Combining AGP Dual-Head and PCI Graphic Card

To whom it may concern,

I want to connect three TFTs with my PC. At the moment, I'm using one
AGP Dual-Head Graphic Card from Matrox. My idea is now to add an additional
PCI Graphic Card (from Matrox?). I'm using WIN XP pro., but is it possible
to configure these Grafic Cards as a real "Triple-View" Display?
I don't want to buy an expensive Triple-Head Parhelia - but maybe there
are alternatives (only 2D working machine, no games...)

Any experiences/hints?


Thanks in advance.
Udo

(WeikEngOff) wrote:

To whom it may concern,

I want to connect three TFTs with my PC. At the moment, I'm using one
AGP Dual-Head Graphic Card from Matrox. My idea is now to add an additional
PCI Graphic Card (from Matrox?). I'm using WIN XP pro., but is it possible
to configure these Grafic Cards as a real "Triple-View" Display?
I don't want to buy an expensive Triple-Head Parhelia - but maybe there
are alternatives (only 2D working machine, no games...)

Any experiences/hints?


Thanks in advance.
Udo

Not a problems to do especially if you are using XP.

http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/

will give you loads of info.

Hope this helps

Andy

Hi,
In the past I ran three monitors using the AGP card, and two PCI video
cards. It worked perfectly well with Windows 98. Now I use XP, and a
Matrox G400 with two monitors. I found that when I attempt to install a PCI
Video card I end up with an IRQ conflict that I cannot figure out how to
solve. The manual IRQ settings box is grayed out and does not allow me to
select an IRQ manually. I cannot believe that there is not a solution to
this, but so far I have not been able to find it. This is the only problem
I have had with XP.
Jon
"WeikEngOff" wrote in message
...
To whom it may concern,

I want to connect three TFTs with my PC. At the moment, I'm using one
AGP Dual-Head Graphic Card from Matrox. My idea is now to add an
additional
PCI Graphic Card (from Matrox?). I'm using WIN XP pro., but is it possible
to configure these Grafic Cards as a real "Triple-View" Display?
I don't want to buy an expensive Triple-Head Parhelia - but maybe there
are alternatives (only 2D working machine, no games...)

Any experiences/hints?


Thanks in advance.
Udo

What do you mean by "IRQ conflict"? Does the system hang?
Give any error messages?

If it's just a matter of the two devices sharing an IRQ, that in
itself is not a problem.

Rick

"Jon Rodman" wrote in message ...
Hi,
In the past I ran three monitors using the AGP card, and two PCI video
cards. It worked perfectly well with Windows 98. Now I use XP, and a
Matrox G400 with two monitors. I found that when I attempt to install a PCI
Video card I end up with an IRQ conflict that I cannot figure out how to
solve. The manual IRQ settings box is grayed out and does not allow me to
select an IRQ manually. I cannot believe that there is not a solution to
this, but so far I have not been able to find it. This is the only problem
I have had with XP.
Jon
"WeikEngOff" wrote in message
...
To whom it may concern,

I want to connect three TFTs with my PC. At the moment, I'm using one
AGP Dual-Head Graphic Card from Matrox. My idea is now to add an
additional
PCI Graphic Card (from Matrox?). I'm using WIN XP pro., but is it possible
to configure these Grafic Cards as a real "Triple-View" Display?
I don't want to buy an expensive Triple-Head Parhelia - but maybe there
are alternatives (only 2D working machine, no games...)

Any experiences/hints?


Thanks in advance.
Udo

Hello HammerToe,

The AGP card works fine, but the PCI card does not work. It appears in the
Hardware Profile, but when viewing properties it indicates that it has a
problem. It cannot be enabled.

Start/Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager/Display Adapters - Right
click the adapter, select Properties/General/Device status.
The Device Status indicates "This device has a problem". I have tried three
PCI video cards which I have had for about five years and have used
occasionally without any previous problems. I am sure these are good cards.
When I click on the Resources Tab, it indicates that it is not using any
resources.

If you can shed any light on this subject, I would love to be able to stick
in three Video Cards and run one monitor per card.

Thanks,
Jon

"HammerToe" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 7 Aug 2004 22:56:20 -0700, "Rick" wrote:

What do you mean by "IRQ conflict"? Does the system hang?
Give any error messages?

If it's just a matter of the two devices sharing an IRQ, that in
itself is not a problem.

Rick

"Jon Rodman" wrote in message
...
Hi,
In the past I ran three monitors using the AGP card, and two PCI video
cards. It worked perfectly well with Windows 98. Now I use XP, and a
Matrox G400 with two monitors. I found that when I attempt to install
a PCI
Video card I end up with an IRQ conflict that I cannot figure out how
to
solve. The manual IRQ settings box is grayed out and does not allow me
to
select an IRQ manually. I cannot believe that there is not a solution
to
this, but so far I have not been able to find it. This is the only
problem
I have had with XP.
Jon
"WeikEngOff" wrote in message
...
To whom it may concern,

I want to connect three TFTs with my PC. At the moment, I'm using one
AGP Dual-Head Graphic Card from Matrox. My idea is now to add an
additional
PCI Graphic Card (from Matrox?). I'm using WIN XP pro., but is it
possible
to configure these Grafic Cards as a real "Triple-View" Display?
I don't want to buy an expensive Triple-Head Parhelia - but maybe
there
are alternatives (only 2D working machine, no games...)

