> switched out cards. Vista loaded it's default drivers, and BOTH ports
>> showed
>> up in the Device Manager, but no way to extend the desktop to the other
>> monitor on basic drivers, and the system blue screens on bootup. As soon
>> as I
>> put in the current ATI driver, *poof* no second port. Oddly, when I turn
>> the
>> blank monitor off and back on, the device manager will refresh itself, so
>> it's getting SOME sort of signal...
>>
>> The computer is a Dell XPS410, with 2gb ram, and I spent a good 4 hours
>> with
>> Dell support, so I'm fairly sure all that is working fine.
>>
>> I've got a ticket submitted to the ATI folks days ago, but no answer yet.
>