How do I add Monitor for Extended Display: Only one VGA Port

Berton · 28 Oct 2018

I gather from the above that its the lack of an add-in graphics card that more likely hampered the dual display, rather than the secondary monitor I tried to use.

Very possibly, all the times I've seen 2 monitors used the addition of an Add-in Graphics card has disabled the built-in/onboard adapter so the VGA or DVI port or both on those computers having both ports. Using HDMI seems to be a lot of trouble according to posts on forums.

There are VGA splitters [maybe even DVD] to use 2 monitors but those show exactly the same information, I use them yearly when volunteering with a Health Fair group, lets me do data entry on a Notebook and the client view an external monitor to follow the progress of the work. On Notebooks the original use I had seen was for seminars where the presenter could watch the participants and a larger screen showed the subject matter behind him/her or in churches where projectors were used for the sanctuary.

eliuri · 28 Oct 2018

There are VGA splitters [maybe even DVD] to use 2 monitors but those show exactly the same information,

Do you mean those splitters only work to duplicate rather than extend the display?

What might be the least troublesome way for me to set up an extended dual display given the desktop I now have: Dell Inspiron 580.

I gather it comes down to installing another graphics card, but what should I look for in getting such a card in terms of such use?

PolarNettles · 28 Oct 2018

When you got the VGA+HDMI working temporarily, were you able to see different windows on both monitors? Intel graphics can definitely handle 2 displays at once (I use it all the time) so I wouldn't necessarily give up on that route that quickly if it worked for a bit.

eliuri · 28 Oct 2018

Yes. It did temporarily work as an extended display.

But it wouldnt have been worth it the way it did that..

Among other things, the entire taskbar migrated to the secondary IBM monitor, and I couldnt drag it back to the main Dell monitor. The display quality wasnt good at all... And for some reason, Windows kept labeling my main display as Display 2 and the secondary one as Display 1. I wouldnt have minded this, because I could tick in the option of display 2 being my main display. But wondering if that wasnt part of the issue..

I had used that old IBM monitor as secondary display for two different laptops each running Windows 7 and each having different graphics cards. I didnt need an adapter because each of those laptops had VGA ports, unlike this Desktop which only has the one already in use by the Dell monitor. In both cases the extended display worked flawlessly and served my needs for this

So, I'm not sure what the issue here really is...Whether it's Windows 10 related or due to my using HDMI->VGA adapter.

I wouldn't mind getting another graphics card installed. Some might have better display controls than the integrated Intel graphics card I'm now using. But I'd like a sense of what to look for in getting the graphics card in terms of getting a well-working extended display

Berton · 28 Oct 2018

eliuri said:

Do you mean those splitters only work to duplicate rather than extend the display?

Yes, a splitter only splits the same signal to 2 devices, may see it described as a Y-cable.

PolarNettles · 28 Oct 2018

eliuri said:

I wouldn't mind getting another graphics card installed. Some might have better display controls than the integrated Intel graphics card I'm now using. But I'd like a sense of what to look for in getting the graphics card in terms of getting a well-working extended display

Yes, HDMI->VGA adapters can be finicky, especially with old monitors. A discrete graphics card may have better compatibility.

Something like a GT710 (Amazon.com: ZOTAC PCI Express Video Card ZT-71301-20L: Computers Accessories) should work.

If the card supports two simultaneous VGA outputs - one via the VGA port the other via the DVI-I port - then that is the simplest option. You would just need to get a $2 DVI-A->VGA adapter. However, I can't determine whether the GT710 supports two simultaneous analog outputs - I imagine it does but maybe someone with one of these cards can confirm.

If it can't then you would have to enable both the onboard and discrete graphics. This should be an option in your BIOS.

Berton · 28 Oct 2018

My ASUS of late 2016 has a GeForce GT710 card and its control panel/program does have settings for multiple monitors but I don't use the feature.
Attachment 210358

KCR · 29 Oct 2018

So does my GeForce GT 620. . .

How do I add Monitor for Extended Display: Only one VGA Port-image.png

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eliuri · 29 Oct 2018

OK....So these GE Force graphic cards should support two monitors---either thru VGA or DVI-->VGA adapter--- without my making adjustments in the BIOS?

I've never done anything in the BIOS, nor do I know how to. . Which is why I'm asking...

When adding a dedicated graphics card to a system which already has an integrated one, does the integrated one become automatically disabled? If I'd want the option to access to both, would I have to change BIOS settings?

I had a laptop with Nvidia graphics (and Win 7) which kept giving the option to use either Nvidia settings or native one. Might have been different because it was laptop?

Thanks for your patience. This is all new to me..

bobkn · 29 Oct 2018

eliuri said:

(snip)
When adding a dedicated graphics card to a system which already has an integrated one, does the integrated one become automatically disabled? If I'd want the option to access to both, would I have to change BIOS settings?

I had a laptop with Nvidia graphics (and Win 7) which kept giving the option to use either Nvidia settings or native one. Might have been different because it was laptop?

Thanks for your patience. This is all new to me..

In the desktop PCs that I have known, adding a discrete graphics card disables the onboard graphics.

The dual graphics available on some laptops is a power-saving measure: the integrated graphics are used for applications that don't require a powerful GPU. Things switch to the discrete graphics when demanding tasks (like games) are run. nVidia's name for that is Optimus. As far as I know, no desktop machines support it. It also doesn't allow you to run integrated and discrete graphics at the same time.