multiple monitor problems

[MKC]

Hi

I just bought a new laptop specifically so I could have 3 monitors in total [the one on my laptop plus 2 additional monitors]. The laptop has a video card with 2 ports [one VGA and one HDMI]. I was told I could set up the 2 additional monitors by connecting them to these ports. I have them all set up but can only get one of them to work [so I now have 2 monitors working including the one that is attached to the laptop]. I went to the control panel disply settings and played around with that for quite a while. It shows images of 3 monitors but the 3rd one is grayed out and I cannot get it to work. I can switch between having 1 or the other additional monitor to work but cannot get all 3 to work. It seems to me that all this should be straight forward but its not working for me. Hopefully I have explained all this right. Can anyone help?

THANKS!!

 

[mpcrsc562]

Are you sure that the laptop can handle 3 displays running at the same time? Maybe to have both external monitors to work, the laptop display may need to be disabled.

This is taken right from Gateways Support page: (Gateway Support - Specifications)

Dual independent display support

I take that to mean that the laptop's display is one independent display and it supports another (external) independent display also.

 

[stormy13]

Are you sure that the laptop can handle 3 displays running at the same time?

Unless the video is based on the new ATI HD 5xxx series (and even then not sure about on a laptop) it can't support more than 2 displays at a time. Specs for MKC's laptop,

Gateway Support - Specifications

the reason it can only support 2 at a time is the video card only has 2 RAMDAC's on it,

RAMDAC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

so the best you're going to get is 2 of the 3 (either the laptop screen with one of the externals, or both externals).