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Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
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Combining AGP Dual-Head and PCI Graphic Card
To whom it may concern,
I want to connect three TFTs with my PC. At the moment, I'm using one AGP Dual-Head Graphic Card from Matrox. My idea is now to add an additional PCI Graphic Card (from Matrox?). I'm using WIN XP pro., but is it possible to configure these Grafic Cards as a real "Triple-View" Display? I don't want to buy an expensive Triple-Head Parhelia - but maybe there are alternatives (only 2D working machine, no games...) Any experiences/hints? Thanks in advance. Udo |
#3
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Hi,
In the past I ran three monitors using the AGP card, and two PCI video cards. It worked perfectly well with Windows 98. Now I use XP, and a Matrox G400 with two monitors. I found that when I attempt to install a PCI Video card I end up with an IRQ conflict that I cannot figure out how to solve. The manual IRQ settings box is grayed out and does not allow me to select an IRQ manually. I cannot believe that there is not a solution to this, but so far I have not been able to find it. This is the only problem I have had with XP. Jon "WeikEngOff" wrote in message ... To whom it may concern, I want to connect three TFTs with my PC. At the moment, I'm using one AGP Dual-Head Graphic Card from Matrox. My idea is now to add an additional PCI Graphic Card (from Matrox?). I'm using WIN XP pro., but is it possible to configure these Grafic Cards as a real "Triple-View" Display? I don't want to buy an expensive Triple-Head Parhelia - but maybe there are alternatives (only 2D working machine, no games...) Any experiences/hints? Thanks in advance. Udo |
#4
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What do you mean by "IRQ conflict"? Does the system hang?
Give any error messages? If it's just a matter of the two devices sharing an IRQ, that in itself is not a problem. Rick "Jon Rodman" wrote in message ... Hi, In the past I ran three monitors using the AGP card, and two PCI video cards. It worked perfectly well with Windows 98. Now I use XP, and a Matrox G400 with two monitors. I found that when I attempt to install a PCI Video card I end up with an IRQ conflict that I cannot figure out how to solve. The manual IRQ settings box is grayed out and does not allow me to select an IRQ manually. I cannot believe that there is not a solution to this, but so far I have not been able to find it. This is the only problem I have had with XP. Jon "WeikEngOff" wrote in message ... To whom it may concern, I want to connect three TFTs with my PC. At the moment, I'm using one AGP Dual-Head Graphic Card from Matrox. My idea is now to add an additional PCI Graphic Card (from Matrox?). I'm using WIN XP pro., but is it possible to configure these Grafic Cards as a real "Triple-View" Display? I don't want to buy an expensive Triple-Head Parhelia - but maybe there are alternatives (only 2D working machine, no games...) Any experiences/hints? Thanks in advance. Udo |
#5
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Hello HammerToe,
The AGP card works fine, but the PCI card does not work. It appears in the Hardware Profile, but when viewing properties it indicates that it has a problem. It cannot be enabled. Start/Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager/Display Adapters - Right click the adapter, select Properties/General/Device status. The Device Status indicates "This device has a problem". I have tried three PCI video cards which I have had for about five years and have used occasionally without any previous problems. I am sure these are good cards. When I click on the Resources Tab, it indicates that it is not using any resources. If you can shed any light on this subject, I would love to be able to stick in three Video Cards and run one monitor per card. Thanks, Jon "HammerToe" wrote in message ... On Sat, 7 Aug 2004 22:56:20 -0700, "Rick" wrote: What do you mean by "IRQ conflict"? Does the system hang? Give any error messages? If it's just a matter of the two devices sharing an IRQ, that in itself is not a problem. Rick "Jon Rodman" wrote in message ... Hi, In the past I ran three monitors using the AGP card, and two PCI video cards. It worked perfectly well with Windows 98. Now I use XP, and a Matrox G400 with two monitors. I found that when I attempt to install a PCI Video card I end up with an IRQ conflict that I cannot figure out how to solve. The manual IRQ settings box is grayed out and does not allow me to select an IRQ manually. I cannot believe that there is not a solution to this, but so far I have not been able to find it. This is the only problem I have had with XP. Jon "WeikEngOff" wrote in message ... To whom it may concern, I want to connect three TFTs with my PC. At the moment, I'm using one AGP Dual-Head Graphic Card from Matrox. My idea is now to add an additional PCI Graphic Card (from Matrox?). I'm using WIN XP pro., but is it possible to configure these Grafic Cards as a real "Triple-View" Display? I don't want to buy an expensive Triple-Head Parhelia - but maybe there are alternatives (only 2D working machine, no games...) Any experiences/hints? Thanks in advance. Udo To second that: DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT if everything is working properly, you have no X's or !'s in device manager, etc. WinXP and Win2K were designed with HW interrupt sharing (wherever possible) in mind and your situation (assuming everything seems to be working properly) is quite normal. |
