Vista - Connecting Second Monitor..what am i doing wrong?

i have purchased a brand new dell computer and am trying to connect the second monitor..i have read the forums and people have had similar problems but all have been solved and i have followed the stages that have solved other ppl's problems and my dual monitor still isnt working..i have gone on display options and enabled the second monitor at least 5 times, i have put the resolution to its poorest quality on both monitors and selected extend my display on to this monitor on the second monitor but when i click apply it just makes the settings on the first monitor go rubbish and the second is still a black screen saying 'check signal cable' any help would be super appreciated , thanks in advance!

Dell 256MB - ATI - Radeon HD 2400 XT - Graphics Card - Dual DVI/Dual VGA

this is the graphics card installed or something very similar

What is the model of your dell? Have you downloaded the ATI drivers? Did you install Hydravision?

studio slim...brand new shipped yesterday

i went on drivers and update driver and now it says syncmaster T220 on the first monitor and ati radion hd 3450 on the 2nd display..i havent done the third thing you said...

my monitors are samsung 22 inch both the same

I'm assuming both are DVI connectors. First try the obvious, switch the cables and monitors around and try them all on the primary output to make sure they all work.

Then I think you should visit the ATI website or the sticky here and download/install the latest ATI catalyst drivers including hydravision.

you have a radeon hd 2400 XT and a radeon hd 3450? the hd 3450--is it intergrated graphics? meaning, do you hook your monitor(s) cable directly to the computer motherboard or is it (are they) connected to the installed graphics card?

on the photo, number 1 is integrated graphics (vga) and number two is installed (discrete, premium, etc) graphics (dvi). it sounds to me that you are trying to install one monitor to the integrated port and the other monitor to the installed graphics card. first, make sure that they are both installed on the installed graphics card. you may have to enter you computer bios to disable integrated graphics set up the bios so that the primary graphics adapter is PCIe.

as far as hydravision is concerned, it is not a necessity to have. to enable your desktop to span across both monitors can be done from the catalyst control center. hydravision is a multi-monitor control center that you download from the amd/ati website and it integrates into the catalyst control center.

He has an HD3450 and the 3450 isn't integrated, the highest integrated ATI chip is the HD3300. I asked if he had a dual dvi head because I was trying to figure out if he was using both of the ports on the video card or one from the video card and one from the integrated graphics. The Dell motherboard in that computer has an intel graphics chip integrated as well though I don't know what connection type it outputs to.

No hydravision isn't required, but technically neither is the catalyst control center. It was my opinion that since the driver is bundled in with the CCC download he might as well get the pack with all of it and install everything. Though it might be of use if he's trying to do a dual monitor setup off the ati chip while leaving the integrated graphics on.

ermm i have one monitor plugged into the white dvi port or whatever it is..and one plugged into the blue vga or whatever its called...they are plugged directly them ports and when only one is working it only works in the white port but when two are going the other one should woprk in the vga i think..but it is just saying check signal on the other monitor..i have definitely not followed the basic set up wrong but there may be something i am missing?

is it possible to take a snapshot of your connections?

as far as i know, you should be able to connect a vga monitor and dvi monitor on the same card and have them both be detected and work... maybe someone who uses a card that has a vga and dvi connection can comment on this, but i would think they would both work. i'm still a little confused about whether you have two cards connected in your computer, as you stated that you have an 2400 XT and a 3450. if that is true, then you have at least 5 different connection ports available to you--2 on the 2400; 2 on the 3450; and 1 on your motherboard. how are your monitors hooked up? a drawing would be helpful too.

Well, almost but not quite. I have a 19" LCD connected via DVI and a 17" CRT connected via a DVI-VGA adapter, with the LCD running at 1440x900@60 Hz and the CRT running at 1280x1024@85 Hz (old IBM P76 that can do 1600x1200@75 Hz); and both work perfectly.

It definitely sounds like pleasehelpmee has one monitor connected to the card and one connected to the onboard video port, which would certainly explain the one monitor no signal.

make sure you are only using the ports on the card itself and not any other ports on the computer the onboard graphics are automatically disabled when a graphics card is installed so the ports from your motherboard will not work.

before applying any setting set to default and and press the button that says to identify your monitors you should get a 1 and 2 on both monitors they will both go to thier native resolution when you extend your desktop or at least they should all of this can be done from the windows display settings if you don't see the 2 displayed on your second monitor consider checking what dvi adapter you are using as i found that they are not all compatable with ati signals for example my old gpu 2600xt vga-hdmi didn't work with the 3870 so it may be a similar issue if you are using different adapaters.

let us know