[shaulbehr]

Hi there,

I bought a computer several months ago (specs below), and it works fine, mostly. When I bought it, I asked my supplier to give me a graphics card that would support dual monitors, even though I only ordered one monitor at the time.

Now a few weeks ago I ordered the 2nd monitor, and my supplier came to install it for me.

Problem: no matter what he did, he couldn't get the dual monitor functionality to work; all he could do was to get the 2nd screen cloning the 1st one. Every time he tried to click the "extended desktop" checkbox, it simply ignored the change and unchecked the checkbox. He downloaded the latest drivers, uninstalled, reinstalled several times, but to no avail.

So he reckoned it must be a problem with the graphics card, and he ordered a new one.

The new one came, same problem.

OK, maybe it's a conflict between the motherboard (AMD) and the video card (ATI) - as unlikely as that sounds... so he tried a nVidia card instead. Same problem, but worse - now the computer got frozen into 640x480 resolution, and would not accept any instruction to return to the monitor's native 1680 x 1050 resolution - completely unusable.

Today he came with another new AOC 2230 monitor to match the 2nd one I ordered (my 1st monitor is AOC 2216), in case somehow the 2 monitors were causing a conflict. Still no dice.

My supplier is throwing up his hands in despair. He's put in support requests to the ATI, nVidia and AOC.

My bet is that the nice folks on techguy.org will be able to solve it before they do...!

In summary:

• Win XP 2002 SP 3
• AMD Phenom 9650 Quad Core processor 2.30 GHz
• 3.00 GB RAM
• ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics
• AOC 2216 monitor
• AOC 2230 monitor
• Have tried swapping out the graphics card with an nVidia card, which only made things worse
• Have tried swapping out the AOC 2216 monitor with another AOC 2230 monitor
• Status quo: my 2nd monitor is cloning my 1st monitor and I cannot get the extended desktop to "take". The checkbox is available, but after clicking "OK", it gets blanked out again.

If you can solve this one, I'll buy you a beer, ice cream or whatever other (reasonable) treat I can order for you online! Seriously!

[Lord Nikon]

i had a problem similar to this, are you using windows' display preferences (right clicking desktop ->properties ->settings bla bla bla), if so, then there may be another program that you can use, part of the drivers for the graphics card, like nvidia's drivers or ati's, they can usually be accessed from the control pannel

[shaulbehr]

Originally Posted by Lord Nikon

i had a problem similar to this, are you using windows' display preferences (right clicking desktop ->properties ->settings bla bla bla), if so, then there may be another program that you can use, part of the drivers for the graphics card, like nvidia's drivers or ati's, they can usually be accessed from the control pannel

Yep, been down that path. Doesn't work either.

[stantley]

When you have an ATI card it usually comes with the ATI Catalyst Control Center.

Did you try changing the display to extended desktop from that program?

[shaulbehr]

Originally Posted by stantley

When you have an ATI card it usually comes with the ATI Catalyst Control Center.

Did you try changing the display to extended desktop from that program?

Yes, and it doesn't work.

Did you really think it would be that easy?

[stantley]

Originally Posted by shaulbehr

Yes, and it doesn't work.

Did you really think it would be that easy?

You never mentioned Catalyst Control Center in your post, that's why I asked.

[Lord Nikon]

just had a thought, have you tried plugging one monitor into your onboard grahpics and one into the ATI? this may help to discover whether the problem is related to the graphics card/software or with windows

[shaulbehr]

Originally Posted by Lord Nikon

just had a thought, have you tried plugging one monitor into your onboard grahpics and one into the ATI? this may help to discover whether the problem is related to the graphics card/software or with windows

Interesting thought. My supplier has gone off with the graphics card, but I'll suggest that to him...

[shaulbehr]

Problem solved: reinstalled Windows and now everything works. No idea what the problem was... :|