Dual monitors

[miniman]

My Dell desktop (GX260) has 2 video outputs. One is onboard on the motherboard and the other is a separate (I assume PCI or AGP) card. Only the separate card works. Is there any way to enable the second card to allow use of 2 monitors (in so far as the mouse runs off the edge of one screen onto the other)???

[Tripps]

miniman said:

My Dell desktop (GX260) has 2 video outputs. One is onboard on the motherboard and the other is a separate (I assume PCI or AGP) card. Only the separate card works. Is there any way to enable the second card to allow use of 2 monitors (in so far as the mouse runs off the edge of one screen onto the other)???

Right click on your desktop, select Properties and visit the Settings tab.

Does that show two monitors, if so, click the unused one and check "Extend my desktop onto this monitor".

Grand presumption of Windows XP made

[si_j]

Depends on the BIOS of the motherboard - if it allows you to use the onboard & PCI/AGP card at the same time.
Some BIOS will disable the onboard video if a 3rd party GFX card is installed.

[Tripps]

si_j said:

Depends on the BIOS of the motherboard - if it allows you to use the onboard & PCI/AGP card at the same time. Some BIOS will disable the onboard video if a 3rd party GFX card is installed.

That's a good point, although I'd hope most modern machines allowed the option now, but are the Dell GX's the small business-type machine, in which case they might be limited.

Also depends on the reason for the 2nd card, if the motherboard one was low resolution, you might end up with a mismatch between your two screens, which could be confusing.

Saying that I run 1280x1024 on a 17" TFT and 1600x1200 on a 19" CRT and it works OK, but I tend to split tasks between screems, e-mail, music on one, with work (read browing PH) on the other.