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[Steb]

Hi guys,
I'm trying to set up my pc with two monitors but I have encountered a problem. Both monitors have a vga output but my graphics card has only one vga input and one dvi. I bought a vga to dvi adaptor and plugged one of the screens in via this but no luck; Windows 7 is only able to detect whichever monitor is plugged into the vga port. I had a closer look at the adaptor and its a vga to dvi-A. Is this the problem or something else? Any tips from someone who has done this before would be much appreciated.

[Skyrunner]

You need a graphics card with two VGA outputs. I believe the dvi and the VGA are an either-or sort of configuration, with one overriding the other.

This one, while not being cheap in any way as I think it is the newest product out there, exhibits two of the square VGA ports.

If your other monitor supports HDMI, and your graphics card does too, use an HDMI cable to connect the other monitor.

[Steb]

Ok, it could be that the vga and dvi are either-or, the one thing that made me doubt was that the dvi port does not seem to be working, even with the other monitor unplugged. If I can't get it working then I guess I will try a vga to hdmi adaptor as the card has a hdmi port too.

[gimlet]

Depends what you want to use it for - if it's for highly demanding stuff like any halfway recent game, you're really going to have to make sure the card has the capacity to handle both screens at tolerable speed.

If it's just for desktop and web surfing and office junk, if you have any kind of slot left even a pci slot, you can probably use any card you have laying around or even buy a cheap one for $10-20 tops.  I had a couple of old Matrox pci cards kicking around and they were great for desktop/office and they were over 10 years old.  You *might* have a vga port on the motherboard too, but those can often have problems running if there's another video card.

Good luck...

[Steb]

I do have an old card buried somewhere, it would do fine for having a browser or chat programs open in the second screen (that's my plan anyway). Unfortunately, I am the sort of person that doesn't want to let a problem like this defeat me. I've been reading the specs of my card ( asus radeon us 6670) and I'm convinced that it should work with two displays. I'm going to try to borrow a different adapter to see if mine is dodgy.

[gimlet]

For sure google your card model + "second screen" or "two screens" or "dual display" or whatever to see if ppl have had to do something unusual to get it to go...

[Tellemurius]

 DVI allows a duallink mode which allows two monitors on one line. The problem is that for those that need it converted to vga, no one had a set number and position of pins to use. I recommend looking around for adapter like the one below that uses all of the pins as thats what i see the problem is.
http://www.compuvest.com/Desc.jsp?iid=1640878

[Steb]

Hum, It seems that the VGA card DVI output is digital only. It doesn't make this at all clear in the manual though; I have only found this out by searching for people having similar problems, as gimlet suggested. So now I have two options - use my old card to try and run the old monitor, or try and return the new monitor and get one with a digital input.

[Thief^]

If it's a flatpanel (LCD, TFT, plasma, etc) then you should really be using a digital input anyway. Using an analogue connection between a digital computer and a digital display is just insane (and yet they keep making digital panels with only analogue inputs, wtf).

EDIT:
There are 3 kinds of DVI: DVI-A (analogue), DVI-D (digital), DVI-I (both). Graphics cards normally have a DVI-I (both) output, which can be adaptered to VGA or connected to a DVI-D monitor by a DVI-D cable. DVI<->VGA adaptors should always be DVI-A, because VGA can't carry digital, and the DVI input on a monitor should be DVI-D. If you computer only outputs DVI-D, it should have a DVI-D socket, which the DVI-A to VGA adaptor shouldn't fit in. Unfortunately a lot of things violate this.

[Steb]

This new monitor has only a VGA input. I phoned the place where I bought it and they are happy to exchange it, so I will take it back and get something with a DVI input.

I agree, its a little crazy that LCD/LED monitors are still made with inputs that were designed for CRT monitors. Should I expect noticeably better picture quality with everything digital, rather than digital>analog>digital as I was attempting (and have done in the past with a different graphics card)?