Comments on: New Dell desktop – get a dual monitor?

By: Ronald

Ronald — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:46:16 +0000

So basically, what I can gather from this (and other sites) is that the Radeon 2400 as supplied in my Optiplex 755 will not give me an extended display in spite of the user manual explicitly stating it wil, using the supplied DVI-I to VGA-DVI-D splitter cable…

I’ve tried everything, and I know the splitter cable is not faulty because when I unplug the DVI part, the initial boot screen shows on the VGA monitor – but as the machine continues to load, it goes blank (in contrast, when both are connected, the boot screen is ONLY on the DVI monitor)

So basically, Dell lie when they show this is supposed to run two monitors/extended desktop.

I had initially been running a second graphics card but ran out of available slots when I installed a second Ethernet card (long story), so it’s back to the drawing board….

I CAN get an Ethernet card that will fit the short PCI slot and re-install the old graphics card, but I think I will instead invest in a much better graphics card, with multiple outputs…

Oh, the joys of computers…..

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 23:56:57 +0000

OK, I FINALLY got my dual monitors working on my Vostro 200 slim. Extended view and all. It was much simpler than I initially thought. All I needed was this graphics card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102829

I found it even cheaper on eBay. The card is a low profile card and it has one DVI hookup and one HDMI hookup shown…what it also has though, is another bracket with a VGA hookup…this is attached via a cord to the card itself. Most pictures online don’t show it attached but it plugs right into the card (mine actually came already attached)

So you will end up with two slots stacked on top of each other (one with a DVI hookup and the other with a VGA hookup) – Just plug your monitors in, install your drivers, and change your display properties to dual monitor extended view…and voila, you have your dual monitor setup.

I thought I would need to use the HDMI plug but I didn’t have to. I hope this helps! I will make a video of the setup and post a link to it here soon.

By: Corey

Corey — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:04:09 +0000

I just put a video card into my Slim 200 Vostro and since the computer won’t run both cards at the same time I ordered a splitter to split the DVI cables from the new video card I put in. Problem is that identical picture is coming up on the monitors and I can’t get them to change and drag anything across to the other etc on the view? Any help anyone please?

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:55:55 +0000

hey so if i get a Y cable for my Vostro 200 and plug it into 2 monitor i would get extented desktop?

By: Ren

Ren — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:26:25 +0000

Thanks Chris for sharing your find.
The second option looks pretty good to me. The card looks nice, and it’s only $55. I spent over $100 on my card. And it was a refurbished one from Dell. If you have a monitor that can take HDMI input it will work great.
Next time I probably won’t get a slim form PC. It doesn’t really save me a lot of space and the option is just so limited with the PCI-E slots.
Looking forward to your video and setup.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 11:19:09 +0000

I’ll answer my own question here…that card will not fit the slim case. After much research it seems like my options are:

A) Copy your above setup (which means I need to buy a new graphics card and splitter cable)

B) Buy a low profile card with DVI and HDMI hookups and then use a HDMI to DVI cable. Here is the best graphics card I found for this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102829

Very similar solutions. If and when I get this to work, I will make a video to show others exactly how to do it.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 08:51:33 +0000

Great post. Thank you so much for this. I have been looking all over for info on how to get dual monitors on my Dell Vostro 200 slim. I have the VGA plug integrated with my hard drive and I just added the Radeon 2400 pro card and it did not work even though a Dell rep told me it would.

Now they are telling me to get this card:

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Gaming_Video_Cards/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=19&sku=A2556607

The card is a low profile card and actually has both VGA and DVI plugs. Do you think this will work? The Dell rep I spoke to today said it would but I’m still skeptical. The card is a PCI-E card and that is the kind of slot I have open. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

By: 1.618

1.618 — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:57:14 +0000

Hi Patrick,
The 2nd monitor is used as extended desktop, they are used to display different apps.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:57:51 +0000

Hi there,
Are you having both monitors on same contents or diff (Extended).
Like you can have your outlook on one and the other one with something else?

Thanks!

By: 1.618

1.618 — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:18:41 +0000

When I purchased my computer I selected the Radeon card (not sure whether it was 2400), hoping it would support dual monitor. And obviously it didn’t.
I got the new card from dell support. It is “256MB ATI Radeon X1300PRO”, and this information was displayed in ATI’s Catalyst Control Center software. I got the splitter separately on eBay.
Hope this helps and good luck!