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OMG, I got a dual-monitor 5.1 surround sound computer. :D |
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-- Very long post, aka TL;DR. If you don't want to read this long-a** journal entry, read the short version on this page. :3 --
So I have a 5.1 surround sound system on my old computer. And now I want dual monitors. >:D
This idea was put into action on June 11, 2009, as a possible concept of using the desktop computer, specifically the year 2001 Dell Dimension 8200, with the smaller secondary monitor while my sis and I would watch MST3K, or Mystery Science Theater 3000, on the larger primary monitor... only if it doesn't lag while in use.
-*-
How It Started -- Short Version
This idea was thought of in 2007, during the discovery of the power supply blowout. Fixed it, and now it's 2009. I wanted a dual-monitor setup, so it took me hours to figure out how to set it up. That included long Internet searches, driver downloads, BIOS changes, and hardware experimentation. Then Mom was surprised as to how I fit two bulky CRT monitors, a 17" and a 19" of the same brand, in my small room. ;D
How It Started -- Long Version
The idea actually came to back in 2007, when I was attempting to diagnose a booting problem with that same machine. The power supply was the culprit, not the motherboard as originally thought.
[Interesting fact: The Dimension series suffered from bad power supplies (sudden failure) back in the early 2000s. Even Dell thought the motherboard was the culprit in some earlier cases! rofl ]
Anyway, while doing so, I noticed that the video card had two ports: a regular VGA port, and a DVI (possibly DVI-I) port. At the time, I didn't know what DVI even meant, but I knew it was for displays. xD I was thinking I could hook up two monitors at the same time for dual monitor view, preferably separate, but little did I know that the limitations of this particular video card would make things a bit more difficult.
Then, sometime in 2008, my mom and I were in an Office Depot's clearance section, and I found a VGA to DVI adapter for 7 bucks! Bought that thing immediately, too, especially not realizing how much they originally cost. >.> I was like, "It could be useful someday." It does play a part in this entry.
Here we are now, in the present. Restate June 11, 2009. After I almost dozed off completely due to nothing in front of me while watching another episode of MST3K, I finally thought of making that extra DVI port to use. So I retrieved the old 15" monitor just to test its capability, found the adapter, and connected it to the DVI port. It merely cloned the monitor and dimmed the original 19" monitor along with the second one, possibly because of insufficient wattage from the power supply. Hey, it was a 250w box!
It puzzled me as to why it didn't have separate dual monitor capability when I checked it through the Advanced window of the Settings tab in Display Properties. I was a bit confused as to why, so I did a looong Google search as to why it didn't work. I read in different sources that it didn't support Twinview with both analog ports (i.e. VGA and TV-out), but it would work if it were both DVI and VGA. It was due to a limitation in video memory within the card (single RAMDAC). So I looked up LCD screens with a DVI-D port. Saw some cheap ones, too. xD
June 12, 2009. My bright idea of a possible solution was to go through my boxes of old computer parts and pull out the only PCI video card I actually own: an S3 Trio64V+ (765) VGA video card from the mid '90s. I bought it at a local computer store that sold old parts, even old hard drives! rofl It was called Canton Computer, formerly Discount Computer. That card was to replace an ATI Rage IIC, because I had no concept of what ATI graphics drivers were in 2004. That thing was cheap, too! Anyway, I debated on whether to install that card into D8200 because of incompatibility. Later that evening, I finally broke down and decided to install it. But... there's no more room! eek
I look at the PCI cards already installed in the D8200: a WLAN card (my wireless card), a modem, a LAN card (better known as NIC, or network identification card), and my original Santa Cruz 5.1 Surround Sound sound card. [Interesting note: I have a second Santa Cruz card of the same model. :3 ] Had a dial-up modem in there, but removed it for the USB 2.0 card... which was removed from the desktop and put into an older Dell desktop for USB support because the original ports were destroyed, yet still recognized. :/ I removed the NIC because I have no current use for it at that time. Besides, I finally found some stable drivers for the faster wireless card. I moved some PCI cards around, then inserted the 1994 S3 Trio64V+ video card into the slot above the PCI wireless adapter, which is now located at the slot at the bottom, closed up the heavy desktop (seriously!), and powered it on in the basement with the one sucky 17" monitor. The same monitor that was used for Vista HP before its death.
The OS that is Windows XP SP3 recognized the video card, but checking the properties in Device Manager, it said, "The device cannot start. (Code 10)." I was like WTF? I uninstalled the card and reinstalled it a total of five times; didn't even fix the problem. I then thought it was the drivers, so I searched the Internet for the drivers. Odd, I know. Took me a over 1.5 hours before I realized that the main part of the problem was in the BIOS settings, and I checked there before. How I missed the setting was beyond me. It was called the "Primary Video Adapter." There are two settings on this particular Dell BIOS: AGP and Auto. The default setting is on AGP. I switched it to Auto and saved the settings. It worked. It recognized the second card as working properly. At this point, I retrieved the 15" monitor from the classic gaming computer and set it up to the left of the sucky 17" monitor. It worked, of course. I was like, "Yeah!" I was too tired to carry that heavy Dimension desktop to my room, so I stayed there in the nice, cool, basement until about 1 AM the next day.
June 13, 2009. The PC was back in my room for the time being. I have two Dell CRT monitors that are similar in looks. xD At some point, Mom comes in to see if I was awake. She then noticed the two monitors and said, "I'm not going to ask how you fit those monitors in your room." After that, she left. I lol'd at that.
Later that night, I then realized that due to it very low video memory, I can only multi-task simple tasks but not more CPU-intensive tasks due to the weak Pentium 4 2.0GHz CPU. And I can only raise the resolution to the maximum of 1024x768x16 on the Trio64V+ video card. Its memory is very small for today's standards, only 2 MB of video RAM. lol The main nVIDIA card has 64MB of Integrated video RAM and can go to 1900x1200x32 if it was by itself IIRC, but the 19" monitor's max resolution (hooked to the nVIDIA) was 1600x1200x32. Eh.
This was interesting, to say the least. Now I'll look into another PC, but I'm not sure as to how to enable dual monitors in Windows 98 without actually doing it. xD Later.
*Fixed for technical errors. 13" was changed to 15", 15" to 17", and 17" to 19". Because those are their actual monitor sizes.* - Ami Sapphire, 2009-10-03
 Ami Sapphire · Sat Jun 13, 2009 @ 05:56pm · 0 Comments |
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