3 monitors New problem HELP!

[chingola]

I have three monitors running, has worked fine for ever, sometime last week my left one stopped displaying the background. You see it on start up, then dissapears, everything else works fine. Just ran 9 different spy ware etc scanners and still have problem. Updated Nvidia drivers and programs. Any Ideas
Win XP fully updated
two Nvidia cards - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT for main monitor works fine
Nvidia GeForce 6200 runing thw two other monitors one I'm having a problem with.
running on IntelCore2 4400 @ 2Ghz
4GB RAM

My best guess is something with Google desktop caused it. I removed it still having problems

 

[lair360]

Check your connections and see if there is any faults.

 

[Steeevoe]

Didn't realise you could have two different GFX cards running. How do you get that to work?

 

[sfan123]

If you have 2 vgas or dvis on the 8800 i would move at least another monitor to that card as it is alot more powerful than that 6200 you should deffinatly do that if you can. it should work though how you set it up so i dont no though but i would run 2 monitors on the 8800 and 1 on the 6200.

 

[Livewire]

sfan123's onto a good idea with moving one of the two monitors to the 8800; what this sounds MORE like though is a problem with the OS configuration or limitations itself.

Connection's won't help cause it's not the entire monitor dieing, it's just the background/wallpaper...HMMMMMMMM, you've got me stumped.


All I can think is somehow MAYBE moving 2 of the 3 to the 8800 will fix it. My guess is it won't, but it's the only idea I've got


Edit:

Didn't realise you could have two different GFX cards running. How do you get that to work?

Built into the OS and some motherboards; not sure on the specifics, but I'll bet you can't use both in FEAR for instance - you'd have to use the more powerful of the two.

 

[Smith6612]

Didn't realise you could have two different GFX cards running. How do you get that to work?

Easy... SLi and Software support.

 

[Livewire]

Easy... SLi and Software support.

Didn't know SLI worked between different video cards; that's new to me :S

 

[Smith6612]

Didn't know SLI worked between different video cards; that's new to me :S

It does, however based on the way nVidia codes their software, the SLi configuration would work on the slow card's speed, or you'd only be able to offload some slight data to that card. Yet again I'm not even sure if that 6 series card supports SLI with a 9 series card, so my guess is it's probably running as a separate card.

 

[chingola]

Don't know, just worked
Edit:
Well I finally went and changed what the monitors were plugged into and I did put two on the 880, then I lost the background on the 8800 main and one on the other, then I switched the two side monitors again and it all works once again. Very strange if you ask me. Thanks for the suggestions
Edit:
Oh, wasn't running SLI just multi monitors

 

[chingola]

Spoke to soon. now the background on the right monitor dropped. I have asked BFG since it came from them and well shall see what they say. This is bad, I have fixed computer problems since 1991 and cant fix my own problem....... Makes you wonder

 

[Picard1595]

Well its not really a problem is a computer feature that isn't working but is not essential to your computer use.. so its not all bad

 

[chingola]

OK now it all works and I have 4 monitors. I bought a new Nvidia card, only a 1GB 9200 and from MSI and I had the same problem, then ran all the drivers from MSI and presto all cards work and I think I am returning the 8800 BFG.
Of course you fix one thing and now Poser dose not like all the stuff running and likes to crash.. Ahhh.. LIFE

 

[chingola]

Sorry a 9400 Nvidia card NOT a 9200

 

[chingola]

Of course I didnt mention it stopped working must be a limit with XP and Nvidia. OH well have to try it running win 7

 

[Mr. DOS]

Eh, that 9200 is a pretty crappy card and I really don't recommend running it as your primary.

I'll explain the older NVIDIA model number structure for cards prior to the GeForce 200-series:
- The first number (e.g., 6, 7, 8, 9) is the series.
- The rest (e.g., 200, 500, 800) is the level of the card in the series. 100-300 are low-end cards suitable for strictly desktop use; 400-600 are aimed at multimedia (i.e., video) use; and the 700 and 800 are the gaming cards. The 5- and 7-series' did have 900-level cards, which were, obviously, a step up from the respective 800-level cards in their series.
- As the series number progresses, so does the overall processing power baseline. This means that, generally, an card from one series will be more powerful than a card of the same level from the previous series.
- Some random letters will be added onto the ends of higher-number cards. GT is more powerful than the "normal" card, and GTX is more powerful than GT. I'm not sure where GS exactly fits in, but they're less powerful than GT and maybe less powerful than the normal card. I think they may be intended as lower-capacity cards for OEM's to throw into machines to give them some degree of graphics prowess but to be weak enough that the consumer will want to upgrade them later.

So, from that, one can deduct that an 8800 is way better than a 9200 Actually, there's not a whole lot of difference between the 8- and 9-series'; an 8800 is only a shade less powerful than a 9800 and an 8600 is virtually identical to a 9600.

The point of all this: don't return the 8800 if you don't have to.

As a side note, I really don't recommend running drivers from MSI. OEM's have a terrible habit of not updating their drivers, so it's usually better to get drivers straight from NVIDIA. Actually, now might be a good time to download the newest drivers for the 8800 from NVIDIA, go through Add/Remove Programs and rip out everything NVIDIA-related, and reinstall the drivers. (NVIDIA uses a "unified driver architecture" so that one package will have drivers for both cards.)

--- Mr. DOS

 

[chingola]

I did upgrade to a 9400 GT 1GB and secondary is now 8400 GS and the problem is still there. Latest drivers from nvidia and even tried a reload from scratch. I figure its a lost cause until I upgrade to an SLI board and run them off of two of the same cards