1. Blogs
  2. H2Daddy's blog
  3. Computer Question

Computer Question

H2Daddy

Shared on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 07:37

I received a new computer at school and I have a question.  I now have two monitors and want to know how to hook them both up to the same computer.  I have seen people's setups with two monitors.  In the pictures I have seen, the monitors appeared to be doing two different things.  Is this possible?  If so, how do I do this?

Comments

Lala Calamari's picture
Submitted by Lala Calamari on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 07:42
You need a video card with 2 outputs for dual display.
ekattan's picture
Submitted by ekattan on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 08:39
Geek boy is right. It's all about the video card.
govnamac's picture
Submitted by govnamac on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 09:55
and its not really doing to different things. they have one program open and it is positioned on one monitor, and another program is positioned on the other. think of it as just one really wide monitor with different windows open.
H2Daddy's picture
Submitted by H2Daddy on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 10:03
That sounds like what I need. I found a monitor cable that splits into two down in one of the computer labs here at school. It allows me to hook the two monitors up to the single output on the back of the computer. I guess now I need to look into video cards. Thanks for the help.
godWHYme's picture
Submitted by godWHYme on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 10:19
You wouldn't want a video cable that spits into 2. You just want a cable for each in put out put.
TANK's picture
Submitted by TANK on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 10:49
In general the answer is that you can't unless it was designed to dual screen. If it has two video cards in it, then you can for sure dual screen. If it has one video card with the same type of port on it twice, it can dual screen. Some video cards have a single port and come with a Y cable as you mentioned but the card is specially designed to run two individual monitors off of a Y cable, if you just do that with a normal video card, you'll get the same stuff on both screens like a mirror. If it's a laptop, you can usually hook up a monitor to the external video port and run dual screens , one being the laptop screen and one being the monitor. So really you need to do some research to find out the specs on the video card in your system before this question can be answered.
H2Daddy's picture
Submitted by H2Daddy on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 10:56
Not sure what is in it. I believe the situation I am in now is that I can hook up two monitors with the splitter but the same screen will be on both monitors. I need to find out what is inside but I am sure since the school system buys from the lowest bidder, that I don't have the right video card. It is a Dell desktop. Now I just need to figure out what is inside.
Saithme's picture
Submitted by Saithme on Fri, 08/28/2009 - 13:47
At work I have two (flatscreen) monitors. The video card in my desktop has two outputs, one digital and one analog. I'm running Windows XP, which I'm told can support up to nine monitors if you have the right video card(s). It sort of treats the two monitors as one big wide one because you can drag stuff from one monitor to another or spread a program window where it covers both monitors at once. But, it also knows that they are separate, because if you click the icon to make a software window full screen, it only fills up one of the monitors. You can also set the resolution separately such as having one monitor at 1024 x 760 and the other at 800 x 600.
J-Cat's picture
Submitted by J-Cat on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 19:16
we have these at work... PM me if you still can't figure this out by Monday and I will ask my "people"

click for more 2O2P member action

click for more 2O2P member action

© 2007 Media Crumb Inc. All rights reserve Media Crumb Inc.

Join our Universe

Connect with 2o2p