6 replies to this topic

[Burned_Follower]

I've never used more than one monitor at a time in my life. I do plan on using 3 monitors whenever I can afford to purchase two additional ones(which isn't anytime soon). However, I found this cheap, old 15inch LCD monitor at a thrift store for 16 bucks. I got it and just for the thrill of it I'm trying to see if I can get this old piece of junk to work as a second monitor.

My goal is to put my main desktop and all it's icons, manage team speak and monitor all my hardware temps on the smaller 15 inch while I play MWO on the bigger monitor that I've been using since November last year.

So far, after plugging my cheap 15inch into the back of my GPU, I'm not getting any signal...just the "power saving mode" text across the screen that every monitor says when you turn it on and it's not plugged into a PC.

How do I setup my cheap 15 inch monitor? Is it too old for me to use? It's not a big deal if I can't get it to work. It's just a 16 dollar gamble for me.

Here are some pics of what I got going on here:

Here are my two monitors. The one on the left is the cheap 16 dollar one from the thrift store


Here is two pics of the back of the monitor showing the model number and other misc info you might ask me about:



Here is the end of the cord from the old cheap monitor:


Here is an adapter I pulled out of a pile of misc leftover PC stuff from building my gaming PC last year. I put it on so that I can plug the 15inch monitor to the back of my GPU:


Here is a pic of the back of the GPU...BEFORE I plugged in my second monitor:


Here is a pic of my two gaming mice. I had a feeling that I might need two mice because I see engineers at my job using two, sometimes three monitor setups and they have two mice...so I went ahead and plugged in both my mice incase I need them:


...aaaaaaand here is a pic of the face I made when I realize I can't figure out why this old monitor isn't receiving any video feed:


just kidding about the last one of course.


....so exactly where do I go from here? Did I just waste 16 bucks? It would be cool if I can somehow use this old monitor.

Edited by Burned_Follower, 15 November 2013 - 06:50 PM.

[Cryptic Gamer]

Ok, are you running Windows 7? What follows is for Win7 and have very little experience with Win8

Unsure by what you've said in your post but have you been into the desktop properties to tell the PC to extend your desktop to another monitor?

If not the you need to right click on your Desktop and click "Screen Resolution". At the top there is a box showing showing the current monitor detected. In that area there is a "Detect" button which you should click to tell the PC to look for additional displays. Also below that are some drop down menus. "Display" which will allow you to select Multiple monitors. "Resolution" self explanatory but unsure what effects you may see due to having 2 completely different monitors. "Multiple Displays" which allows you to Duplicate the desktop on both screens, extend the desktop over both screens or select which monitor to display the desktop on. You should't need to run more than one mouse unless you're running multiple systems.

If you've done this already then I apologise but if not then it's here that you must play around so the PC knows you want to run multiple monitors. I will say again though that I'm unsure how this will look as you have 2 different monitors with 2 different resolutions but I'm confident that you can get this to work as it's a pretty popular setup. Just depends whether the monitor is capable or not.

[Goose]

https://en.wikipedia...i/Dvi#Connector

[Burned_Follower]

Goose, on 15 November 2013 - 07:22 PM, said:

https://en.wikipedia...i/Dvi#Connector

Ok, I think I may have found the problem. The back of my GPU has two "DVI-I"(dual link) ports. The second monitor has a VGA plug. The adapter is a VGA to DVI-A....perhaps I should go to a local PC store and get a VGA to DVI-I(dual link) adapter? I'll go ahead and visit a couple PC stores tomorrow when they're open to see if they have it.

Cryptic Gamer, I'm currently using Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit. I didn't try what you asked. This is the first time I've ever attempted a multiple monitor setup. I went ahead and tried it but I had no success. However, when I went to "My Computer" right-clicked and selected "manage", I selected "Device Manager", then I selected "Monitors" and I see that my PC is only detecting one monitor. I right clicked on "Monitors" and selected "scan for hardware changes" and still only one monitor...I right-clicked on "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" as well and selected "scan for hardware changes" and still nothing.

Here is a print screen of what I'm talking about:

Edited by Burned_Follower, 15 November 2013 - 07:42 PM.

[Goose]

Tell me about … Your Video Card …

[Burned_Follower]

Goose, on 15 November 2013 - 07:57 PM, said:

Tell me about … Your Video Card …

lol! The way you asked was kind of funny.

Here's a link to the video card that I have: http://www.amazon.co...x_ya_os_product

[Goose]

You're hosed: NewEgg says only the first DVI is a DVI-I; The other is a -D, so it'll never work.

Now: If your first monitor will patch in to the second port … You might have problems getting game(s) to come up on the "right" monitor.

A copy of DisplayFusion might be in your future …