PC not outputting to dual display via splitter

[Melena]

Trying to get my Sergeant's computer up on a dual monitor setup. Done this millions of times but his system is not cooperating. He has a Radeon 7000 series card with a single display as our other Dell & HP's with a DVI Radeon card. I have tried both a DVI to Dual VGA splitter and DVI to DVI & VGA splitter. With the dual VGA his monitor is just mirrored, windows does not recognize the second monitor. If I go with the DVI/VGA split, the VGA monitor shows, windows shows two monitors, but the DVI monitor is stuck in powersave, saying it's not receiving a signal.

I have tried swapping cables, tried switching the monitors around. Both will connect fine via DVI without the splitter, but the splitter is killing it. I suspect it's the video card as we have done this setup a ton of times but before I go harassing dell to give me a new card, I want to see if there's anything else I'm missing.

[Buffy]

If you have an identical set up nearby, check the splitter too.

Or swap video cards to narrow it down.

[Melena]

The dual vga is a new one they bought from monoprice, the one I brought over was from my departments extra stock and I know works. Unfortunately I don't have any small formfactor pci-e cards to switch and these boxes don't have an agp slot.

[bungiefan]

Is it a single VGA plug to 2 VGA plugs? If so, it will only mirror. Only that weird bunch of little pins plug Dell uses will let you use two monitors from the same single plug on the computer. Except for that weird Dell plugin, the rule is one port on the computer is required per monitor.

[RKenshin]

Yeah... If by VGA splitter, you mean this:


It won't do anything other than mirror... and you'll also have some minor signal strength loss, that could result in a slightly lighter/blurry display sometimes. Need a powered VGA splitter to get rid of that.

The type of splitters that actually setup two different displays have special high-pin count ports in the graphic card, like one of these (though they vary greatly):


But a simple VGA/DVI port can be split into two displays.

[Isiolia]

Hm, the first things I got searching Monoprice were like this, which splits the signal into DVI-A and VGA.

As mentioned already, a true splitter is just going to give you the same signal on both displays anyway. The more specialized adapters aren't splitters, they're breakout cables of a sort. Possibly done that way to fit multiple ports on a low-profile capable card.

Anyway, beyond that, my guess is that the monitor you're trying to hook up via DVI can't accept a DVI-A signal. Going from an actual DVI port, the digital signal would likely be present, which is why it works then.

[Melena]

It's DVI to Dual VGA for one (did mirroring) second one is DVI to 1xDVI 1xVGA which I have gotten to work before. Besides pins, the only other possible thing I can think of is the style of DVI. This is the standard DVI pin setup, not the 59 pin setup that Dell and HP has a hardon over. All the HP's we buy now have the 59pin dvi and they are shipping with us a 59pin DVI to 2x VGA splitter with no issue, which is why I figured the regular DVI to 2x VGA would work.

[Isiolia]

There's no such thing as 59 pin DVI. It's DMS-59, which contains the pins for two connectors to start with. The adapter just splits them off into two VGA or two DVI ports.

DVI itself does come in several flavors. There's DVI-A (analog), and single and dual-link variants of DVI-D (digital only) and DVI-I (contains digital and analog pins). What monitor is it that you're trying to connect via DVI? Does it have a spec sheet that might indicate supported input signals?

[Melena]

Dell 23 and 24", can't remember the model #'s on them though. DMS-59 if you count it actually has 59 holes, I just get lazy and refer to it as a 59pin adapter.

[Isiolia]

Hm, well, the first one I found via Google specifically says DVI-D for the DVI port in the specs. The adapter I linked to above says it ouputs DVI-A. Normally, the pin configuration would prevent plugging things in that aren't supported (like going from VGA to DVI to HDMI with passive adapters), but maybe something just isn't to spec.

[Melena]

It's possible it may be the video card as well being funky. I know our HP's we've been buying have a 59A dvi card and the splitter they packed with it goes to dual vga. I may just say fuck it and swap his computer at this point since he managed to get some fucking spyware shit on there that took forever to clean out.