Multiple (like 4) monitor setup

[ricozinn]

I've had a three monitor setup for a while now. An agp Radeon 9600 pro, and an old ATI PCI card that only had one head on it. I don't know which card it was, but it didn't use catalyst drivers...

Recently I gave that card away and went and bought a PCI 9200 radeon card with dual heads on it so I could hook up a 4th monitor. That card installed fine - but then if I move my mouse around on that 3rd monitor my machine crashes. It does this every time. I RMA'd the card, but still had the problem. I think the two ATI cards conflict with eachother or something.

Anyone know what alternative PCI card I should get? I'm not likely to junk my agp 9600 pro card, but I would be fine with getting a replacement PCI card...

Thanks.

 

[Crashman]

I'd try a different driver revision. Most of my dual card settups have been ATI AGP and Matrox PCI...

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[ricozinn]

You mean... Like an older version of the ATI Catalyst driver? Like version 4.8 or something? What specific card combinations did you have?

Did you ever combine an ATI agp card with a nvidia pci card?

 

[Crashman]

Radeon DDR/Matrox Millenium, Radeon 8500DV/Matrox Millenium, Radeon 8500DV/VooDoo3.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Titanion]

I had not thought about an old Voodoo pci card to go with my mother's ATI 7500... any drivers issues with DX9, etc...

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[Crashman]

I didn't game through the VooDoo, it was used as an OpenGL capable second adapter with the Radeon playing DX games.

I'm not talking about a VooDoo2 (3D accelerator), I'm talking about a VooDoo3 PCI (full function video card).

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[priyajeet]

has anyone tried so many monitors on 1 sys? wont there be IRQ problems or something that type. i dunno.

<i> :tongue: <font color=blue>I don't suffer from insanity.</font color=blue><font color=red> I enjoy every minute of it.</font color=red> :tongue: </i>
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[Titanion]

She would just need that 3rd monitor for a word document or IE, not games or anything 3d at alll... but the extra card I have in a box is an old Voodoo2, so it might not work... I would have to pull my voodoo3 pci card out of a different computer I have, but I have not turned the thing on in colse to a year... but it is still a favorite of mine, and I was so stoked to get that card working in there...



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[Crashman]

I've seen settups with 6 monitors! I'll have to assume they used 3 video cards since it was in the late 90's and even dual-head video cards weren't that common.

IRQ conflicts are mostly caused by having too many bus mastering devices needing their own IRQ. XP solves a bunch of that. The most notable devices for causing IRQ issues were drive controllers (multiple), video cards (of course), and network cards. It shouldn't be a problem as long as you don't have too many total devices.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

The VooDoo2 was a graphics accelerator card, not a video card (it had no 2D functions and overlayed 3D over the 2D image produced by another card). The settup with the VooDoo3 was for displaying office documents and still 3D images on a second monitor while he did his work on the 8500DV card's monitor.

You only really need a 2D card, I'd start going through your old parts and trying them until you find one that works perfectly.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Titanion]

Ya, I have been hunting for a cheap 7000 or 7500 pci card, but they can be hard to find... (compusa has an add for pci 7500s for $35, but they are out of stock everywhere) I have been thinking that I need one of those (or a better pci card like a 8500 to 9200) to work with her AGP 7500 using hydravision and provide the three displays she wants... but I do have one CL 4MB pci card and at least two 2MB pci cards (one Creative and one Pine, I think) stuffed away somewhere here... what would be the advantage of actually finding a Radeon series card? I am assuming I can make the monitors work using ATI software, rather than some other freeware utility or something...

I was going to give her my Ti4200 and a PCI GF2 MX400 card for a 3rd display, but now a friend is mailing me a Jetway motherboard that my Ti4200 will work in (and that card should not be retired to my mother's computer just yet), so I am back to using her ATI 7500 as her main card...

I have a new computer all built for her from my old Soyo KT333 motherboard, but I need to get my hands on her current computer and pull the 7500 out of it and just see what happens when I put that 4MB CL pci card in for a 3rd display... I have never attempted to set up a 3rd monitor before, so this is new territory for me, and I learn something new with every post I read... thanks...

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[Crashman]

The the 7500 and MX400, just use the default XP drivers for the MX400 to avoid conflicts.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[lb19984]

I've seen a 13 monitor setup with 6 computers
(theinquierer.net

System Spec's:
Asus P4c800-E 3.2e @3.8ghz
1gb corsair xms pro2-2-2-5 aiw 9800 pro
audigy 2zs klipsch ultra's
74gb raptor wd 2000jb
pioneer 108 pioneer 120s

 

[Crashman]

HAH! I could do 13 monitors on a SINGLE computer.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[etp777]

Only need four cards to do it too, if ya really felt like doing it. 13 isn't exaclty a number I'd choose myself, least, if you're doing a single bank. 9, 12 or 16.

For those interested in LOTs of monitors, check out Appians product line.

 

[Titanion]

"The the 7500 and MX400, just use the default XP drivers for the MX400 to avoid conflicts."

I just assumed that was a bad idea... ATI/nvidia conflict would surely be using up 50% of cpu usage fighting eachother in the background...

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[Crashman]

I doubt it seriously. The default XP drivers don't have all the background crap of the add-in drivers. Besides, one of the conflicts people have when replacing nVidia cards with ATI cards is that the nVidia driver tries to maintain its primary adapter status, your configuration should make the ATI card primary automatically.

I think XP's Radeon DDR/7200/7500 driver is fairly good too, so you could probably get by with both cards on XP's default drivers.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Titanion]

I was joking about the 50% cpu usage fighting eachother... I should have added a smile...

For a third monitor, if I am not going ATI to match the drivers, what advantage would using the MX400 card have over a generic 4MB pci card? My mother comes first, for she has done so much for me, but I kind of had other plans for that card down the road... if the gain is even moderate, and the cards work together, I will go with your advice... It was just not something I had considered...

<font color=red><b>NF7-S/MBarton 2500+
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210x11.5 1.76v
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Sapphire 9500@9700

 

[Crashman]

I can't think of any good reason not to use some old 4MB PCI card for displaying documents and so forth.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Titanion]

Thanks... I will post a new thread once I have played with that computer for a while... it should happen this week... my main concern is just getting the 3rd monitor to work...

<font color=red><b>NF7-S/MBarton 2500+
210x11.5 1.82v SP-97
GB Corsair XMS PC3200
BBA 9800 Pro 423/369</font color=red><font color=black>
NF7-S/MBarton 2600+
210x11.5 1.76v
512MB CVR PC3200
Sapphire 9500@9700