Yes, it is possible to have two separate monitors running off the one computer. A very handy feature to have as well, especially if you're somewhat restricted in screen space by the size and resolution of your primary monitor. First things first -- your video card. You have a few options:
- A new video card with dual monitor outputs. Many video cards currently on the market have some dual output functionality, either through TV-out, another analogue monitor port, or a DVi port (a new, digital interface for monitors. Usually comes with an adaptor to convert to the old analogue port).
- Another, PCI based video card alongside your current card. You could use an AGP card if your AGP slot is currently unoccupied, but only if your current video card is PCI based. You can't use an AGP card and onboard video (that is, built into your motherboard) together, unless the onboard video is PCI based (which is quite rare nowadays). Also, if you have an nVidia nForce1 based motherboard (check your motherboard manual), you can't use PCI video cards.
- If you're really lucky, you might already have a dual output video card, either in card or onboard format!
The cheapest way out is to buy a second video card to work alongside your current one. You could buy a simple, no frills, 2D accelerator for under $50 if you look around. There's a small chance of driver conflicts between the two cards.
If you're in the market for a fast, new 3D accelerator card however, then there's a large number of choices available. I suggest you check out
How do I choose a Video Card? for information on buying a new video card.
Once set up with your video card/s (see
How do you install a new video card?), you'll then require at least Windows 98 (I see you have Windows XP Home, so no worries) and of course a second monitor. Plug everything in (all monitors into one video card, or their respective cards), then go to
Display Properties in the
Control Panel. Click on the
settings tab, and you should see two boxes (1 and 2), each representing one of your monitors. Select the second monitor by clicking its corresponding box, then tick the "
Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" check box. Apply, and you should now have a second, separate area of your desktop on the other monitor! Some video cards come with extra utilities for tweaking dual monitor setups, so you might like to try poking around in the area revealed by the "
Advanced" button. Don't change any old option in there though - consult the right click "
What's this?" help button beforehand. If you're not confident with making changes, then leave them be.
Marcel DoustHteragPosted: 02/07/2005
re: How can I have dual monitors?
There are several modern graphics cards which support dual displays straight out of the box. I use an nVidia GeForce 6800GT and that allows you to plug in another monitor or a TV and use the software that is part of the nVidia drivers to control it.
You can extend the desktop into the secondary monitor, swap everything from one monitor to another without unplugging anything by changing the primary monitor or use the "Dual View" feature you can copy the contents to both displays. Other features include rotating each monitor so I suppose you could put one upside down and one on its side and still watch a dvd and play mine sweeper at the same time :S
There are many other video cards that support "out of the box" dual display such as:
nVidia models
----------------
GeForce 6600
GeForce 6600GT
GeForce 6800
GeForce 6800GT
GeForce 6800Ultra
ATi models
------------
Radeon X800
Radeon X850
Radeon X850XT
etc.
There are loads more cheaper and older ones... But thats all I know for certain...
-Gareth
PeterPosted: 22/09/2004
re: How can I have dual monitors?
Yes, for setting up dual monitors, you need a video card that supports dual Monitors.
(Or dual card. -PZ)
Kumthorn S.Posted: 07/09/2004
re: How can I have dual monitors?
I have two display adaptor and two monitor on my computer.But it can show only one monitor.
When i check at the device manager.I found the display adaptor attive one device.
oigresPosted: 19/08/2004
re: How can I have dual monitors?
i use to have dual monitor... my geforce(mx400) had its own built in software/drivers(nvidia) for dual monitor that u could tweak, but i when i was using windows 98 i did find a very good software called ultramon! (http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/) really good on really tweaking monitors, allows costum features! highly recommend it! looking at the site, the file has a extension of *.msi i have no idea what that means. marcel?
Matt PearcePosted: 17/08/2004
re: How can I have dual monitors?
You can also use Maxivista (http://www.maxivista.com/) to use the monitor attached to another computer on a network as a second screen. If you already have another PC networked with your one, Maxivista would allow you to use dual monitors without having to buy any hardware.
Chris ThorpePosted: 16/08/2004
re: How can I have dual monitors?
I use a laptop, with an external monitor plugged into the correct socket at the back, extent my desktop and there you go. I had a old monitor from a system I no longer use and use that.
Once you use it you can never go back to having one screen.
It's great if you do lots of cutting and pasting, which actually turns into drag and drop, if you have one application open on one screen and another open on the other.