Multiple Monitors Under Windows 98: Our Experience |
| by David Yee |
| One of the most significant new features in Microsoft Windows 98 is support for multiple monitors and video cards on a single PC. Multiple monitors allow for a larger desktop to be displayed, which can greatly enhance productivity in applications such as desktop publishing, spreadsheets, and browsing the web. In order to see how well the multiple monitor feature works and how easily it can be set up, we used three monitors and video cards: a pair of generic 14" monitors and a Panasonic S17 17" monitor, and two PCI and an AGP video card. |
| How We Tested |
| Test system was a Pentium II-300 with an Asus P2B motherboard and 96 Mbytes of PC100 SDRAM, Quantum Viking 4.5 Gbyte ultra SCSI drive with a Diamond Fireport 40, Matrox Productiva (8 Mbyte AGP), Hercules Thriller 3D (8 Mbyte PCI) in PCI Slot 4, and a Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 (2 Mbyte PCI) in PCI Slot 2. Panasonic S17 was connected to Matrox Productiva, a generic 800x600 14" monitor was connected to the Thriller 3D, and a 640x480-only 14" monitor was paired with the Diamond Stealth 3D 2000. Drivers used: Matrox Productiva (Version 4.11 beta, 06/30/98), Hercules Thriller 3D (Version 0.85, 06/30/98), Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 (used S3 Virge 325 drivers that came with Windows 98, dated 05/11/98) |
| The Experience |
| As the test machine booted up with all 3 video cards installed and the
monitors connected, we noticed that only the monitor connected to the Thriller 3D (in PCI
Slot 4) showed any signs of life by displaying the memory count and BIOS information.
The other two monitors did not receive any video signal. As Windows 98
finished booting, it asked for the Thriller 3D drivers, which we supplied, and then the
computer was rebooted. This time, however, the other two monitors lit up and
displayed the BIOS message for their respective video cards. Beneath the video BIOS
the following message was displayed: If you can read this message, Windows has successfully initialized this display adapter. To use this adapter as part of your Windows desktop, open the display option in the Control Panel and adjust the settings on the Settings tab. The 14" monitor that was coupled to the Thriller 3D showed the booting progress, but Windows did not not continue booting and we had to do a hardware reset. To our relief, this time Windows 98 finished booting, and asked for the Productiva drivers, which we subsequently installed and then rebooted the machine. After Win98 finished loading, we looked at the Device Manager Tab of System Properties and saw all three video cards successfully installed: |
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| When we clicked on the Settings tab under Display Properties, however, the machine froze and we had to cold boot again. After Windows loaded, we tried to access the Settings tab again but same problem. After rebooting once more, we installed the Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 drivers instead of the generic S3 drivers, but no cigar as the same problem arose and the computer locked up. The next step was to then remove the drivers for the Stealth altogether and see if dual monitors would work- and it did! When we went into the Settings tab under Display Properties this time, we saw the following screen: |
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| After clicking on the "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" option, a warning message appeared: |
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