Tech Gurus - Please Help

dtrader98 · Mar 25, 2011

Quote from tomahawk:

PCI card: both analog and digital work

PCIe x16 card: digital works, analog doesn't.

This I deduced from the combination of trials I mentioned.

I'm reasonably sure I'm correct in saying it's the analog that's faulty ... narrower connection, blue as opposed to white. (No matter, I think ... one works and one doesn't)

If that's the case then, I wouldn't worry much about buying a new card.
They are getting proper signals from the bus, it's converting the signals that is the issue, which is in the card.

I don't know how FRY's return policy is these days, but I would just go buy one and ask if you can return if it doesn't work. Plug it in and if it doesn't work, return it. and tell them it just didn't work. Troubleshoot from there. Everything points (to me at least) that it should work.

tomahawk · Mar 25, 2011

Quote from dtrader98:

If that's the case then, I wouldn't worry much about buying a new card.
They are getting proper signals from the bus, it's converting the signals that is the issue, which is in the card.

So you are saying buy the card, don't worry much that it's something else? ( ... I realize nothing is a guarantee )

Thanks.

Bolimomo · Mar 25, 2011

Quote from tomahawk:

Edit: I guess my real question is, does it make sense that one port of the card works and one doesn't? Do these things go bad in that way?

I think it is certainly possible, though I have not experienced such with many dual cards I have over the years. I have over a dozen dual cards (mostly EVGA and PNY Technologies, both use NVidia chips). The one card that went south on me was the AGP bus card (popped capacitors).

All my Samsung monitors are behaving fairly well. (Over 10 of them, 22" - 24").

The only pos monitor I had was a LG make. Broke in a trip because I didn't think of labelling the luggage as fragile and (I saw it) the airport porters tossed the luggage around with the monitor in it on the tarmac. From that point on no more LG product for me. (And always label my luggage as fragile too.)

Scataphagos · Mar 25, 2011

Quote from tomahawk:

"...
Edit: I guess my real question is, does it make sense that one port of the card works and one doesn't? Do these things go bad in that way?

Yes, they can. Has happened to me before.

tomahawk · Mar 25, 2011

Quote from Scataphagos:

Yes, they can. Has happened to me before.

Ok, thanks. Good to know.

I have a correction to what I said before. The monitor was grayed out before because it had been disabled. Now it has been enabled again, and is no longer grayed out in the Control Panel Display Properties. But still no picture.

In case I need a sanity check on the ana/digi thing, here is the analog cable I'm looking at ...

http://www.google.com/products/cata...X&ei=0ySNTZH-Gejf0gGC89GjCw&ved=0CIMBEPMCMAA#

and here's the digi ...

http://www.google.com/products/cata...X&ei=JCaNTYKBCaqO0QHL-e2zCw&ved=0CIoBEPMCMAM#

tomahawk · Mar 31, 2011

Well I've been going through hell trying to get a replacement card, first finding the right one then getting the order right.

It seems the exact one I had that went bad - VisionTek Radeon X1300 PCIe-16 256 Dual Monitor, is nowhere to be found. However I did find one with regular PCI interface, not Express. So this is exactly like the other one I have that works (as stated before, I had one PCI and one PCIe-16).

Can anyone tell me a reason why I would need one card to be on the PCIe-16 bus, or can they both be regular PCI and work fine? It seems to me there was going to be an issue with which would be the primary, but I can't recall.

Thanks.

Bolimomo · Mar 31, 2011

Quote from tomahawk:

Can anyone tell me a reason why I would need one card to be on the PCIe-16 bus, or can they both be regular PCI and work fine? It seems to me there was going to be an issue with which would be the primary, but I can't recall.

Should be no reason that you must have one PCIe-16 and one PCI. It only depends on the availability of the bus types on your computer.

When PCIe bus first came out, many box makers tried to provide some kind of transition to ease the pain of customers having to buy new hardware (as PCIe and PCI are not interchangeable)... they would provide a mix. 2 PCI and 1 PCIe, or 2PCIe and 1 PCI, or something like that... so they can still use their PCI-based cards. If you bought a box around 2007 - 2008 or so that's typically the case. But the computers you buy today - PCI has been completely phased out. All you would see is PCIe.

If your box has >2 PCI buses available, just use both PCI cards.

tomahawk · Apr 1, 2011

Quote from Bolimomo:

Should be no reason that you must have one PCIe-16 and one PCI. It only depends on the availability of the bus types on your computer.

When PCIe bus first came out, many box makers tried to provide some kind of transition to ease the pain of customers having to buy new hardware (as PCIe and PCI are not interchangeable)... they would provide a mix. 2 PCI and 1 PCIe, or 2PCIe and 1 PCI, or something like that... so they can still use their PCI-based cards. If you bought a box around 2007 - 2008 or so that's typically the case. But the computers you buy today - PCI has been completely phased out. All you would see is PCIe.

If your box has >2 PCI buses available, just use both PCI cards.

Thanks Boli, that makes me feel a bit more comfortable. I know I have at least 3 PCI slots besides the PCIe x16 and the PCIe x1. I have a slight concern that not using PCIe will be slower for charts (I run about 16-17 charts), but at this point I'm ready to try anything.

Bolimomo · Apr 1, 2011

You are welcome tomahawk. Forgot to mention that I ran a HP box with 2 x PCI cards and 1 x PCIe-16 card to drive 6 monitors under Windows Vista for a couple of years. But mine were not Radeon. I used PNY Technologies cards, NVidia chips. They ran okay.

Good luck and let us know how it went.

tomahawk · Apr 5, 2011

Quote from Bolimomo:

You are welcome tomahawk. Forgot to mention that I ran a HP box with 2 x PCI cards and 1 x PCIe-16 card to drive 6 monitors under Windows Vista for a couple of years. But mine were not Radeon. I used PNY Technologies cards, NVidia chips. They ran okay.

Good luck and let us know how it went.

Nice setup. May I ask what you're currently using?

Well I'm on my 3rd try for ordering this damn card. 1st one, they emailed me 3 days after I ordered it and said it was not in stock after all. 2nd one (from another vedor), got it ... was the wrong card (I wasn't sure of the part # I needed because the descriptions are often similar and they don't always have a picture. The Visiontek website does not show part #'s for some odd reason). So now I'm waiting for the card ordered from a 3rd vendor and it should be here Thursday.

Thanks for sharing your experience.