Any experiences/hints?


Thanks in advance.
Udo



To second that: DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT if everything is working
properly, you have no X's or !'s in device manager, etc.

WinXP and Win2K were designed with HW interrupt sharing (wherever
possible) in mind and your situation (assuming everything seems to be
working properly) is quite normal.

"Jon Rodman" wrote in message
news
Hello HammerToe,

The AGP card works fine, but the PCI card does not work. It appears in
the
Hardware Profile, but when viewing properties it indicates that it has a
problem. It cannot be enabled.

XP, etc. are very picky about what cards you use for Dualhead. You will find
that there are few PCI cards that will actually work properly even though
they seemed to work fine in Windows 98.

Try to find the XP hardware compatibility list on the Microsoft site.

Hello HammerToe,
Those are great suggestions. I have done about 1/3 of them. It sounds as
if we are using some of the same cards.
This weekend I will methodically tackle this project and let you know how it
turns out.
You may be correct. Maybe it is not an IRQ issue, maybe XP does not support
my cards. I jumped to the conclusion that it was an IRQ conflict because I
had that issue before. With Windows 98 it was easily solvable. Maybe I
need cards that are XP compatible.
Thanks for great recommendations.
Jon
"HammerToe" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 01:13:56 GMT, "Jon Rodman"
wrote:

Hello HammerToe,

The AGP card works fine, but the PCI card does not work. It appears in
the
Hardware Profile, but when viewing properties it indicates that it has a
problem. It cannot be enabled.

Start/Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager/Display Adapters -
Right
click the adapter, select Properties/General/Device status.
The Device Status indicates "This device has a problem". I have tried
three
PCI video cards which I have had for about five years and have used
occasionally without any previous problems. I am sure these are good
cards.
When I click on the Resources Tab, it indicates that it is not using any
resources.

If you can shed any light on this subject, I would love to be able to
stick
in three Video Cards and run one monitor per card.

Thanks,
Jon

About the only things I might suggest are ('Be METHODICAL'):

A. Try running just the AGP card and ONE PCI card first and try
running the PCI card in DIFFERENT PCI slots to see if you can't get
around the problem and and least get TWO cards working first. Some HW
interrupts are shared with the AGP slot depending on your board and
the number of PCO slots available,

B. IF your two PCI cards and not identical, try A. above with the
second card to again try and see if you can get two cards working,

C. If you manage to achieve any success getting EACH PCI card to work
and all by iteslf in specific PCI slots, then try it with BOTH in
those slots observed to be good and see what happens...

D. If the above fails (or maybe FIRST): many (most?) BIOS's do allow
manual setting of Interrupts to specific PCI slots and maybe some
tweaking/experiemnting here (starting with just one PCI card at at
ime) will work.

Sorry to here about your problems. FWIW: I've been sucessfull running
3-19" monitors (each at 1600x1200) on a Gigabyte 7N400 Pro2 MB using a
Matrox P750 AGP card to drive two with the 3rd being successfully
driven by BOTH an old ATI All-In-Wonder RAGE PRO PCI card and
(currently) a new Matrox G450 PCI card I upgraded to last Friday. (The
ATI card worked BUT the text was not 'quite' crisp (as the P750 driven
monitors) and the G450 definitely fixed THAT problem. I had/have had
NO problems whatsoever with three monitors with EITHER of these cards.

I also tried a RADEON based ATI PCI card with the P750 (Diamond
Stealth 9200SE Duelhead) and DID get the 3 working together as far as
the DRIVERS were concerned (the Stealh card uses ATI Catalyst drivers)
BUT the 'ATI Display Control Panel Configuration Applet' that gets
installed kept crashing every time I tried to run it (and I tried
three different Catalyst versions). Wierd. It would 'error' when it
tried to start BUT I could still get into 'Advanced Display settings
and see all the ATI specific Tabs added BUT I didn't like the errors
so I returned the card... SO.... one piece of advice might be to try
and stay with one manufacturers cards if possible as I think your
chances of success are probably better.

In the end, it may well be a 'fundamental dislike' of the specific
card(s)-motherboard combinations that ONLY surfaces with XP.

Good Luck! (Let us know if you finally succeed).

Hello HammerToe,
You were correct. I followed your recommendations and have two monitors
that work beautifully together. It took about an hour of experimenting and
worked out well. I don't have any noticeable flicker. I also did not have
to buy any new cards. I was able to make the ones I had work. It is great
having two nice big clear displays. Maybe next year I will add a third.
Long Live Matrox,
Jon

"Jon Rodman" wrote in message
...
Hello HammerToe,
Those are great suggestions. I have done about 1/3 of them. It sounds as
if we are using some of the same cards.
This weekend I will methodically tackle this project and let you know how
it
turns out.
You may be correct. Maybe it is not an IRQ issue, maybe XP does not
support
my cards. I jumped to the conclusion that it was an IRQ conflict because
I
had that issue before. With Windows 98 it was easily solvable. Maybe I
need cards that are XP compatible.
Thanks for great recommendations.
Jon
"HammerToe" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 01:13:56 GMT, "Jon Rodman"
wrote:

Hello HammerToe,

The AGP card works fine, but the PCI card does not work. It appears in
the
Hardware Profile, but when viewing properties it indicates that it has
a
problem. It cannot be enabled.

