up vote 2 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I currently have a Dell Studio XPS laptop that I connect to an external monitor with the standard VGA output. I have also bought a Display port to DVI connector that I would like to connect to another monitor.

I have Windows 7 and have been unable to get windows to extend the desktop to both of the external monitors at once.

Is it possible to do this?

link|improve this question
feedback

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

The Studio XPS has a Radeon HD5730, which should support Eyefinity. Using the VGA port and DisplayPort simultaneously should be possible; however, you will not be able to use the built-in display at the same time. You can either have the internal display and one external display, or two external displays, but not all three. If that still isn't working, try updating your graphics drivers to the latest version from ATI (not from Dell's site) and see if it works then.

link|improve this answer
I see, so it can only do any two displays, not two external plus internal? – Failpunk Nov 18 '10 at 8:28
Right, the internal reason for this boils down to the fact that there's only a pair of RAMDAC's within the card itself. The RAMDAC is the physical memory locations which the card has which are turned into the display. (they probably aren't called RAMDAC's anymore since they aren't turned into analog signals) - but the point remains the same, there simply aren't enough "internal video memory->display" components on the video card. – altCognito Nov 18 '10 at 8:31
Ah yes, they are called TMDS now -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… – altCognito Nov 18 '10 at 8:32
Yeah, that makes sense. So the only solution is to have an external device that will handle the extra displays. – Failpunk Nov 20 '10 at 4:20
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

The other solution would be to use an external graphics card, from USB out, such as the one found below.

Graphics Card External

link|improve this answer
I didn't know such an external card existed – Failpunk Nov 20 '10 at 4:18
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.