Parhelia - Cannot stretch to more than 2 screens ?

[philgib]

Good morning guys,

Despite the fact that England was even worse than France (did not think that it was possible) at the last rugby match, I need some help please.

My 10 years old son wants to be a pilot so I am building a simulator from an old PC and 3x 17 inches lcd screens I had in my garage, along with FS9 (2004) so that it fits the PC age.

I recently purchased on Ebay a 6 years old Matrox Parhelia 256, said to be triplehead.

The old timers here may remember that thsi card has only 2 DIV plugs.

My set-up :
- The first DVI plug (a) is connected to a DVI-VGA adapater, than a VGA splitter into 2 VGA, each of them plugged witha 17 inches screen
- The second DVI plug (b) is attached to a DVI-VGA adapter, then to a 17 inches screen

If I set it the matrox software to "stretched to 2 screens", it works just fine, I have a + b.

The if I set it to "stretched to 3 screens", then the third screen is only a clone o the second one
So I have a + b + b

I have been around is problem for a few days now, and I cannot figure out why it would not stretch to 3. I have loaded the latest Matrox driver, I have flashed the video card. Nothing changes.

The funniest is that I seem to have a "c" hidden screen, as mouse does not stop on the extreme right border. So it looks like I have got a+b+b+"c".

Is there any multi-displays specialist around ? Or City trading room geeks ?

Thanks a lot

Philippe

 

[ajay_vishvanathan]

"The first DVI plug (a) is connected to a DVI-VGA adapater, than a VGA splitter into 2 VGA, each of them plugged witha 17 inches screen"

thats where the problem like i thin.. if you can share your specs.. maybe we can assist you in upgrading your pc.. since 3 screens one one gpu.. its the recent trend only by AMD.. its been around only some time.. but old gpu.. i don't think its possible..

 

[ajay_vishvanathan]

ok.. a small correction..
according to http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/legacy/parhelia/parhelia256/

it says at the end..
"Analog, 3 monitors: 1280 x 1024"
check your setup..

 

[philgib]

Thank you for your help Ajay.

I thought at first at set-up indeed.

When you choose "stretched to 3 screens", the Matrox software tells WIndows XP that there is only one single screen of 3840 x 1024.

The bottom right windows tray does not appear, confirming the existence of a "ghost" 4th screen.

So all I need really is to show on my third screen this ghost screen instead of showing a clone of "b".