Win2k and G400 MultiMonitor Support

[usa4034]

Win2k with the 5.00 drivers is doing some weird stuff. Instead of telling Win2k that i have two monitors, the G400 is setting my screensize at 1600x600, just stretching the image over two screens.
This is a real pain! When i maximize an application, it goes to both screens. All installation programs are doing their projections off of having a width of 1600 pixels, having the main dialog boxes pop up inbetween the two monitors.
When i dual boot into Win98, this does not occur, it works wonderfully!


HELP!

[MultimediaMan]

Unfortunately, because of the way M/S wrote Win2k, that is precisely what it should be doing. Windows 2000 uses the NT-Flavored version of Multimonitor support, which is called aggregation (The O/S thinks there is One Big Monitor).

It's really not that bad, but constantly resizing your windows is a bore.



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My (Current) Primary system:

Abit BE6 (PL BIOS)
P3 450
384MB PC-100 SDRAM (Non-ECC)
Matrox Marvel G200-TV AGP (NTSC) v2.6 BIOS
3Com 905B-TX NIC
SBlive (W/ OD I/O Card, Liveware 3.0 + Update)
ADS Cadet Radio Data AM/FM Card (8 Bit ISA)
3x WD AC28400 EIDE HDDs (ATA66 Enabled)
Creative DVD5241E EIDE 5x DVD-ROM
M/S Windows 98SE (English)
DirectX 7

My (Current) Secondary system

Data General/ ALR 2650 Mobo (v6.004 BIOS)
P2 350 (Non-SMP)
256 MB PC-100 SDRAM (ECC)
3 x Number9 Revolution 3D 8 MB PCI Adapters
Adaptec 6901 10BT NIC
Onboard Adaptec 2940 U2W
Onboard Intel 82558 NIC
Onboard Cirrus Logic SVGA adapter (Disabled)
Creative ModemBlaster 5601 Data/Voice/Fax Modem (ISA)
Creative AWE64 Gold
2x WD 4.5 GB Enterprise SCSI3 HDD
Nakamichi MJ-5 CD-Changer SCSI2
Panasonic LK-MW602 CD-R
2x Nakamichi MBR 7
Windows 98SE
DirectX 7

Tertiary system:
Dell Inspiron 7100 Laptop

[Genom]

I'm afraid this is yet another case of not readong the specs/docs/previous posts in the forum.

NT handles mutliple displays like this. If you ahd the NT docs as any legal owner should, it mentions this. Also the G400 drivers for win2k are BETA. This means not finished. This means wait for a final release. And for the record if you look in the pwoerdesk settings you'll see you can tell it to make requesters pop up in one screen or another.

RTFM dude.

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Asus P2B-F, P3-450~556, 512MB PC100 8ns SDRAM, G400MAX (yay!) at 160Mhz, Teac 58S CD-R, Toshiba SM-1002 DVD-ROM, Toshiba 40X SCSI CD-ROM, 8.4GB IDE primary drive, 9GB Micropolis Tomahawk UWSCSI, 9GB IBM U2WSCSI, 18GB U2WSCSI Cheetah, Diamond MX300, 3COM 10/100TX, 3COM Gaming Modem, Adaptec 2940U2W

And a partridge in a pear treeeeeeee.

[atheis]

Actually, I don't believe this is true. Windows 2000 does NOT have this two screen limitation. The driver model only allows one monitor per video card, however, which is why the Matrox G400 has to do the large resolution hack. We have plenty of dual monitor setups here that have the win98 style (2nd desktop does not have taskbar, etc) multimon. The Matrox drivers right now are just pretty limited in everything: refresh rates, dualhead functionality (Zoom and DVD mode don't work), and even the 'save and restore window position' doesn't work correctly.

someone@MS

[Kruzin]

sigh
No, WindowsNT architecture is what is only allowing one monitor per card. Yes, NT/2K can do multimonitor support similar to win98...but ONLY if there is multiple video cards in the system. It cannot do multiple outputs from a single card in the same way...

