Three monitors, 1 APG + two PCI VGA cards?

I've got a few spare monitors and a few spare PCI graphics cards
(ancient S3 Trio64+ cards) and I want to set up a three monitor
system. (which is a Pentium 4 running Windows XP)

Currently I've got two monitors working without problem, the primary
monitor is run by an AGP Nvidia GeForce4 MX 440 and the secondary on a
PCI S3 Trio64.

I have a second S3 Trio 64 card plugged in, which I have verified as
working, unfortunately the second PCI card has an error, "This device
cannot start. (Code 10)"

If I have only one PCI graphics card in, that card works. I've tried
various combinations and have verified that by themselves all the PCI
graphics cards work in all the PCI slots, but when I install two
together the second one doesn't function and I get the above error
message.

Am I trying to do something impossible, namely you cannot run two PCI
graphics cards at once, or is there something I can mess with in the
BIOS or whatever that will enable me to get the second PCI card
working so I can run my three monitors?

Travis

In article .com,
Travis says...
I've got a few spare monitors and a few spare PCI graphics cards
(ancient S3 Trio64+ cards) and I want to set up a three monitor
system. (which is a Pentium 4 running Windows XP)

Currently I've got two monitors working without problem, the primary
monitor is run by an AGP Nvidia GeForce4 MX 440 and the secondary on a
PCI S3 Trio64.

I have a second S3 Trio 64 card plugged in, which I have verified as
working, unfortunately the second PCI card has an error, "This device
cannot start. (Code 10)"

If I have only one PCI graphics card in, that card works. I've tried
various combinations and have verified that by themselves all the PCI
graphics cards work in all the PCI slots, but when I install two
together the second one doesn't function and I get the above error
message.

Am I trying to do something impossible, namely you cannot run two PCI
graphics cards at once, or is there something I can mess with in the
BIOS or whatever that will enable me to get the second PCI card
working so I can run my three monitors?

You're trying to do a very complicated thing the hard way. Pop onto
Ebay and find a Matrox Parhelia card which is a triple head card.


--
Conor

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright
until you hear them speak.........

In order to run multi-monitor successfully, you need:

1. An OS that supports it. - OK
2. Drivers that support it, for *all* the video cards in the system. -
Probably not OK.

The S3 Trio64+, being ancient (older than the Virge, according to
Wikipedia), may not have robust driver support to distinguish two identical
cards in the system.

Have you tried running with just the two S3 cards, with the Geforce MX
removed? Get that working first, or follow Connor's suggestion and get a
Parhelia. Price is in the $75-80 range, which may or may not be important to
you.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"Travis" wrote in message
oups.com...
I've got a few spare monitors and a few spare PCI graphics cards
(ancient S3 Trio64+ cards) and I want to set up a three monitor
system. (which is a Pentium 4 running Windows XP)

Currently I've got two monitors working without problem, the primary
monitor is run by an AGP Nvidia GeForce4 MX 440 and the secondary on a
PCI S3 Trio64.

I have a second S3 Trio 64 card plugged in, which I have verified as
working, unfortunately the second PCI card has an error, "This device
cannot start. (Code 10)"

If I have only one PCI graphics card in, that card works. I've tried
various combinations and have verified that by themselves all the PCI
graphics cards work in all the PCI slots, but when I install two
together the second one doesn't function and I get the above error
message.

Am I trying to do something impossible, namely you cannot run two PCI
graphics cards at once, or is there something I can mess with in the
BIOS or whatever that will enable me to get the second PCI card
working so I can run my three monitors?

Travis