About Chris Morrison Expertise Installation of cards. Difference between card types. What card is best for your purpose. Driver problems. All video issues.
Experience 15 years experience with building, repairing and upgrading PCs. Technical support experience.
Organizations Help on the Net
Education/Credentials Associates Degree in Information Technology
A Certified
Expert: Chris Morrison Date: 3/8/2008 Subject: Dual Monitors
Question Hello,
At work we use dual monitor set-ups for our Dell Optiplex PC's. The two monitors are connected via DVI cables to splitter (Y) cable which is attached to a DVI port on the video card. The signal to the monitors is digital and the desktop spans both monitors. The machines are running the Windows XP OS.
I've tried to duplicated this set-up at home with no success, but I'm running Vista. If this another Vista advantage?
Answer No it more or less has to do with the video card itself. Y splitters are tricky to get working. The video card usually has to support to function and detect both screens or see both monitors as one monitor.
The easiest way to set up dual monitors is to purchase a video card with dual ports (most video cards these days have dual ports). Most cards will have one VGA ports and one DVI port. Most also include a DVI to VGA adapter. Connect both monitors and then enter the video card settings and choose to span the monitors or clone. there are quite a few options for doing this.
You can purchase a video card with dual ports for a s little as $30. Just find out what type of video slot yor computer has and purchase the correct type of card. Check newegg.com for best prices.
