Monitors cloning, but want extended view.

techdummy

New Member
My alias says it all!!
I bought a new computer Dell Inspiron 537 with Vista home premium x64, Celeron processor, and Intel G41 Express chipset.
I had a Radeon 9200se graphics card in my old XP OS and ran 3 monitors, from the card (2) and internal devise (1).
Not so with this new Vista OS. I did install my Radeon 9200se and downloaded the drivers. After messing around I realized it wasn't my graphics card that was disabled, but the internal devise.
Since I have both a VGA and DVI plug on the Radeon 9200 I decided to plug in 2 monitors to get them running.
Both monitors are cloning each other and I have tried to find the answers to disable the cloning, to be able to have an extended view.
When I go to the display settings I am showing only one monitor, even though I have 2 plugged into to each of the 2 ports on the Radeon 9200.
My eyes are bugging out:shock:, and desperate to find the solution.
I eventually want to have 3 monitors on extended view and up grade to W7, but first things first.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TIA
 
Last edited:

My Computer

techdummy, welcome to the forums.

Assuming it installed correctly and is working you should be able to set it to extended mode in the Catalyst Control Center (right click on the desktop and select it). The settings/options should be under Display Options.

As for running more than 2 monitors on Vista, unless all the video cards are the same (ATI with ATI or Nvidia with Nvidia, and this includes onboard video) on Vista this isn't going to happen as it is not supported under WDDM 1.0,

Multimonitor Support in WDDM

On Windows Vista, older XPDM drivers still work and the multi-monitor behavior with XPDM drivers hasn't changed, because the operating system uses the legacy graphics stack.
However, the Windows Vista Display Driver Model (WDDM) brings fundamental changes to the management of multiple graphics adapters and external displays. This includes a new restriction, because WDDM drivers do not support "heterogeneous multi-adapter" multi-monitor implementations. Specifically:
All graphics adapters in a system must use the same display driver model. That is, all of them should either be running XPDM or WDDM. The driver models are mutually exclusive, and Windows Vista does not allow the simultaneous loading of both an XPDM driver and a WDDM driver.
If a system has one graphics adapter with a XPDM driver and another with a WDDM driver, then Windows Vista will choose the POST device, which is the one with VGA resources. This is commonly referred to as the "VGA adapter."

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/multimonVista.mspx#EOB

WDDM 1.1 in Windows 7 will however allow you to mix and match display adapters.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Me
    CPU
    Athlon x2 7750 BE
    Motherboard
    Asus M4A78 Pro
    Memory
    2x2gb Kingston
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire HD 4830
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Xtreme Music
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer P221w and Acer 1916w
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050 and 1440x900
    Hard Drives
    2x80 GB Seagate 7200.10 in RAID0, 500 GB Seagate 7200.12
    PSU
    Antec Earthwatts 500W
    Case
    Antec Sonata III
    Cooling
    AC Freezer 64 Pro and a couple of 120 mm case fans
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech G5 v2
    Internet Speed
    10000/1000
techdummy, welcome to the forums.

Assuming it installed correctly and is working you should be able to set it to extended mode in the Catalyst Control Center (right click on the desktop and select it). The settings/options should be under Display Options.

As for running more than 2 monitors on Vista, unless all the video cards are the same (ATI with ATI or Nvidia with Nvidia, and this includes onboard video) on Vista this isn't going to happen as it is not supported under WDDM 1.0,

Multimonitor Support in WDDM

On Windows Vista, older XPDM drivers still work and the multi-monitor behavior with XPDM drivers hasn't changed, because the operating system uses the legacy graphics stack.
However, the Windows Vista Display Driver Model (WDDM) brings fundamental changes to the management of multiple graphics adapters and external displays. This includes a new restriction, because WDDM drivers do not support "heterogeneous multi-adapter" multi-monitor implementations. Specifically:
All graphics adapters in a system must use the same display driver model. That is, all of them should either be running XPDM or WDDM. The driver models are mutually exclusive, and Windows Vista does not allow the simultaneous loading of both an XPDM driver and a WDDM driver.
If a system has one graphics adapter with a XPDM driver and another with a WDDM driver, then Windows Vista will choose the POST device, which is the one with VGA resources. This is commonly referred to as the "VGA adapter."
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/multimonVista.mspx#EOB

WDDM 1.1 in Windows 7 will however allow you to mix and match display adapters.

Thanks stormy,
I have gone ahead and removed the 9200se card and hooked up the monitor to the internal port.
What card(s) would you recommend I install to bring my expanded view to 3 monitors, and would it work with Windows 7 when I upgrade?
I'm looking at a Matrox Triplehead2go digital as a possibility.
As I understand it, the Matrox can either run a single app. (panoramic) on all three monitors, or run 3 different apps. on each monitor.
TIA

 

My Computer

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