[usa4034]

Yes, 1) as win2k is in beta stages, not released yet, there really is no documentation (i can't RTFM). i am an authorized beta tester, testing RC3 (Build 2183) 2) the win2k limitation described above by others is not correct. 3) I am aware that the Matrox drivers are beta, i was just wondering if anyone had found a solution to them, although fooling around with the Multi-Display settings helped a little.

Even so, Win2k is being released in 2 weeks. Will matrox be ready?!?

[Kruzin]

So, you know of another DualHead card on the market that uses 2k to do multi-monitor the way you want it to?

[atheis]

Win2k has been gold for approximately 5 weeks now...But let's stop missing the point. I really doubt Matrox will be ready for Feb. 17th. I have not seen any drivers from them since December, and those are no better than the publicly released beta... But they have a pretty picture of themselves at least...

[Ashley]

Hmmm... Is DualHead a proprietary Matrox architecture or does it conform to some industry standard? If it conforms to a standard, then what is it and why doesn't Microsoft support it in W2K? By the same token, if there is no standard and DH is proprietary, then WTF should Microsoft support it?

Besides - is this a "no spare slot" issue or am I missing something? Surely a decent PCI VGA card can be found for as little as $30?

That $30 will take your second monitor to higher resolutions at deeper color depths and higher refresh rates, as well as allow your G400 better performance and greater system stability, than a multimonitor-enabled G400DH ever could...

[tylau]

Arsely,

Hmmm...... If it conforms to a standard, then what is it and why doesn't Microsoft support it in W2K?

Surely you, the self proclaimed know-it-all of video standards, should know the answer. God knows your wonderful PowderSniff is proof. Since when has MS made sure they supported any standards other than those that it created themselves. I surely don't see them rushing out to make sure that W2K supports all standards, just the ones that are important to MS.

By the same token, if there is no standard and DH is proprietary, then WTF should Microsoft support it?

Why shouldn't they???? Win98 does, so how's come NT doesn't? Pretty simple, NT has to be hacked(even if the hacking is automated by the OS) to get MM support.

Tin Yau Lau

[paulcs]

Let's keep this civil. Ashley has been with the forums for a very long time, provides a lot of support, and has produced software that has proven itself useful to many thousands of people.

And if thread degenerates into another W2K brawl, Kruzin will kick us over to the Soap Box.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 28 January 2000).]

[Ashley]

Tylau - If anyone you know has a G400DH and runs Win98, you might want to ask them to show it to you. You'll see that the DH controls are on a property sheet written by Matrox, not Microsoft. What I believe people were asking is why Matrox cannot do the same under W2K.

Well, Matrox has some smart programmers and I think they'll probably figure something out. I also happen to think that Microsoft should make it easier for them to do it. My point, though, was that even when its working, and however clever it may be in other ways, DH is a rather low-end multimonitor solution. I guess you didn't get it...

But hey... PowerStrip rendered as PowderSniff, and Ashley as Arsely. Now that's really clever... No one's twisted my name up that way since, like, 2nd grade. You wouldn't happen to be in 2nd grade would you?

[PaulS]

usa4034, the documentation for Windows 2000 is complete and has been for months. The SDK and the DDK have undergone minor revisions in the last 6 months, but they too were fairly much complete with beta 3.

MS is not, and has not taken any bug reports on RC3 for near on 6 weeks, so I wouldn't bother continuing with your testing.

Paul

[tylau]

Nope, 1st grade.

[atheis]

Everyone here should know that the Matrox DH feature is proprietary. It's obvious - they're the only ones with it... As far as asking Microsoft to make it easier for Matrox, I can only say "pul-leease"...It's the same issue as everyone ragging on us for having Windows crash often. YOU try to write an OS for all the irresponsible hardware makers that could care less about drivers. Switch to Linux, and see what kind of device support THAT gives you eh?