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Forums -> Multiple monitors -> assigning numbers to 3 monitors
David Petticrew   2005-08-14 00:03
I have an AGP GeForce 6600 GT and a GeForce 2 PCI card on a windows XP machine. I have two monitors connected to the AGP card and one to the PCI card. However, the numbers assigned to the monitors are

1. AGP 1st monitor
2. PCI
3. AGP 2nd monitor

I use some software which displays to the second monitor, which is usually hooked up to an LCD projector. Since the AGP graphics card is faster and has the benefit of a mirrored full screen video I want to use this as display 2. The only way I can do this currently, is to go to the device manager and disable the PCI card, reboot, then enable the PCI card, which gives me 1. AGP 1 2. AGP 2 3. PCI. However, when I reboot I go back to 1. AGP 1 2. PCI 3. AGP 2.

Is there any way I can get this to work without having to disable my PCI card every time I switch my computer off or reboot?

Thanks
Tantalus   2005-08-15 01:58
i have an idea which might help but have several questions about your setup


>>Since the AGP graphics card is faster and has the benefit of a mirrored full screen video I want to use this as display 2.

are you doing mirroring to the other display that's connected to the agp card?


>>I use some software which displays to the second monitor, which is usually hooked up to an LCD projector.

how is second monitor being targeted as the output display? in other words, hoes the does application know to send the output to #2? is it as simple as your dragging the app output window to #2 and the application remembers this setting for future use?
David Petticrew   2005-08-15 23:27
> are you doing mirroring to the other display that's connected to the agp card?

I play a video in a window in Media player in screen 1 AGP and then have it show full screen on the second display of my AGP card.

> how is second monitor being targeted as the output display? in other words, hoes the does application know to send the output to #2? is it as simple as your dragging the app output window to #2 and the application remembers this setting for future use?

It just displays on the second monitor automatically when the program launches no need to drag windows or anything like that. The software is called Zionworx and is available from http://www.zionworx.org.uk/

Thanks
Tantalus   2005-08-18 05:16
i've been meaning to reply to this but tied up w/work. gimme a day or two...
Tantalus   2005-08-19 14:20
>>It just displays on the second monitor automatically when the program launches no need to drag windows or anything like that. The software is called Zionworx and is available from http://www.zionworx.org.uk/

ok, i had a chance earlier in the week to play around with the zionworks app. i was curious to see how the presentation window targets the other display (#2).

it's actually very simple really...the writers of the application basically look at which display is designated as PRIMARY and then uses the display to the immediate RIGHT of that as the presentation display. if your primary display is the rightmost monitor, a presentation window WON'T ever appear. like i said, rather simplistic and not elegantly coded but that's an entirely different topic. :-)

so...to answer your question on how to get the presentation window to appear on the 2nd output of the agp card (which is your #3) you need to judiciously rearrange the physical orientation of the displays. the two screens connected to the agp card must be physically adjacent to each other and the leftmost display MUST be designated as the primary display. (windows will let you happily designate any display as primary, which is a good thing!)

thus your physically display layout must be one of the following:

2 - 1 - 3 ........where 1 is the designated primary

2 - 3 - 1 ........where 3 is the designated primary

the position of #2 doesn't matter as long as it's NOT between the two other displays. since you're running separate desktops, and it's natural to designate the middle one as primary, putting #2 to the left is the optimal choice.
Tantalus   2005-08-19 14:23
>>you need to judiciously rearrange the physical orientation of the displays

just a clarification in case it's not clear...besides having the diplays physically in that order, your display settings under the Settings tab must match this physical order as well.
David Petticrew   2005-08-19 21:35
Thanks for the reply. This does indeed work for the current version of Zionworx. However, I am running the beta version of Zionworx 2.5, where it doesn't work. I've sent in a feature request to allow you to pick the correct monitor, but I've been told that it will not be implemented for this version. With this version, what you suggest works if when you boot you have only displays 1 and 3 active and then you activate 2, but as soon as you reboot with display 2 active it will not work. It will only work if display 2 is to the right of display 1.

So is there anyway to tell windows which display number to use?
David Petticrew   2005-08-20 02:11
Just a clarification on my above post. Zionworx 2.5 will display to monitor 2 no matter where it is located (if it was active when the computer was booted).
Tantalus   2005-08-20 04:44
>>With this version, what you suggest works if when you boot you have only displays 1 and 3 active and then you activate 2, but as soon as you reboot with display 2 active it will not work. It will only work if display 2 is to the right of display 1.

which version are you referring to??? in my tests with the older version, i was able to get the presentation to appear on #3. i don't know what how screen are oriented, but as i mentioned in my earlier post...if #3 is to the immediate right of #1 (assuming #1 is primary) then the presentation window will appear. this eft-right orientation of #1 & 3 must be set under the Settings tab for display properties.


>>Zionworx 2.5 will display to monitor 2 no matter where it is located (if it was active when the computer was booted).

then you should use the previous version instead. the only other option is to purchase a single agp video card that supports more than 2 displays.
Tantalus   2005-08-20 04:45
correction to typo in above post:

...i don't know how your screens are oriented, but as i mentioned in my earlier post...
David Petticrew   2005-08-20 08:08
OK, thanks I guess you can't do what I want, I'll just need to wait for the select screen feature in a future version. Thanks anyway.

(Version 2.5 is in beta at the moment and you need to register as a beta tester to use it, which is why it's not available in the download section.)
Forums -> Multiple monitors -> assigning numbers to 3 monitors

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