Dual Monitor Woes

[twonky]

Hey Folks,

This is a bit of a novel, sorry

I have seen a lot of people on this forum talk about using two monitors. I
would assume that they are doing something like putting the mixer on one
display and the graphic tracks on the other. At least that's what i would
want to do.
anyway, I have a Gateway PC running Win 98 SE and I bought a Matrox G450
(AGP) from ebay about a month ago. I took out the card that came w/ the PC
and put the Matrox in and suddenly the PC would not boot Windows. It will
count the RAM up and do all the normal pre-windows stuff. So I put the old
card back in, but that didn't help. The PC would still not run Windows. So
after messing w/ it for like a day and reseating everything I could pull out
of the PC I finally got it to run Windows.

So a month later, after I finished some projects I decided to try again. So
I got all the updated drivers. I very carefully removed the old card and put
the Matrox back in and BAM! Same thing the thing will NOT boot to Windows!!!
AAAAARRRGGHHHHHHH! So once again I have put the old one back in (a few times
now) and I cannot get the PC to run Windows!

Does anyone have any ideas on what might be the problem?

Once I get it running again.

Can I simply add another video card to one of the PCI slots and achieve the
same thing as a dual head card?

thanks for any help.

Ian

[dawboxpro]

This is going back a few years into the memory but try this.

Is the card AGP or PCI? Your bios needs to be set to one or the other so refer to your manual for that.

Hit F8 and go into safe mode. Go into the device manager and delete all VGA drivers and any related regular default windows drivers.

Delete all Matrox drivers and un-install all software. You need an un-install itility for the G450 I believe so see if Matrox has one on the website.

Now shut the system down and put your windows 89SE CD-Rom in the CD-ROM or CDRW.

Reboot letting windows find a default monitor.

That should work, if it does not you need to redo the OS from scratch and then it should see the card from scratch and load default drivers. Then you load the Matrox drivers.

Hope this helps
www.dawbox.com (http://www.dawbox.com)

[twonky]

Good, Good!

Ok, here is something I should have mentioned before. The computer WILL NOT go into safe mode! It wont even get to the little menue that comes before safe mode.

Both video cards are AGP. Like I said this happened once before and after reseating things like a zillion times it eventually worked, but I was EXTRA carefull this time.

Anyway, can any of this be done in the BIOS set up?

[jlampson]

I think your card is bad. Oh, oh, there, I said it!

Perhaps it is still under warranty from Matrox. Or perhaps you did not pay a lot for it or can get your money back or something.

If it won't boot into Windows it is either the driver or the card. The card should at least load you into Windows but have very limited graphics capabilities at first. Also, most video card manufacturers recommend switching to a Standard Graphics Adapter before installing a new card.

Finally, yes, if you add a PCI card in addition to your AGP card you can configure your operating system for multiple monitors.

John

[bassface]

does it beep?

[twonky]

I think the card may be bad too. But even the old card wont work and the drivers for the new card were never installed.

And yes the PC beeps right before it would normally run Windows.

Thanks for any help

Twonky

[dawboxpro]

If it beeps once it is fine, if it beeps at intervals it is bad ram or a VGA compatibility issue.

Do you at least get a bios post and the ability to get into it?

Is so you may have a corrupt registry and or too many entries of drivers in it.

Win98SE was lame like that, I am so glad to have moved on to XP.

Have you checked your display? I once had a cheap 15" I used in the DAW Shop for builds that would F--up on G550's and not display.

A simple monitor swap made me realize it was a monitor that could not handle the card.

I just remember the G400 and G450 inder 95 and 98 being a beast to put in at times on systems that had a million card drivers in them.

Your AGP slot might be going bad on you as well.
www.dawbox.com (http://www.dawbox.com)

[twonky]

Ok, well, get this:

After trying everything, I unplugged my IDE HD (I have two, an IDA gig and an 8 gig SCSI) it booted up like a champ w/ the new card. "hmmmmmmm", I said. So I plugged the IDE back in and rebooted and everything worked like a charm....

Anybody?

Thanks again for all your ideas

Twonk

[knowdoubt]

Ok... I'm guessing your IDE connection was ify (maybe just dirty) & whatever jostling it recieved while you were in the puter changing graphics cards was enough to put it over the edge to faulty, causing the boot sequence to hang. Unplugging it & plugging it back in secured the connection or cleaned the contacts. Just guessing though.

[twonky]

Sounds fair.

I guess anything is possible, but would you surmise that the drive itself is going bad (it is about a year old)

Twonky

[knowdoubt]

From the preceding scenario, since it's working fine since you disconnected & reconnected it I'd say more likely just the connection itself or cable. I thought one of my drives went belly up several months ago when it suddenly disappeared. Didn't show up during boot or in Windows. I opened the puter up, disconnected & reconnected both cables to it & made sure they were snug & it's been fine since. Much like your scenario. Might be a good idea to replace the IDE cable just in case it's funky.