#6
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"Jon Rodman" wrote in message news Hello HammerToe, The AGP card works fine, but the PCI card does not work. It appears in the Hardware Profile, but when viewing properties it indicates that it has a problem. It cannot be enabled. XP, etc. are very picky about what cards you use for Dualhead. You will find that there are few PCI cards that will actually work properly even though they seemed to work fine in Windows 98. Try to find the XP hardware compatibility list on the Microsoft site. |
#7
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Hello HammerToe,
Those are great suggestions. I have done about 1/3 of them. It sounds as if we are using some of the same cards. This weekend I will methodically tackle this project and let you know how it turns out. You may be correct. Maybe it is not an IRQ issue, maybe XP does not support my cards. I jumped to the conclusion that it was an IRQ conflict because I had that issue before. With Windows 98 it was easily solvable. Maybe I need cards that are XP compatible. Thanks for great recommendations. Jon "HammerToe" wrote in message ... On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 01:13:56 GMT, "Jon Rodman" wrote: Hello HammerToe, The AGP card works fine, but the PCI card does not work. It appears in the Hardware Profile, but when viewing properties it indicates that it has a problem. It cannot be enabled. Start/Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager/Display Adapters - Right click the adapter, select Properties/General/Device status. The Device Status indicates "This device has a problem". I have tried three PCI video cards which I have had for about five years and have used occasionally without any previous problems. I am sure these are good cards. When I click on the Resources Tab, it indicates that it is not using any resources. If you can shed any light on this subject, I would love to be able to stick in three Video Cards and run one monitor per card. Thanks, Jon About the only things I might suggest are ('Be METHODICAL'): A. Try running just the AGP card and ONE PCI card first and try running the PCI card in DIFFERENT PCI slots to see if you can't get around the problem and and least get TWO cards working first. Some HW interrupts are shared with the AGP slot depending on your board and the number of PCO slots available, B. IF your two PCI cards and not identical, try A. above with the second card to again try and see if you can get two cards working, C. If you manage to achieve any success getting EACH PCI card to work and all by iteslf in specific PCI slots, then try it with BOTH in those slots observed to be good and see what happens... D. If the above fails (or maybe FIRST): many (most?) BIOS's do allow manual setting of Interrupts to specific PCI slots and maybe some tweaking/experiemnting here (starting with just one PCI card at at ime) will work. Sorry to here about your problems. FWIW: I've been sucessfull running 3-19" monitors (each at 1600x1200) on a Gigabyte 7N400 Pro2 MB using a Matrox P750 AGP card to drive two with the 3rd being successfully driven by BOTH an old ATI All-In-Wonder RAGE PRO PCI card and (currently) a new Matrox G450 PCI card I upgraded to last Friday. (The ATI card worked BUT the text was not 'quite' crisp (as the P750 driven monitors) and the G450 definitely fixed THAT problem. I had/have had NO problems whatsoever with three monitors with EITHER of these cards. I also tried a RADEON based ATI PCI card with the P750 (Diamond Stealth 9200SE Duelhead) and DID get the 3 working together as far as the DRIVERS were concerned (the Stealh card uses ATI Catalyst drivers) BUT the 'ATI Display Control Panel Configuration Applet' that gets installed kept crashing every time I tried to run it (and I tried three different Catalyst versions). Wierd. It would 'error' when it tried to start BUT I could still get into 'Advanced Display settings and see all the ATI specific Tabs added BUT I didn't like the errors so I returned the card... SO.... one piece of advice might be to try and stay with one manufacturers cards if possible as I think your chances of success are probably better. In the end, it may well be a 'fundamental dislike' of the specific card(s)-motherboard combinations that ONLY surfaces with XP. Good Luck! (Let us know if you finally succeed). |
#8
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Hello HammerToe,
You were correct. I followed your recommendations and have two monitors that work beautifully together. It took about an hour of experimenting and worked out well. I don't have any noticeable flicker. I also did not have to buy any new cards. I was able to make the ones I had work. It is great having two nice big clear displays. Maybe next year I will add a third. Long Live Matrox, Jon "Jon Rodman" wrote in message ... Hello HammerToe, Those are great suggestions. I have done about 1/3 of them. It sounds as if we are using some of the same cards. This weekend I will methodically tackle this project and let you know how it turns out. You may be correct. Maybe it is not an IRQ issue, maybe XP does not support my cards. I jumped to the conclusion that it was an IRQ conflict because I had that issue before. With Windows 98 it was easily solvable. Maybe I need cards that are XP compatible. Thanks for great recommendations. Jon "HammerToe" wrote in message ... On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 