How to attach 2 monitors to nvidia 7300GS?

folks, I know this sounds like the dumbest question on earth. the nvidia 7300GS has two ramdacs and three ports: 1 DVI port, 1 Svideo, and connected to a header at the top of the card, a d-sub vga port. I connected one monitor to the DVI port and another to the header vga port, and that one doesn't register, and the nvidia control panel only shows an option for one display. i'm stumped. is there something not installed that NEEDS to be installed from nvidia? i loaded the disk that came with the card but ...... no worky.

what am I doing wrong? i searched the nvidia forum, and apparently this is so simple and basic that no one addresses simply which ports, and how, to physically attach.
Twinview, Nview, schminview?????
this is on Winxp Professional, using the card in a PCI-E slot
thx
z

 

Did you reboot?

 

I've done everything I can think of. I took a known good monitor and plugged to the DVI port with a dvi/vga flipper, and it works. onboard disables automatically on this HP dc7100, and there's no options to it. that's that. I take the same monitor and plug in the "header" vga d-sub at the topside of the card, and get nothing. not even a flicker. I do not have a s-video flipper so I have not tried it yet. Since the card supports 256mb and 512mb, and this is 256, is there a dependency on 512mb in order to get both working? in the stuff I've beeen able to find on the web, it appears that it should just come up and work properly, at least for basic video stuff. so I'm wondering if the board is just plain manufacture-defective. All the literature on variants of the "GeForce 7300GS" claim "dual monitor" support all the way up to fairly high QXGA resolution numbers. The various makers implement various schemes of board size and connector type....

 

Like the previous poster said, hook both of them up and reboot. If that does not do it, you may have a bad D-Sub connector. Does it work with just a monitor hooked up to the D-Sub? (You may need to reboot for this also, not sure). To add a monitor in windows, you have to reboot. Any cheap video card with 2 monitor plugs should do dual monitor without a problem.

E

 

I f you do not have the nvidia driver, you can get it here.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_93.71.html

When you got it/ or, get it you must uninstall old driver first.

 

If the nvidia unified driver, that I showed above is installed----------
In the control panel negotiate to the display panel, and choose 2 monitor setup.

 

thanks to all who are helping!
I agree with one of you downstream here: any vid card with three connectors should just bootup two monitors. and yes, I'm wondering if the d-sub header or the little ribbon or the connector itself is bad. it does absolutely nothing.... no signal.

But to your poitn, when I pull up the Nvidia control panel, go in through "3D" and look for the Multi-display option it simply is not there. When I go to "display configuration", it shows Single Only. no other options on the page. If I switch to "Advanced" view, same thing. It shows "Standard", then it shows, grayed-out, the multiple option [that's not the exact terminology.... i'm not looking at it at the moment].

But... for just simple "default vga driver" support, the nvidia package need not even be installed. with the monitor plugged into the DVI port via a dvi/vga converter, even when the software/drivers were not loaded, it popped right up using the default Win XP VGA generic. it SHOULD do same on that D-sub stub... but nah.... not.

 

Did you uninstall the vga driver before installing nvidia driver.

 

One more expansion here. It appears that we're going to conclude something is amiss in the board mftg. if that is so I need to replace, and I'm reading horror stories of other poorly manufactured boards of this genus such as the PNY Geforce 7300 LE sold widely. lots of failures.
So, let me state the requirements and you tell me what to buy:
- Must be 7 series or 8 nvidia [software req't]
- Must be low-profile. The HP DC7100 is a short desktop
- Must be PCI-Express interface
- Must have either two VGA's or something easily convertible such as DVI. One VGA for desk, one LCD projector for big screen

and again, the OS is Win2k Pro.
thx for suggestions!

 

i have no idea how to do that. WinXP has more than one way to pop a standard/default/generic VGA driver does it not? I see nothing about this step in any of several Nvidia dire warnings.....

 

If you did all that Fred G, and your own conclusion appear to be correct.
The vga port appears to be u.s.
Last little point , probably a stupid question to ask you, as you are obviously conversant enough with computers- has you motherboard on board vga, and can it be set it to look for pci-e first ?

 

I also read a little about the card you have, and the general feeling about them .....yes
If you want to check that the driver is properly installed..........
To uninstall driver , now, I would go to right click My computer, click manage, click Device Manager, click Display adaptors, double click your graphics card
click driver, click uninstall. Close all open windows, Shut down and restart, and windows will offer to supply a driver, click not to instal,. Th een click on nvidia driver to install.
It is a fact that if you should uninstall any other vga drivers, before installing
new. Read it here
http://www.nvidia.com/object/driver_installation_hints.html

 

I find it best to uninstall any vga drivers, and ...no problems - note the antivirus hint, at that link.

 

backL
thank you for your diligence.
Yeah, I snooped around in the Bios very thoroughly and this is one of those HP business desktops that is pretty limited in what they let you mess with. there actually are NO settings whatsoever that are manageable concerning the onboard display. the only even reference to things-display is an opportunity to suck down an asset tag from a compliant monitor [what they call "monitor tracking"... in case it hops up and runs away]. The service .pdf on the machine simply verifies that if the PCI-E is populated, the onboard is shutoff. no other mentions.

I can try again to remove vga drv etc but go back to square one, the card WORKS PROPERLY..... only off the DVI port. no others. It is SUPPOSED to work with something plugged in every which way. So if driver loading were the issue [and I got no bangs, no warnings, no hiccups the three times I have uninstalled and reinstalled], then not even the DVI-attach would work right, I would think.

Any suggestions on a card?? its really ugly out there. Gigabyte does a few implementations of modern Nvidia GPU's.... I always had good luck with their mboards. Also Asus if I recall right, but the others appear to be iffy on a good day. Any of the 7 series GPU's will do as long as it meets the low-profile, pci-e, and dual-mon support criteria

 

I suggest you start a new thread, ---Advice on low profile graphics pci-e--

I am not up on cards , very much, and some are really into them, at majorgeeks.

You can have a look at the
WINFAST PX7600 GS TDH LOW PROFILE review
http://xtreview.com/addcomment-id-850-view-winFast-PX7600-GS-TDH-low-profile.html

http://www.leadtek.com/usa/3d_graphic/overview.asp?lineid=1&pronameid=308
Price seems to vary £50 to £90
But I know no more than this.
They do heat pipe versions, too, but double . or, treble the price of the 7300

Have to go for tonite, good luck