S3 Virge dx/gx
Robert Day
the 2nd monitor being attached to an s3 virge dx/gx
card. Having upgraded to win XP I find the graphics card
does not work hence the 2nd monitor is blank. Device
Manager says that 'This device cannot start (Code 10)'.
I followed the instructions in the troubleshooter and I
think perhaps I need a driver for the card that works
with XP. The S3 site does not help and when I search
relevant forums I find many others asking the same
question but no answer. Where can I find the driver I
need? Thanks.
Bob Young
wrote:
>Under Win ME I have been running a dual monitor setup,
>the 2nd monitor being attached to an s3 virge dx/gx
>card. 'This device cannot start (Code 10)'.
> Where can I find the driver I need?
First some basic information about Win2k/XP's implementation of
multimonitor:
0. The architecture of Win2K/XP's implementation of multimonitor is
completely different from that of Win9X. The fact that combination XYZ
video cards worked under Win 98/SE/ME means absolutely nothing under
Win2K/XP.
1. From the hardware's point of view there is one and only one primary
display, all other cards are secondary displays.
2. From the hardware's point of view, which graphics card is the
primary display has absolutely nothing to do with the "Use this device
as primary display" checkbox under the settings tab of display
properties.
3. From the hardware's point of view, the primary display is
determined by system BIOS at boot time. The display that is active at
power on, and thus displays memory count, and POST information is the
primary display, period. For purposes of multimonitor this is the only
definition of primary display.
4. Primary display can usually be changed in BIOS by selecting PCI/AGP
as the default.
5. Any graphics card with a suitable Win2K/XP driver can be a primary
display.
6. Only certain graphics chips are capable of being secondary
displays. All nVidia chips, Later ATI chips, and some Matrox chips
will work as secondaries. ** NO S3 chip ever produced will work as a
secondary display. period. exclamation point. **
For ATI, the Rage chips are Not capable of being secondaries:
http://support.ati.com/infobase/3663.html
7. If you have one video card that is compatible as a secondary, and
one that is not, you can have dual monitors. In order for such a
combination to work you *must* use #4 above to make the non compatible
secondary into the primary display. Later you can have the taskbar,
icons etc. displayed on either monitor you desire by using the "Use
this device as primary display" checkbox under the settings tab of
display properties.
--
Cheers
Bob Young
Sr. Software Engineer
NuCore Technology
WWW.NuCoreTech.Com
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