|
Post Reply
Connie 2003-12-04 12:47
Need help setting up dual monitors on my Win98SE system. Have been reading this realtime.soft forum as well as Google Groups Win98 Multi-Monitor forum, but I'm still a confused newbie. I'm experiencing software conflicts and program crashes, as well as not being able to get both monitors enabled. I THINK my problems may stem from using both AGP and PCI cards, but would appreciate any advice from this knowledgeable group. My usage consists of mostly working with graphics and website development.
My setup before trying to install second monitor:
Windows 98SE
Gateway 750 Select
750 mHz, AMD Athlon
30 GB hard drive
384 MB RAM
Jabil Motherboard with AMD 750 chipset
AGP 32 MB nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 video card
17" flat-screen CRT
I've added a second video card, a PCI 32MB nVidia geforce2 MX400, and a second 17" flat-screen CRT. Here are my "issues":
1. Most of my reading about multi-monitors indicates that the AGP card should be designated as primary and the PCI card as secondary. My system BIOS (AMI) does not have that option, and Gateway doesn't offer a more current BIOS that does. I seem to recall somewhere in a forum that the AGP does NOT have to be primary and that people have been able to use multi-monitors with PCI as primary and AGP as secondary. What's the skinny? Why do the "experts" say AGP has to be primary? Is it truly necessary for some reason? Would I be better off buying a second inexpensive PCI card and removing the AGP?
2. After I installed the PCI card and the second monitor, the PCI card booted first (which I expected), and the monitor on the AGP would not enable. In Device Manager, I found the exclamation point on the AGP card with a comment about removing EMM6 from Config.sys. The Windows display.txt file also advised this fix. In Config.sys, I deselected the box for the command that reads DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS/EMM386.EXE NOEMS (I did not delete the command; does this make a difference?) After this, the monitor on the AGP card enabled after the monitor on the PCI enabled first. I then got the message "If you can read this . . ." Success! Or so I thought. When I go into Control Panel's Display Settings, I see the monitor on the PCI card correctly configured and enabled. But the monitor on AGP is grayed out, along with the box "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" which is checked. When I click on this monitor's icon, I get the dialog box asking if I want to enable this monitor. When I click Yes, the monitor icon and the "Extend my Windows desktop" option are no longer grayed out. But, when I then click OK or Apply, and the Display Properties box closes, nothing changes. The second monitor just sits there happily with its "If you can read this message . . ." display. When I return to Control Panel's Display Settings, it was as if I never tried to enable the second monitor. The monitor icon and "Extend" option are grayed out again. Can anyone help me here? How can I get Monitor 2 to properly enable?
3. While in Control Panel's Display Settings, I found icons and settings for FOUR monitors instead of the two I installed. How can I eliminate the duplicate settings? Or do I need to? And why did this happen? I've read of this occurrence a couple of times on one of these forums, but it was before it happened to me. Of course, now I can't locate the answers.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this epic, I'm also experiencing some software conflicts and program crashes. However, I'll deal with those once I get the second monitor enabled; maybe those problems will go away once both monitors are running properly? I can hope, anyway . . .
Thanks, one and all,
Connie
|
dennis 2003-12-07 10:17
Have you tried installing NVIDIAs' multi-monitor
driver?
|
ecarlson 2003-12-07 15:09
What version NVidia drivers are you using? These 2 NVidia cards should work fine together, and it shouldn't matter which is primary.
- Eric www.InvisibleRobot.com
|
Connie 2003-12-07 17:48
Thanks, Dennis and Eric. It's good to know that it really doesn't matter whether AGP or PCI is primary.
I installed the driver that came with my new PCI card and then upgraded at the nVidia website to the latest driver for these two cards, version 4523. Both drivers have multi-monitor support.
I'm not sure, but I keep thinking that if I can figure out how to eliminate the two "ghost monitors" in Display Properties, maybe Monitor 2 will properly enable. In Device Manager, while in Normal Mode, 2 display adapters are listed and 4 monitors are shown. While in Safe Mode, Device Manager shows 3 display adapters and 6 or 8 monitors (I've seen different numbers of monitors while trying different things like disabling and "removing" monitors). After trying to disable or remove, and then rebooting, Windows automatically detects 4 monitors and installs the drivers for them. Two of the monitors appear to be duplicates.
Any idea how I can resolve this issue? Or should I try the shotgun approach and do a clean install of Windows 98? Ugh, hate to think of that, but maybe it'll work. (Please don't suggest upgrading to XP--I have enough on my plate right now.)
BTW, my software conflicts and program crashes seem to have cleared up. I think my system resources had dropped so low when I added the second monitor and driver that things were locking up. I've eliminated some of the unnecessary start-up programs, and so far so good.
TIA,
Connie
|
ecarlson 2003-12-09 13:33
Go into Device Manager in Windows, and delete any ghost monitors there, then reboot to see if it helps.
You also might need to uninstall any video drivers you installed so you will revert to the generic windows VGA driver (don't let it install any new drivers when it reboots), then reinstall the latest NVidia drivers, or the 41.09 NVidia drivers, which is what I use.
It might take several steps of uninstalling and reinstalling with lots of rebooting to get it working properly. I know it did the last time I changed drivers, but I'm working fine now.
- Eric www.InvisibleRobot.com
|
Connie 2003-12-10 15:06
Hallelujah! I finally got both monitors working! The solution WAS to completely UNinstall all previous video drivers, revert to the Windows standard VGA driver, and then reinstall the latest nVidia drivers. Thank you, Eric--you were right! Simply installing a new video driver in addition to what already existed on my system caused some kind of conflict. I'm up and running now and lovin' multiple monitors. Once I've learned nView, I may decide to give UltraMon a try.
One oddity that remains is the ghost monitor that insists on appearing in both Device Manager and Display Properties. It is listed as "Default Monitor" and doesn't seem to harm anything by remaining there. One of the other readers of this forum indicated that these ghost monitors appear to be some kind of nVidia bug. Since I have two nVidia cards run by one driver, that would explain THAT.
Thanks to those who responded. I'll post my configuration details in the database. This is a valuable forum!
Best,
Connie
|
Post Reply
|
