Dual Screen XP

Dual Screen XP

by burrows1980 Aug 5, 2007 2:28AM PDT

Hi,

I have recently connected my Samsung 40" LCD TV downstairs to my pc upstairs.

Is it possible to have windows start menu on both screens? at the moment the tv has windows desktop extended onto it, so only displays background picture, pain in the hoop having to run up and down stairs dragging stuff from one screen to the other!!

My monitor for the pc is plugged into the D-Sub port and tv into the DVI on the same graphics card (Radeon X600), tv uses a screen res of 1360x768 and the monitor 1280x1024.

Be handy if theres a program out there that can duplicate whats displayed on the monitor for the tv, Im not bothered if the same window is loaded up on both.

Handy for the likes of iTunes, upstairs and downstairs surround sound on together is well smart for parties!!!

Thanks in advance

Gareth

Discussion is locked

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One way

by MarkFlax Former Forum moderator Aug 5, 2007 4:32AM PDT

Is to drag the Taskbar across to the other monitor.

It has to be unlocked first, (right click, unlock), then drag it across from the Primary to the secondary monitor. You have to drag it first to the right side of the Primary monitor, then across to the 2nd one.

However, I see little point in this with your setup. With the monitors in two separate rooms you will also need a mouse and keyboard in the other room. A wireless combination will work over short distances, but then you will come up against the main problem.

Because the PC monitor is the primary, any applications you open will open on the primary. You can drag it across to the secondary, but being in two different rooms may make that difficult.

What I suspect you need is not dual monitors, but a VGA Video Splitter. This splits the output from the VGA socket into two signals that can then be connected to your PC monitor and the TV. The display is duplicated across the two displays and so allows you to use the mouse and keyboard on either dislay.

Mark

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VGA Cable it is

by burrows1980 Aug 6, 2007 2:37AM PDT

Hi mark,

I have a 20m usb lead into the front room, in the same run as the vga and audio cable, so mouse and keyboard work ok.

I did download some software called Ultramon, this allows you to mirror the primary screen, but i cant get it to work that well, screen res not as clear.

So I think the best way is as you say a vga splitter, was my first option originally, but decided to make use of the dvi port, oh well.

Thanks for you help,

Gareth

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VGA Slitter

by burrows1980 Aug 9, 2007 3:59AM PDT

Hi Mark,

Got the VGA splitter cable through today, connected tv and monitor up but for some reason the monitor is not displaying right, its shadowing another screen if that makes sense, the tv is fine!

There seems to be a ghosted image of the main screen just to the right of the graphics:

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q1/burrows1980/ghost.jpg

If i unplug the tv vga cable from the splitter it goes fine.

Is there a way round this?

Thanks in advance,

Gareth

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I'm not sure.

by MarkFlax Former Forum moderator Aug 9, 2007 4:20AM PDT

Can you provide another link? The one you gave seemed ok on my monitor. The image you gave was of your post input and I assume it was that image that displayed the ghost? If so, it would seem that the screen print renders correctly on other monitors like mine. If you have a camera, eg a mobile phone camera and can upload images to the computer, try taking a photo of the screen display.

I'm not an expert here. But firstly did you remove the 2nd monitor display from Display Properties? If not, try that. The VGA Splitter isn't providing a 2nd monitor display as such, it is providing a duplicate of the primary, so selecting the 2nd monitor shouldn't be required.

If that doesn't work then I am not sure where to go. However, I Googled "Ghost image when using VGA splitter", (without the quotes), and it seems this is not uncommon. The first link I looked at I found this;

"

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Length

by burrows1980 Aug 9, 2007 5:16AM PDT

Hi,

Cant extend desktop to second monitor as its not recognising a second monitor, because im using a splitter cable, were as before I used the vga and dvi port.

See what you mean about the ghost image on the picture, checked it out on my laptop and its fine!! hmmmmm change the refresh from 75 to 60 and didnt make any difference. Im wondering if the 15m length of vga is causing voltage drop so therefore affecting the monitor. When you unplug the tv vga the monitor goes brighter.

Couldnt get a clear image by takin a photo.

Will look into the splitter/amplifier.

Cheers for your help,

Gareth

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Try the display properties

by brucev13 Aug 6, 2007 2:28AM PDT

Right click on the desktop and click properties on the sub menu. Click the settings tab. You now will see a graphic indicating the two different monitors. Click the 2nd monitor or the one that the desktop is being extended to. Then uncheck the option to "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor". Click apply and then OK. See if this will then display the same picture on both monitors at the same time.

Bruce.

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