Dual monitor: ^_^..... :'(

[TeenPcknowit]

Yay, I finnaly hooked up that second monitor. This is a pretty cool feature, but I wish it could do one thing... While running full screen apps on monitor 1 *cough* games, monitor 2 is...of course not accesible by just moving my mouse to the right. Is there any way that I could....press a key that I select
:- / liiiike....home, then be able to access monitor 2 without exiting my game? Was thinking maybe a program to download...Spread the wisdom : ).

[netnamakan]

I wondered about other ways to do that as well, accesing the desktop while gaming. all do is just hit the windows key and minimize the game.
also you cant run 2 movies on the screens only one can show a 3d thing/video at a time
I wonder if you had SLI if you could set up a card for each screen?..

namakan

[TeenPcknowit]

I'm using one card for the dual monitoral set up...i wonder if two cards makes a difference....
YEh, I do use the windows key......when it works...Alot of my games don't like to minimize though....:-/ no alt-tab doesnt work either...lol.

[netnamakan]

alot of games that the windows key doesnt work in, just hitting ctrl+alt+del
will minimize the game and bring up task manager.

I'll have to find out about SLI when I strike it rich

namakan

[TeenPcknowit]

Originally Posted by netnamakan alot of games that the windows key doesnt work in, just hitting ctrl+alt+del will minimize the game and bring up task manager. I'll have to find out about SLI when I strike it rich namakan

When you strike it rich send me 1200 over the line for the best SLI config :-p

[netnamakan]

sure np, I'll chuck in a water cooling set while I'm at it, and a p4 EE

those dual monitors are great for video editing.. I dont do it alot myself (kind of a fun spare time thing) but my friend had his set up dual and its really much easier once your used to it, I love the long timeline, you probably save 50% of your time by not having to scroll back and forth.

[abnorml_chylde]

are dual monitors really worth it?
like... what are the benefits of it?.... any cons?




thanks

[jong2k4]

Totally worth it. Pros: more efficient multitasking (watching a fullscreen movie while chatting- way to be productive! Plus lots of actually productive things to do- doing research online? Browser opened to a journal article in one window, Word opened in the other.) Actually, that's really it as far as I've experienced, but it makes a very big difference; after all, how often are you really doing ONLY one thing at a time on your computer?

Cons: To save power and monitor life, about half the time I only use one monitor; most programs remember where you closed them and will open again in the same location, and if you accidentally close something in your secondary window then they'll open there again sometimes when the monitor is off. This is really minor, because all you have to do is right click on it on the taskbar and select 'move' and move it back. Two monitors takes up more desk real estate. Two monitors costs.... about twice as much (how's my math?) Two uses more power.

But the best part of all is that dual monitors are fun. I'd recommend it.

[abnorml_chylde]

i migh actually try it.... it sounds interesting.... lol


thanks for the info guys




jason

[TeenPcknowit]

another thing that pesters me is that i'm so used to swinging my mouse up to the top right corner to hit the X but it goes into the other screen instead :- p. I know there are a billion other ways to close the window fast but I like that one best. There should be a hack out there to utilize dual monitors more efficiently :- p, why don't girlfriendless teens spend more time helping me, than enslaving pc's and corporate monopolies ^_^. I was thinking maybe like a 50 pixel barrier at the top right to stop it from moving over....who knows...

[enhanced08]

is there some way to extend the start bar across both screens? i have had a dual monitor setup before, on 2 cards, and couldn't get the start menu to extend. i no longer have the dual setup due to lack of room but should be getting it again as soon as my new desk gets here.

[TeenPcknowit]

Originally Posted by enhanced08dotcom is there some way to extend the start bar across both screens? i have had a dual monitor setup before, on 2 cards, and couldn't get the start menu to extend. i no longer have the dual setup due to lack of room but should be getting it again as soon as my new desk gets here.

Same here! Can't anybody answer our questions?!

[glc]

You gotta give it more than 2 hours, please. This is not a high traffic forum.

The answer to the best of my knowledge is NO. The taskbar will only be on the primary monitor unless you configure the monitors to combine the resolution - i.e. make 2 monitors in 1024x768 one single 2048x768 display. This will cause anything you open or run full screen to spread across both monitors. Of course, you can always use clone display, but this defeats the purpose of dual monitors for most uses.

[Redfallon]

Originally Posted by TeenPcknowit There should be a hack out there to utilize dual monitors more efficiently I was thinking maybe like a 50 pixel barrier at the top right to stop it from moving .

On the advanced display settings, where it shows both monitors, line them up slightly off from each other, make the #2 slightly lower on the right hand side, then you won't go to monitor #2 from the top right corner, you'd have to drop down slightly.

[praxis]

Originally Posted by Redfallon On the advanced display settings, where it shows both monitors, line them up slightly off from each other, make the #2 slightly lower on the right hand side, then you won't go to monitor #2 from the top right corner, you'd have to drop down slightly.

On the advanced display settings, where it shows both monitors, just move the number 2 screen to the left of screen 1!

[TeenPcknowit]

Originally Posted by Redfallon On the advanced display settings, where it shows both monitors, line them up slightly off from each other, make the #2 slightly lower on the right hand side, then you won't go to monitor #2 from the top right corner, you'd have to drop down slightly.

Haha, woh that worked, thanks.

[jgun1969]

TeenPC,

I have exact same video card and want to run a second monitor. My geforce 5200 only has 1 vga output and 1 s-video output. The Nvidia configuration utility has support for dual monitors but how do I connect 2 monitors to one vga output. I have searched for a s-video to vga adapter with no luck.

How did you do it? Help a brother out, thanks

[glc]

Your card is not dual head. You need a dual head card, most have one VGA and one DVI jack.

[TeenPcknowit]

Originally Posted by jgun1969 TeenPC, I have exact same video card and want to run a second monitor. My geforce 5200 only has 1 vga output and 1 s-video output. The Nvidia configuration utility has support for dual monitors but how do I connect 2 monitors to one vga output. I have searched for a s-video to vga adapter with no luck. How did you do it? Help a brother out, thanks

What I forgot to put in my Signature is the "fx" at the end. My card has dual VGA out and s-video out.

[Kaphis]

wow I can't acutally believed I registered to this forum just to reply to your question.^^;;

yes there is a way to stretch your task bar, its calld ultramon~ search it up^^ have fun and enjoy dual monitoring. The only thing I tell my friend is, honestly speaking, there is no "real" reason to go dual monitor, but hands down, if you've done dual, u will never go bak.

[netnamakan]

sorry it took me a bit to reply kaphis, but thanks for posting that, very handy :cool
btw welcome to pmech, you wont regret registering.


namakan

[SkariMari]

Dual display is implimented differently depending on your hardware and OS. For instance, under Win2k/xp, ATI Catalyst uses a combined resolution (2 x 800x600 = 1600x600) so if your taskbar is on a long side, it appears on both screens and your desktop wallpaper is stretched across both, but under Win9x, the monitors' resolution is independent of one another so you can have one at 1600x1200 and the other at 800x600. nVidia's implimentation is slightly different too.

And I have 'lost' windows on a number of occasions. I wasn't able to 'move' them into view by clicking the taskbar though. Had to resort to hacking the registry. But the one thing that has always been mildly annoying is being unable to set a different wallpaper on each monitor without faking it by positioning a desktop item (namely a picture) over the one display.

Starting to feel a little long-winded, but just 1 more observation... 2-17" monitors will still cost less than 1-23" one and give you more desktop real estate to play with. %)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There's no place like 127.0.0.1, there's no place like 127.0.0.1,
there's no place like 127.0.0.1, ...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~