Dual monitors with Win 2000 & Cyberblade Ai1

[mvs]

Hello,

I just bought a new flatscreen (Dell 1704 FPT) to be used as an external monitor with my laptop/notebook Toshiba Satellite S1800-204. The laptop comes with Trident Video Accelerator Cyberblade-Ai1 AGP. As OS I'm using Windows 2000.

My problem:
In Control Panel/Display/Settings/Advanced I can choose LCD+CRT. When I do this the desktop shows on both screens (resolution not really optimised though).

I want to use the external screen for viewing and my laptop screen for coding. In other words, I want to activate multiple-monitors to expand the desktop to more than one monitor (virtual desktop). I've read that I can adjust the layout of the monitors in Control Panel/Display/Settings by clicking different icons. These icons are presented as numbers that represent the monitors. The problem is that there are no such icons in my Control Panel/Display/Settings. Maybe there are some other settings that I need to change first, I'm not sure.

Question 1:
If I can view the desktop on both screens (exact mirror image), does this also mean that I will be able to expand the desktop to multiple/dual monitors (virtual desktop)?

Question 2:
If your answer to question 1 is yes, do you know how this can be fixed?

Best regards


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by mvs on 07/15/05 10:45 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[mpasternak]

This is actually dependant on the drivers / card manufacturer.

I've had experiences with Dell's, IBM's, Toshiba's and Gateways and they all differ how they're built to handle that external slot.

for the majority of notebooks, the external port only mirrors. but some with more advanced graphics cards will enable multiview. the best bet are the ones with ATI or NVidia displays.

the least luck is probably with Trident. Trident video cards are pretty much the lowest video display available. Dirt Cheap and don'tsupport a lot. they're made for basic video displays

 

[Rugger]

Have you read the laptop manual?

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<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

 

[mvs]

Yes, I have. I doesn't say anything about the graphic card nor does it say anything about setting up virtual desktops.

So I guess your answers to question 1 is "no, not always", right?

 

[Rugger]

Tried downloading a copy of the graphics card manual <A HREF="http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_modItemList.jsp?moid=1073833650&ct=DL" target="_new">here</A>?

__________________________________________________
<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

 

[mvs]

After some research I found that it won't work. Only Windows 98 supports this feature. So my next question is:

<i>Is there any "virtual desktop" software that would make this work with Windows 2000? </i>

Any help is appreciated.

PS. I had a look at some VGA adapters but they don't support higher resolutions.

 

[mvs]

Also, on Toshiba's website one can read:

"Windows offers an option which provides a means of using multiple monitors to create a single virtual screen. This option, called Multiport, was offered with Windows 98.

According to Microsoft, Windows Multiport makes it possible to use multiple monitors with a single display adapter. Notebooks computers which use a built-in display adapter can take advantage of this option if using Windows 98. However, this Multiport feature is not offered with Windows 2000.
Note: The help file on Windows 2000 does not make this clear and can make it sound like Multiport is supported."

Do you think it might work with Windows XP?