Nvidia 7300 GT - Dual monitor issues..Help please!!

[thebehemoth]

I have an Nvidia 7300 gt running on Windows 7 Ultimate 32x. I have been trying to set up dual monitors for a while now with little success.

I have 2 identical Dell flatscreen monitors, not sure which model but I'm sure they're fairly recent. Hooked up to a Compaq running at 1.8 ghz, 2gb of ram. I should probably upgrade soon.

I have 2 vga ports on the back of my tower.
One, I believe, coming from the video card - next to a dvi port. The one I've always used.
One nearer the bottom of my tower, under the usb ports.

I originally tried hooking one monitor up to each vga port. Monitor 1 in the video card vga port worked normal as usual. Monitor 2 in the unknown vga port didn't work at all, not even a little.

So after a little research, I ordered a vga y splitter cable, to try and hook up both monitors into the video card vga port. Now, both monitors work - but no matter what I do, I cannot get the desktop to extend, it only clones.

In the device manager, only one monitor is showing - "Generic non-PnP Monitor."

In the Nvidia control panel, it states there are 2 monitors, an analog display and a digital display.
The "1" monitor is small. The "2" monitor is big.
When I right click either, I do not have the option to extend.
I cannot identify "1."
Both monitors are being identified at "2".

The control panel is the same - small "1", big "2".
I have two options when I click on display for either
- 1. Display device on: VGA
- 2. Generic Non-Pnp Monitor
I cannot select option 1 with "2" and vice versa.
I cannot select a resolution on "1"
I have "extend these displays" selected but no effect.
"2" is my main display.

I've tried every combination of arranging the displays. (2,1 1,2 1|2)
Tried making either the default monitor.
Drivers are 100% up to date.
Tried windows logo + p.

I read that a vga splitter will only duplicate info, it cannot extend.
I just don't know what to do now! I must have an extended desktop!
Help please



tl;dr
nvidia 7300gt
windows 7 ultimate 32x
want to hook 2 monitors up to 1 VGA port via VGA splitter
cannot get monitors out of clone-mode, want to extend.
Basically nothing has worked.
Suggestions?

 

[Someone Somewhere]

You need both monitors connected to separate ports on the GPU. A Y-cable will clone the displays, and the motherboard's integrated graphics card is disabled when a dedicated card is installed.

If the monitors are recent, they should support DVI.

 

[thebehemoth]

Thank you for the response.

The monitors do not have a DVI port.
Then I'm assuming the only way to have dual monitors with extended desktop via VGA is to get a video card with 2 separate VGA ports? One monitor per port?
What's the easiest way to go about this? Any recommendations on a video card? Not looking to play games, doesn't have to be fancy. Just want the extended desktop.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

You may be able to re-enable the integrated graphics in the BIOS.

Other question is whether the DVI port is a DVI-I or DVI-D port.