multimonitor with 2 video cards

[VJ]

Hello,

I'm trying to install a second video card on my work PC. There is an AGP card present:
MS-StarForce GeForce4 MX 440 (AGP8x) Series (Nvidia)

I have two old PCI cards lying around (which have 'in the box' XP drivers):
S3 Trio32/64
S3 Trio64 V2/DX
(I just want to add 1 card)

When I plug either of them in an unshared PCI slot, XP finds the card, installs the drivers, but then assigns no resources to it. In the device manager, the card has an exclamation mark. The card cannot be used.

When I tried to set the S3 Trio64 V2/DX as primary (in the bios), the system refused to boot.


So, any thoughs on how to get such an S3 working with the AGP card?

Thanks!


Jörg

[VJ]

Hmm, I just found this list:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307397

and the S3 card isn't on it...

Does that mean it won't be possible?


Jörg

[VJ]

On the ultramon site, I have seen that there are working systems with both the MX440 and the S3 Trio64 V2/DX.
The site does have the recommendation that the S3 is the primary card in the bios. My system then gives 1 long beep followed by 3 short beeps.

Should I try to boot with only the PCI card before trying with both cards?


Jörg

[VJ]

Should I try to boot with only the PCI card before trying with both cards?

Well, I went ahead and removed the AGP card.

System booted, so I went in the bios, set PCI as primary, saved, powered down.
Then I plugged in the AGP card, and the system still booted!

Everything displayed on the monitor connected to the PCI card, until windows started. To Windows, the AGP-card still is the primary monitor.

Thanks for all the help!



Jörg

[VJ]

PS: This thread was not a post-whore attempt. It really was a serious thread.


Jörg

[dbdg]

For short period when I had w2k I had an ATI8500 and a crappy single buffer S3 PCI card.

I always had to so the same thing, build the system with one card and add the second card in later, wouldn't work otherwise.

I believe this is now the third thread where the original poster has made 5-4 posts and solved the problem before anyone else chimed in.

[Marshmallowman]

I just as soon as anyone mentions an s3 video card, people start backing away

I think there are working win2k drivers so you stand *a* chance getting it to work in win2k, but XP is really pushing it, the best I ever got was having it work as generic vga adapter.

I think your better off finding an alternative card(s).... pain this way only I see.

[VJ]

I believe this is now the third thread where the original poster has made 5-4 posts and solved the problem before anyone else chimed in.

If my memory serves me well, this isn't my first thread in which it happenend...

I just as soon as anyone mentions an s3 video card, people start backing away

I think there are working win2k drivers so you stand *a* chance getting it to work in win2k, but XP is really pushing it, the best I ever got was having it work as generic vga adapter.

Well, XP has the native drivers for the card, and it worked...
I'm can go up to 1024x768, but the monitor isn't that good (60 Hz), so I prefer it at 800x600 @72 Hz.
This was a great help: http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon...p#SecondaryW2K


Jörg

[Marshmallowman]

I am impressed...I wasted a lot of time trying to get s3 trio's working in win2k, I just assumed it would be worse in windows XP.

was that s3 "virge" or trio?

If you want anymore S3's I have 3 trios and a virge that I am about to get rid of (burn,smash or dump)

Actually the virge is ok, I used a pci virge to install windows XP pro 64bit

[VJ]

I'm using an S3 Trio64 V2/DX. I'll try the same configuration with a Trio32/64 for my colleague...


Jörg

[UtwigMU]

Just get a second hand Matrox Millennium/MillenniumII/Mistique/G200/G450 PCI or GF2MX/GF4MX/5200/5600 PCI.