troubleshooting dual display

[boudicca]

I've had my new pc since May. Today I tried to set up dual monitors. I know both monitors work as singles but as a dual set up one insists on stayng in power save mode. Both monitors are old.

When I boot up both monitors show the opening screens but the Dell then goes into power saving mode telling me to press a key/move mouse (which has no effect).

The graphics card as ATI Radeon 5700 series.
OS Windows 7 Pro 64 bit

Monitor 1 = Dell ultrasharp 1702FP connected by DVI D dual link cable to DVI port - this is the one that is in power saving
Monitor 2 = Samsung SyncMaster connected to VGA port, working fine.

What am I doing wrong? Do I need better monitors or is the problem likely to be elsewhere?

 

[TudorVII]

Make sure you've got Windows set to use both displays, although usually Windows will default to a cloned display, sometimes there's no setting selected for a dual display.

 

[boudicca]

That's the setting in control panel - extended display? Done that, I don't think it is detecting the 2nd monitor.

 

[vanthus]

Check turn off display is set to never in power options. then try pressing windows key + P on the keyboard,then click on duplicate,
failing that it could be a problem with the graphics driver or graphics card itself.
Reinstall graphics driver first,then try reseating the GPU.

 

[PokerFace]

I have a dual monitor setup. Occasionally when I turn on pc my main monitor powers on then goes into power saving mode (just a black screen). The light on the monitor power button fluctuates between orange (standby) and green (power on). I switch the monitor off and on and then it's good to go. I don't know why this is.

boudicca, have you tried the above? If not, give it a go.

EDIT: My monitors are Dell also, both connected by DVI.

 

[boudicca]

This is obviously a lesson in why a non-techie person should avoid trying to do new things. Yes I've tried all that stuff apart from re-seating the GPU which sounds scary. Actually if I connect the Dell monitor with the DVI D cable and disconnect the vga, it stil does not work so it is presumably the DVI connection that is the problem. Maybe my pc just doesn't support it - another example of, by the time you have had your new pc for 6 months (or in my case 3) you'll think of loads more things you wish you had included in the spec.

 

[vanthus]

If you selected the 5570, as in your proposed build,it is is perfectly capable of displaying two monitors,in fact three.
The monitors you use shouldn't really matter,regardless of how old they are.
Imo,the problem lies with your graphics card or drivers.
If you are still under warranty give tech support a call.

 

[boudicca]

Thanks, excellent advice, just spoke to technical support (got through really quickly considering it's a bank holiday weekend, so brownie points for that) and they think that it is the monitor that's the problem and that it's DVI I when it needs to be DVI D. Slightly puzzled cos the connector certainly looks like DVI D, but I'll get a new one and scream and scream until I'm sick if that doesn't work.

 

[boudicca]

Well either techie guy or me misheard. All the monitors in the shop with DVI had DVI I connectors (actually a surprising number of them only have VGA). Fortunately found helpful assistant who told me to get one with DVI I. It didn't work with my very expensive dual link cable so I tried the one in the box and hey presto it worked straight away. My only niggle is that in the course of fiddling about my wallpaper has expanded so that I'm only getting part of the picture on the monitors. I can live with that!

Other people are spending bank holiday weekend at the seaside - sad soul that I am I'm going to be playing with two monitors to see how I can get different programmes to show on each.