Dual Display adapters.. HELP!!

[randomstar]

:?: I need to find a board that supports Pent D (915) for now and will take C2D or C2Q later, and has two x16 PCI-e slots that can work indepentdant ( two display adapters not in SLI or Crossfire mode) for 4 monitor support. Ideas?

 

[tomwaddle]

Just find a board on newegg or wherever you shop that supports your cpu. Then see if its upgradeable to C2D and just double check that you have two PCI X16 slots. The board can be SLI/Crossfire ready but you don't have to run it... meaning as long as you have two slots AND your cards support multi displays, you should be good to go. Not being an Intel guy, I'm guessing your biggest problem will be finding a board to support your two cpu's.

 

[randomstar]

Actually, I have tried four boards with no luck.
Abit , Asus, Intel.
(IL9-pro, P5NSLI, BoxD975X)
I have an early PCI-E board I installed it on and it worked fine with an ATI AIW2006 and a Dual dispaly ATI with the same chipset, (x1300 i think) and It is in production fine. unfortunately it went out on a ship and i cannot just look and see.

 

[tomwaddle]

Not to insult your intelligence here but you are aware that you have to enable the additional displays under your display properties?
If you do that, and it doesn't work, what happens?

 

[randomstar]

On the board where it worked, I set the system up with one adapter in the primary PCI-E slot- configured it with one monitor. updated drivers, shut down. Installed second adapter, set it active in display properties/controll pannel, and both adapters worked one monitor each. shut down, installed two additional monitors, and on boot up set all the monitors active, all work. (interleaved- adapter1con1=mon1, adapter2con1=mon2, andapter1con2=mon3, adapter2con2=mon4)
no problems. running at 1680x1050 on all four and its works great. (deployed this to a ship as a nav controll pannel system and they report no errors in 5 months hard at work) unfortunately they are out fishing or something right now and I cant just look what board I used, and I cannot remember. on the boards now (newer versions) I am trying, it wont even give me the ability to select/activate the second card- doesnt even detect it on all but one, and flags it disabled on the one. (and I have three sets of two cards , two diff mfr, two diff chipset)

 

[tomwaddle]

Hmmm.
You've updated chipset drivers as well as vid card drivers in all attempts?
Does the control panel detect both video cards?
If not, have you reversed cards to make sure you don't have a defective one? IE, take out the first working card and install the second one in its place.
Is your PSU strong enough to run two cards?

 

[randomstar]

UPdated chipset, and the three sets of cards shows how far I went to eliminate card failure. and in three of the four mboards the second card is not shown. and flagged on one. I guess maybe I just have a gremlin. also swapped ram (corsair and kingston parts ddr2-667-1gb sticks in pairs)
Power supply is PC Power and Cooling 550 SLI compat..

 

[randomstar]

Just to test, I have just ordered a complete set of new hardware with a fourth board, new case, p/s, ram, pair of ati x16's. will have delivered, set up tomorrow with nothing from the previous build touching it at all.
no hdd, floppy,cd, power, nothing.
I am so frustrated. I build average a dozen machines a month, never had this much trouble.

 

[tomwaddle]

I'm not an Intel expert but for my setup, I don't believe there was anything in the bios to enable that second PCI-E slot. Is there options for an Intel board?

Have you had any luck installing the video card in the second slot (farthest from the bottom) first? It shouldn't matter which slot is filled before the other.