Dual Monitor Woes

T

twonky

New member
Hey Folks,

This is a bit of a novel

I have seen a lot of people on this forum talk about using two monitors. I
would assume that they are doing something like putting the mixer on one
display and the graphic tracks on the other. At least that's what i would
want to do.
anyway, I have a Gateway PC running Win 98 SE and I bought a Matrox G450
(AGP) from ebay about a month ago. I took out the card that came w/ the PC
and put the Matrox in and suddenly the PC would not boot Windows. It will
count the RAM up and do all the normal pre-windows stuff. So I put the old
card back in, but that didn't help. The PC would still not run Windows. So
after messing w/ it for like a day and reseating everything I could pull out
of the PC I finally got it to run Windows.

So a month later, after I finished some projects I decided to try again. So
I got all the updated drivers. I very carefully removed the old card and put
the Matrox back in and BAM! Same thing the thing will NOT boot to Windows!!!
AAAAARRRGGHHHHHHH! So once again I have put the old one back in (a few times
now) and I cannot get the PC to run Windows!

Does anyone have any ideas on what might be the problem?

Once I get it running again,can I simply add another video card to one of the PCI slots and achieve the
same thing as a dual head card?

thanks for any help.

Twonky
 
Is the old video card PCI or AGP? I'm assuming the Matrox is AGP (although I think they made a PCI version). If the old card is PCI, and the Matrox is AGP, then you may need to go into the BIOS to tell the computer that "AGP" will be the "Primary" video slot.
 
You could try resetting the CMOS, and/or load the BIOS default settings. See if that helps. Maybe check to see if there's a BIOS update as well. Otherwise, I'd check to see if the Matrox is in working order...maybe try it on another computer.
 
Thanks Looney, but you are going a bit over my head, a couple of questions:

Where would I reset the CMOS? Where would I find defaul BIOS settings?

Thanks again
Twonky
 
Well, I don't want to steer you into unknown territory, because that may do more harm than good. (Disclaimer: Do this at your own risk).

The CMOS can often be reset by either removing the battery (which can sometimes take days to completely clear), or there may be jumpers that can be used to clear it (which only takes about 10 seconds).

To get the BIOS to reset to "default" or "optimum" settings, you should be able to just scroll through the different menus and look for it...sorry I can't be more specific (don't know what BIOS is being used, and they all vary quite a bit).

If you're not comfortable doing this on your own, then you may want to see if there's a local computer shop that can assist you...that would be my recommendation.
 
Ok, thats sound scary. I think I will let a pro do that if I cant get the BIOS reset.

Thanks for your help.

Twonk
 
OK, I reset the BIOS but it didnt resolve the situation. Another curious note: the PC will not boot to safe mode either.


AAAAAARRRGGHH!!!!!

Twonk
 
uummm, you are going into the control panel, and device manager in windows and removing the original video card from the device manager before shutting down the computer and installing the new card, right?:rolleyes:
 
Toker41 said:
uummm, you are going into the control panel, and device manager in windows and removing the original video card from the device manager before shutting down the computer and installing the new card, right?:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

That doesn't make a difference. The system will just detect a new card and run in VGA mode until the drivers for the new card are installed.
 
I don't know if video cards are backward compatible, or if that is even the right term for AGP - but could it be that the Matrox card is an 8x and your computer can only handle AGP 4x?

Just an idea, I don't know if that would cause your symptoms or not.


Brad
 
brzilian said:
That doesn't make a difference. The system will just detect a new card and run in VGA mode until the drivers for the new card are installed.
Click to expand...

Not always true in 98. Had the same problem a few years ago when switching to a ATI card. Removing the card from device manager did the trick.
 
Ok, well, get this:

After trying everything, I unplugged my IDE HD (I have two, an IDA gig and an 8 gig SCSI) it booted up like a champ w/ the new card. "hmmmmmmm", I said. So I plugged the IDE back in and rebooted and everything worked like a charm....

Anybody have any ideas?

Twonk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top