dual card trouble... 8800gt & 5200fx

Ok... sorry that my first post is a cry for help.

On XP I was running two cards. The 8800gt for my main LCD and TV and a 5200fx for my two side monitors. Worked fine on XP... had to use different drivers for each card though (extracted the 5200fx drivers, then installed them via the device manager to the 5200).

On 7, if the 5200 is plugged in, 7 will not "see" the monitor on the 8800gt. I thought perhaps the 5200 wasn't compatible with 7, but if I install the 7 drivers for the fx series cards then Aero and everything works.

My question is, why will 7 not let me use monitors on both cards simultaneously?

Anyone else had this issue?


Thanks!

In bios, set the primary display adapter to be PCI-e. That 8800 is the PCI-e variety of the card, correct?

yes the 8800 is pci-e and the 5200fx is pci. i will give that a shot now and let you know how it goes.

ok... unfortunately in the video settings of the bios there is only an option about how to handle the on-board graphics when a secondary video card is plugged in. maybe a bios update will help. i will check for a bios update on the dell website.

until then, any other suggestions?

set it to use the on-board unless there is a pci card available. going to try it now.

gave that a shot... still had the same problems. even got the BSOD a few times. any other suggestions?

Post the dump in .rar file.

Copy and paste them from C:\Windows\Minidump to another folder. Rar them with Winrar then attach to a post.

minidump folder is empty. are the files hidden?

Try using device manager to install proper driver for the 8800.

If that 8800 and old card are not both part of the latest NVidia driver packge (if old is excluded and uses something different) - you are not going to make this work easily, if at all. Best to use a more updated card to drive 2nd and 3rd monitors. That should have no issues then. Just install driver like normal from the .exe.

I don't think the minidump folder or files within are hidden, but possibly.

But I am going to attempt something for you if you want. Give me the hardware id of 5200. Right click in device manager. Properties. Details tab. Change dropdown to hardware ids. Copy and paste the results to here.

I will make the "new" driver package work with the old card and then there is a reasonable chance. But not likely.

i will look into a new card. i will put the 5200 back in my box in a bit and let you know what the hardware ID is. thanks!

gave me this when i plugged it in this time


i'll restart, but i'm assuming it will just turn off my 8800 drivers and run either the 8800 or the 5200 on the weaker vga drivers...

*restarted

"This device cannot start. (Code 10)" for the 5200
and this in the event viewer "The NVIDIA Display Driver Service service has reported an invalid current state 32."

hope this info helps!

I have a thought that this may actually work. Try out this recipe.

Download the driver for your 8800GT if you don't have the install file handy now. Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers

Extract it to C:\NVIDIA

Download my attachment and extract from it. Copy and paste NV_DISP.inf directly over existing one in C:\NVIDIA by overwriting (at this folder C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\191.07\WinVista_Win7\English)

Right click on the 5500FX in the device manager. Update driver software. Browse. Let me pick. Have disk. Browse. Now double click on the NV_DISP.inf in C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\191.07\WinVista_Win7\English

Hit ok and let it install.

Reboot.

If that didn't work, try it again and then do the same for 8800 card. So do both before rebooting.

If that doesn't work, try updating driver(s) with that method above for each card, only in reverse order as suggested.

Try different things and you may be able to get them to work together with this .inf I made.

Good luck.