DUal Monitor Setup using HDMI-VGA cable

[Tommy Warren]

I have a set up that consists of an Acer Desktop that has both an HDMI port and a VGA port. I picked up an HDMI to VGA cable and have hooked up both monitors. The straight VGA monitor works fine but the HDMI-VGA monitor just says "Check Signal Cable"

I've gone into screen resolution on Windows 7 Ultimate and the second monitor doesn't appear.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[JimF_35]

What is the make and model of your Graphics card?

 

[Tommy Warren]

Onboard NVIDA GeForce 9200

 

[k1114]

Can you give info for the cable you are using?

 

[boosted1g]

That's because you got played by someone, im guessing ebay.
DVI-HDMI cables work because both ports use the exact same data protocol it just has to switch from one pinout to the other.
For HDMI-VGA you have to convert a digital signal (1s and 0s) to an analog frequency wave. You cant do this in a cable, you need a converter box with a circuit board in it and its own power source.

 

[Tommy Warren]

@k114 - it's a Speedex 6 ft VGA Male to HDMI Male Cable

@boosted1g - Then what's the point of even having a cable like this? What is it used for if not connecting a video port to a monitor?

 

[k1114]

That's the problem. They're for converter boxes where the signal has already been converted. I've also seen some tvs and devices that output analog into a hdmi port. But graphics card don't do that.

 

[Tommy Warren]

Oh well. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[boosted1g]

but the ones on ebay are for 10% of people that need such a cable for a specific device, and 90% for non-techie people they can make think the cable will work for their needs.

What acer computer do you have, does it have a dvi port on it? If it does, there are special dvi ports that do have the analog channel built into them, so you would just need a dvi/vga adapter and then do a vga cable to that.

Otherwise you will need an active adapter, a better monitor, or a video card with 2 analog outputs if that is even an option on your PC.