troman 2011-01-06 16:00
I have a brand new Dell Inspiron 570 desktop with an AMD Athlon II X3 435 / ATI Radeon HD 4200 / Windows 7
I want to run 3 monitors but I'm getting the feeling that's not possible?
Any suggestions?
troman
|
troman 2011-01-06 16:28
Forgot to mention...
I'm feeling it's not possible because it's an integrated graphics card and when I install another the bios will not recognize the original...
Any suggestions?
Thx a lot
troman
|
ecarlson 2011-01-09 03:32
Did you actually try adding a card to confirm if the onboard is disabled? Some computers allow the onboard to work along with an add-on card.
If that doesn't work, then the solution I used for that exact issue is that I modified a PCIE X16 card to work in a PCIe X1 slot, so that I could 2 video cards for my 3 monitors. See my web site for details of what I did.
There are a number of other options, including, but not limited to:
- Modify the PCIe X1 slot to accept longer PCIe X16 cards.
- Get a PCIe X1 extender cable, and modify its slot to accept longer PCIe X16 cards. These are like $7 shipped on eBay, so this is a very low risk choice, compared to modifying a video card, like I did, or modifying a motherboard.
- Use an ATI Eyefinity card with 3 outputs, if one of your monitors has a DisplayPort input.
- Use a USB display adapter for the 3rd monitor.
- Use a PCI video card for the 3rd monitor.
- Use a quad output video card (not cheap).
- Use a Matrox DualHead2Go or TrippleHead2go adapter (not cheap).
- Use another PC with MaxiVista software or similar.
- Eric www.InvisibleRobot.com
|
troman 2011-01-10 16:21
Thanks for your reply Eric.
I must admit I did not try adding another card yet because I spoke with a tech at ATI who said this integrated graphics card will disable any other.
I did look into the USB option and that's what I'll probably do.
But out of curiosity, am I understanding you correctly that a PCI card might work with the onboard video? I have 2 PCI slots available. Is there a reason for this that you could explain to a layman. I must admit, this has been a difficult problem for me to solve...sorry for my ignorance...I'm a trader not a tech.
The other options seem a little to involved for my experience level but are much appreciated.
Thanks again,
Tony
|
ecarlson 2011-01-11 13:36
Yes, I've used a PCI video card with onboard video before to get 3 monitors. A PCI video card usually doesn't override the onboard like an AGP card always does or like a PCIe card sometimes does.
That's still not a guarantee, for various reasons, but if you already have a PCI card, or can borrow one, or can easily return one, it could be worth a try.
- Eric www.InvisibleRobot.com
|
troman 2011-01-13 15:25
I wound up ordering an EVGA 8400GS PCI card that is supposedly Win 7 compatible from Ebay for $40 shipped.
I'm waiting for an HDMI to DVI cable to hopefully get 2 monitors running off the onboard video and will try to get the 3rd from this card which will give me an option for a 4th if I need it later.
If all this doesn't work, I'll go the USB route.
I'll see how it goes and report back here.
Thanks again Eric for the help.
T
|
troman 2011-01-13 16:00
...and by the way...
I know I'm mixing different chip makers but, damn, it was a lot easier finding a good, cheap, newer, Win 7 compatible PCI card from the Nvidia brands than the ATI.
I read 150 different opinions on whether or not the older PCI Radeons would work with Win 7 and I'm still not sure.
We'll see what happens but I was getting tired of research...
T
|
ecarlson 2011-01-15 06:51
I look forward to hearing your results.
- Eric www.InvisibleRobot.com
|
troman 2011-01-22 08:12
Wow...frustrating...
The PCI card disabled the onboard video...I removed it for now and have 2 monitors again
Sorry for the drama but any suggestions?
I guess I'll return the card and go the USB route...I had a hunch that was the way to go but...lesson learned...no big deal
Thanks again,
T
|
ecarlson 2011-01-23 04:36
Interesting. Are you sure it wasn't a PCI Express card? Let us know how USB works.
- Eric www.InvisibleRobot.com
|
troman 2011-02-02 11:47
...yes Eric...it definately was a PCI and not a PCI express card...but nonetheless it did disable the onboard video...
The good news is the USB video card (Diamond) works great and was simple to install and configure...probably shoulda went this route from the start
I have 3 monitors working great and can't thank you enough for your help again
For anyone else who has this problem with getting around the onboard video, I can HIGHLY recommend this little gadget...I was skeptical from some of the reviews on Amazon, but it is more than good enough for the static apps I run (mostly quote software/spreadsheets/IE)
Best of luck to you
Tony
|
ecarlson 2011-02-05 00:51
What model is the USB video card?
- Eric www.InvisibleRobot.com
|
troman 2011-02-07 08:54
I got the Diamond BVU195
It uses DisplayLink technology and got good reviews...they all seem comparable and it came down to price and compatibility with my Win 7 64 bit OS...they were giving a rebate and I got the thing for $34 bucks shipped...I figured I couldn't go wrong for that price and I'm more than happy with it...actually thrilled...
I can't say how it would perform for others who need intense graphics but it is fine for what I need
T
|
Pete 2011-02-24 01:10
I have a board that has an intergrated radeon 3200IGP with 128mb sideport memory. The board was meant to be crossfire so I have 2 pci express x 16 slots. Anywho, the Ati intergrated will work with only other ATI cards. Anytime you try anything by another vendor it will tell you that its not working correctly or just crash outright. All of the available outputs on your 4200 should work fine with a Ati pcie card. If you allocate less than 512 MB of memory the IGP lags a bit.
|
John 2011-03-24 03:00
My two cents. . .
I've worked on a small number of Dell computers with integrated video - in all BIOS settings of these computers, it is NOT possible to set both the integrated graphics and an add-in graphics card (ANY flavor!) to be active simultaneously - even if all graphics GPU's are made by the same maker (ATI if it's a Dell computer).
|
ecarlson 2011-03-27 02:42
The older Dell Optiplex Pentium 4 I had at work, which had an AGP video slot, would allow the onboard to work with a PCI video card, but of course not with an AGP video card.
On that old Optiplex, I had one monitor on the onboard and two more monitors on the PCI video card (Matrox). I did that because I couldn't get the NVidia AGP card to work well with the Matrox PCI video card, so I removed the NVidia AGP card and used the onboard video instead.
- Eric www.InvisibleRobot.com
|