01:13:56 GMT, "Jon Rodman" wrote: Hello HammerToe, The AGP card works fine, but the PCI card does not work. It appears in the Hardware Profile, but when viewing properties it indicates that it has a problem. It cannot be enabled. Start/Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager/Display Adapters - Right click the adapter, select Properties/General/Device status. The Device Status indicates "This device has a problem". I have tried three PCI video cards which I have had for about five years and have used occasionally without any previous problems. I am sure these are good cards. When I click on the Resources Tab, it indicates that it is not using any resources. If you can shed any light on this subject, I would love to be able to stick in three Video Cards and run one monitor per card. Thanks, Jon About the only things I might suggest are ('Be METHODICAL'): A. Try running just the AGP card and ONE PCI card first and try running the PCI card in DIFFERENT PCI slots to see if you can't get around the problem and and least get TWO cards working first. Some HW interrupts are shared with the AGP slot depending on your board and the number of PCO slots available, B. IF your two PCI cards and not identical, try A. above with the second card to again try and see if you can get two cards working, C. If you manage to achieve any success getting EACH PCI card to work and all by iteslf in specific PCI slots, then try it with BOTH in those slots observed to be good and see what happens... D. If the above fails (or maybe FIRST): many (most?) BIOS's do allow manual setting of Interrupts to specific PCI slots and maybe some tweaking/experiemnting here (starting with just one PCI card at at ime) will work. Sorry to here about your problems. FWIW: I've been sucessfull running 3-19" monitors (each at 1600x1200) on a Gigabyte 7N400 Pro2 MB using a Matrox P750 AGP card to drive two with the 3rd being successfully driven by BOTH an old ATI All-In-Wonder RAGE PRO PCI card and (currently) a new Matrox G450 PCI card I upgraded to last Friday. (The ATI card worked BUT the text was not 'quite' crisp (as the P750 driven monitors) and the G450 definitely fixed THAT problem. I had/have had NO problems whatsoever with three monitors with EITHER of these cards. I also tried a RADEON based ATI PCI card with the P750 (Diamond Stealth 9200SE Duelhead) and DID get the 3 working together as far as the DRIVERS were concerned (the Stealh card uses ATI Catalyst drivers) BUT the 'ATI Display Control Panel Configuration Applet' that gets installed kept crashing every time I tried to run it (and I tried three different Catalyst versions). Wierd. It would 'error' when it tried to start BUT I could still get into 'Advanced Display settings and see all the ATI specific Tabs added BUT I didn't like the errors so I returned the card... SO.... one piece of advice might be to try and stay with one manufacturers cards if possible as I think your chances of success are probably better. In the end, it may well be a 'fundamental dislike' of the specific card(s)-motherboard combinations that ONLY surfaces with XP. Good Luck! (Let us know if you finally succeed). |
#9
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Hello all,
thanks for your hints. As a first test, I have installed my really old ATI 3D RAGEII PCI graphic card. Works as expected, I'm really happy. Never thought that it is so easy. The only problem I have now is that my PC can't switch to Standby-mode. I get an error message like (translated): The device driver for the device "ATI Technologies Inc. 3D RAGE II PCI" prevents switching to the standby-mode. Close all applications and try again. When the problem still exists, possibly the driver must be updated. Unfortuantely it is not possible to get any other driver for that card than the standard XP- driver. Any hints? Then I'm looking for a newer and not so expensive PCI graphic card with VIVO (Video in and Video out, that means Composite and S-Video). Any ideas? Thanks a lot for all your help. Udo |
#10
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Hi,
I have never had good luck with standby mode. Frequently my system locks up during standby. Instead I go to the Power options and have just the Monitors shut off after five minutes and the Hard Disks shut off after an hour. They come back on within two seconds of pressing any key or moving the mouse. I figure shutting off the Monitor saves some electricity, and prevents burned spots, and shutting off the hard drives increases their life expectancy. The rest of the components don't get a break. Just my two cents, Jon "WeikEngOff" wrote in message ... Hello all, thanks for your hints. As a first test, I have installed my really old ATI 3D RAGEII PCI graphic card. Works as expected, I'm really happy. Never thought that it is so easy. The only problem I have now is that my PC can't switch to Standby-mode. I get an error message like (translated): The device driver for the device "ATI Technologies Inc. 3D RAGE II PCI" prevents switching to the standby-mode. Close all applications and try again. When the problem still exists, possibly the driver must be updated. Unfortuantely it is not possible to get any other driver for that card than the standard XP- driver. Any hints? Then I'm looking for a newer and not so expensive PCI graphic card with VIVO (Video in and Video out, that means Composite and S-Video). Any ideas? Thanks a lot for all your help. Udo |
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