Can a GF FX 5200 even extend display to another monitor?

[SNGX1275]

So, I upgraded my setup from 2 Benq 20.1" to 2 Acer 21.5" (better resolution, and they were cheap on newegg). So I'm selling one of the monitors in a package deal to my dad (with a comp) and the other went to my girlfriend so she can have 2 monitors.

She has an old HP running XP MCE, it has an AGP FX 5200 with VGA and DVI outs. I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that that meant she could run 2 monitors like I do. It seems she can only clone or expand (horizontally or vertically) the desktop instead of extending. Expanding wouldn't be too bad, except that both of the monitors she has are different resolution. So extending is really the only usable option.

Is the FX 5200 just incapable of doing that?

I think this is something that should be handled outside of the Nvidia Control Panel, since in every computer I've seen a display 'extended' on was able do do that just in the regular display properties.

I have at my disposal a PCI Radeon 7000 with VGA and DVI and a AGP GF 7800GS. I don't know if the 7000 will do what we want, and I know the 7800 will, but I don't think the 7800 will fit in the HP case, and it seems unlikely the HP PSU will survive very long with the 7800 in there. So before I go through cleaning out the Nvidia drivers to install a PCI 7000, I'd like to see if anyone knows if its a physical limitation of the card.

 

[captaincranky]

I thought the,"extend desktop", was a function of the driver, and not of the card. or (?)

That said, Nvidia shows a very current driver in association with your card and Win XP; http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_175.19_whql.html

Disclaimer: Dual monitors annoy me, for this very reason, as does the new 16:9 aspect ratio, and the fact you can't run one monitor horizontally and one vertically from the same card.

 

[SNGX1275]

I think the extend desktop is a windows function, and the nvidia driver provides further control over that. But I'm not entirely certain.

The driver is the newest, its a pretty clean install of XP MCE (less than a month old) and I thought I had gotten the new driver right after the install. This was confirmed by asking to overwrite files when I downloaded and ran the driver install again.

I'm guessing that this card just can't do it. But it seems pointless to me to be able to expand the display horizontally or vertically but not allow extending. Its essentially the same thing anyway, but extending actually allows you to run 2 different resolutions at once. (if you had 2 monitors with the same resolution, extending horizontally would be mostly acceptable)

 

[captaincranky]

So then you're going to use the 7800 to kill the HP power supply, willfully and with malice aforethought? Girlfriends shouldn't be allowed to have displays that are as cool as their boyfriends anyway. It just shoots machismo all to hell.

 

[SNGX1275]

Provided the HP (I don't know anything about HP mobos) doesn't have proprietary connections, I have an Ultra 400W PSU (free with some old purchase I made on newegg) that should be better (how much, well who knows - would be pretty simple to figure out though). But I think the real problem at that point is the case. The HP case is horrible for adding things. I've got plenty of other cases, but moving components is tiresome. Was really hoping I just overlooked something on extending the desktop.

 

[captaincranky]

This HP has to be pretty much of a relic, but it's probably not old enough to have escaped conforming to universal PnP, You know the drill, you have to publish the specs on this antiquity.

Perhaps download the manual, in spite of the fact it may be in Middle English.

 

[SNGX1275]

HP Pavilion m200y

 

[red1776]

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/manualCategory?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=347398&

 

[captaincranky]

I actually found that on my own, but more often than not, when I invoke a PDF page, Firefox crashes and burns. I have an old version of Adobe Reader installed (7.0). Could that be the problem?

 

[red1776]

I actually found that on my own, but more often than not, when I invoke a PDF page, Firefox crashes and burns. I have an old version of Adobe Reader installed (7.0). Could that be the problem?

I believe it is, mine does not like it if I get a few revisions behind either.

...http://get.adobe.com/reader/ well just trying to be helpful

 

[SNGX1275]

Because I think I knew the answer to my own question before I posted I'll reply to the current thing.

Try Foxit Reader. It does try to give you some bloat, most of which you can uncheck. But at my last attempt it still stuffed a toolbar into IE8. That, surprisingly enough was easily removed from the toolbar in IE itself.

 

[captaincranky]

I still have an older Foxit installer. I think that only gives you a desktop shortcut to "Ebay". Well, that's more than plenty.

 

[SNGX1275]

Well, I think it appears you need 2 restarts to get it to work. I'm pretty sure that we had restarted it last night after hooking up the "new" monitor. Had to power down today for a hardware change (not related to a video card, it was removing a dial up modem). On restart only one monitor was on but upon rechecking the display properties both monitors showed up. Selected the second one and checked 'extend desktop to this monitor' and it worked. So problem solved.