8400GS PCI not recognized

irfan

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I hate having to post but after searching dells forums and on here I just am at a loss. I spent a few hours @ the computer tinkering and got no where, so now Im asking for advice.

I have a bunch of Dell Vostro 230 Mini Towers for my office running Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit, and on some of them I need to run 4 monitors. For this, I added 2 cards, an 8400GS PCI-E card (MSI) and an 8400 GS PCI card (PNY). The Vostro only has one PCIe16, one PCIe1, 2 PCI... so I had to do this combo.

I updated to the most recent nvidia drivers.

I checked in BIOS to set PEG/PCI as the displays (also tried PCI/PEG).

when both cards are plugged in, only the PCIe detects a display and it works just fine... but the PCI monitor isnt recognized at all. When I boot to PCI instead of PCIe, the PCI card works, BUT the driver is generic VGA and has very limited resolutions, and is VERY choppy, even moving windows around. I mean, its choppier than the IBM Thinkpad X31 running windows 7 from 2003 that Im typing this on.

I just cant get both cards to run at the same time. Does anyone have any tips? I cant get them both to display images, just one or the other.

I know im pushing the PSU limits when they run in full, but the PCI doesnt work well at all even without a PCIe connected.

Thank you,
 
Last edited:

My Computer

OS
Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit
Does the card work in a different machine?
 

My Computer

Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Pugh Technologies
OS
W7 Professional x64
CPU
AMD Athlon II X3 445 Rana 3.10 GHz
Motherboard
MSI 870A-G54
Memory
PNY XLR DDR3 1600 4x2GB
Graphics Card(s)
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 (fermi) 1GB GDDR5
Sound Card
Realtek ALC892 onboard
Monitor(s) Displays
ASUS VE205t, Viewsonic VX2035WM
Screen Resolution
1600x900, 1600x1050
Hard Drives
977GB Hitachi Hitachi HDS721010CLA332
244GB Western Digital WDC WD2500AAJS-65B4A0
488GB Western Digital WDC WD5000AAJS-00A8B0
488GB Western Digital WDC WD5000AAKS-00UU3A0
PSU
Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W
Case
ThermalTake Armor A90 Mid Tower
Cooling
3x 120mm in, 1x 120mm & 200mm out, self built hydro-cooler
Keyboard
Logitec 55
Mouse
Razer Deathadder
Internet Speed
20 Mbps D/L, 9 Mbps U/L
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