Start/Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager/Display Adapters -
Right
click the adapter, select Properties/General/Device status.
The Device Status indicates "This device has a problem". I have tried
three
PCI video cards which I have had for about five years and have used
occasionally without any previous problems. I am sure these are good
cards.
When I click on the Resources Tab, it indicates that it is not using
any
resources.

If you can shed any light on this subject, I would love to be able to
stick
in three Video Cards and run one monitor per card.

Thanks,
Jon

About the only things I might suggest are ('Be METHODICAL'):

A. Try running just the AGP card and ONE PCI card first and try
running the PCI card in DIFFERENT PCI slots to see if you can't get
around the problem and and least get TWO cards working first. Some HW
interrupts are shared with the AGP slot depending on your board and
the number of PCO slots available,

B. IF your two PCI cards and not identical, try A. above with the
second card to again try and see if you can get two cards working,

C. If you manage to achieve any success getting EACH PCI card to work
and all by iteslf in specific PCI slots, then try it with BOTH in
those slots observed to be good and see what happens...

D. If the above fails (or maybe FIRST): many (most?) BIOS's do allow
manual setting of Interrupts to specific PCI slots and maybe some
tweaking/experiemnting here (starting with just one PCI card at at
ime) will work.

Sorry to here about your problems. FWIW: I've been sucessfull running
3-19" monitors (each at 1600x1200) on a Gigabyte 7N400 Pro2 MB using a
Matrox P750 AGP card to drive two with the 3rd being successfully
driven by BOTH an old ATI All-In-Wonder RAGE PRO PCI card and
(currently) a new Matrox G450 PCI card I upgraded to last Friday. (The
ATI card worked BUT the text was not 'quite' crisp (as the P750 driven
monitors) and the G450 definitely fixed THAT problem. I had/have had
NO problems whatsoever with three monitors with EITHER of these cards.

I also tried a RADEON based ATI PCI card with the P750 (Diamond
Stealth 9200SE Duelhead) and DID get the 3 working together as far as
the DRIVERS were concerned (the Stealh card uses ATI Catalyst drivers)
BUT the 'ATI Display Control Panel Configuration Applet' that gets
installed kept crashing every time I tried to run it (and I tried
three different Catalyst versions). Wierd. It would 'error' when it
tried to start BUT I could still get into 'Advanced Display settings
and see all the ATI specific Tabs added BUT I didn't like the errors
so I returned the card... SO.... one piece of advice might be to try
and stay with one manufacturers cards if possible as I think your
chances of success are probably better.

In the end, it may well be a 'fundamental dislike' of the specific
card(s)-motherboard combinations that ONLY surfaces with XP.

Good Luck! (Let us know if you finally succeed).

Hello all,

thanks for your hints. As a first test, I have installed my really old ATI 3D
RAGEII PCI graphic
card. Works as expected, I'm really happy. Never thought that it is so easy.
The only problem I
have now is that my PC can't switch to Standby-mode. I get an error message
like (translated):

The device driver for the device "ATI Technologies Inc. 3D RAGE II PCI"
prevents switching
to the standby-mode. Close all applications and try again. When the problem
still exists,
possibly the driver must be updated.

Unfortuantely it is not possible to get any other driver for that card than the
standard XP-
driver. Any hints?


Then I'm looking for a newer and not so expensive PCI graphic card with VIVO
(Video in and
Video out, that means Composite and S-Video). Any ideas?


Thanks a lot for all your help.
Udo

Hi,
I have never had good luck with standby mode.
Frequently my system locks up during standby. Instead I go to the Power
options and have just the Monitors shut off after five minutes and the Hard
Disks shut off after an hour.
They come back on within two seconds of pressing any key or moving the
mouse.
I figure shutting off the Monitor saves some electricity, and prevents
burned spots, and shutting off the hard drives increases their life
expectancy.
The rest of the components don't get a break.
Just my two cents,
Jon
"WeikEngOff" wrote in message
...
Hello all,

thanks for your hints. As a first test, I have installed my really old ATI
3D
RAGEII PCI graphic
card. Works as expected, I'm really happy. Never thought that it is so
easy.
The only problem I
have now is that my PC can't switch to Standby-mode. I get an error
message
like (translated):

The device driver for the device "ATI Technologies Inc. 3D RAGE II PCI"
prevents switching
to the standby-mode. Close all applications and try again. When the
problem
still exists,
possibly the driver must be updated.

Unfortuantely it is not possible to get any other driver for that card
than the
standard XP-
driver. Any hints?


Then I'm looking for a newer and not so expensive PCI graphic card with
VIVO
(Video in and
Video out, that means Composite and S-Video). Any ideas?


Thanks a lot for all your help.
Udo