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PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 7:03 pm
by Giuseppe Barberio
Neil,
How do you set up dual monitors or how could I just run my Dell LCD monitor off my laptop. I can't seem to get my configuration to work correctly when using my Dell lcd. The windows task bar & a little of the right side of my screen are cropped of when looking at the Dell lcd. My Gateway shows everything correctly at 1280x800.

Also my Dell lcd looks as though the resolution is off. I set it for 1280x1024 but my Icons look way to big.

I appreciate any help you could give me.

Sincerely,

Giuseppe.

PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 12:17 am
by Neil Blanchard
Hi Giuseppe,

You should check to see if the monitor is being detected correctly -- i.e. it should be listed in the Display Properties (and not just the Plug 'n Play monitor). You then need to set one or the other as Primary, and you need to Extend Desktop onto both.

Now, depending on the video card and it's driver, you may or may not be able to have the two monitors at different resolutions -- if not, then try to update the video driver. Is the Start bar extended over both monitors, or is it just on the primary one?

Second monitor on Dell Laptop

PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 10:24 pm
by DBrennfoerder
My Dell Inspiron 9100 automatically finds the second monitor. Right click on the desktop for "Display Properties", and pick "properties", "settings". Mine shows 2 monitors (one is half-toned when the second monitor is not attached).
Pick "advanced", "displays" to see the additional monitor options available. This is with the ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 video card that I have. I have four options. One shows the original laptop panel and is selected. Two other choices are "monitor" and the fourth option is "TV". When I have a monitor or projector attached, on of the "monitor" choices is also selected.
I use a projector that has 800 x 600 resolution for client presentations, and a 1024 x 768 monitor at my desk in the office. The laptop has no trouble handling the varying resolutions.
Please note: When you "extend Windows" as Niel mentions, the actual image that is handled by the video card extend from the corner of laptop window to the diagonally opposite corner of an imaginary rectangle that bounds both windows. You can easily verify this by doing a "print screen" when both screens are active and seeing that there is one large rectangle, not two adjacent ones. This is a minor inconvenience, but must be remembered when I am doing DataCAD work in front of clients using the projector. I have my toolbars and dialog boxes on the laptop, the drafting board on the projector. Occasionally, the mouse will drop into "no-man's land" off of both screens and must remember the relationship of the two screens on "display properties/settings" to know where to move the mouse to make it visible again.
This is my typical setup:Image
This is how I use it on site, the laptop image is the larger, the projector is the smaller (using 1024x768 here): Image
With the projector at 800x600: Image
Setup allows the alternate anywhere, top: Image
or corner (makes the "no-man's land" appear much larger): Image

My current favorite monitor: Samsung 204T

PostPosted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 1:19 pm
by Neil Blanchard
Greetings,

Here's my current favorite monitor, and it is now down to $490 shipped:

Image

It is 1600x1200, very bright, very crisp especially when using the DVI input, narrow bezel, fully adjustable stand -- what's not to like? :twisted:

PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 2:27 pm
by Neil Blanchard
Image

Yikes!

PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 6:34 pm
by Ted B
And as an added bonus, you can boil water for coffee or tea on the Graphics Card that drives that array.

PostPosted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 7:02 pm
by Ted B
Now that the price of 19" and 21" wide-screens is dropping, I wondering if there's any real difference between two regular 19/21" flatscreen and two 19/21" widescreens? It's time to replace the 15" flatscreen and 600mHz box with a faster, larger HD-capacity box. I'm not doing super-intense CAD work, so I'm thinking that I don't need a super-graphics card; and that savings(?) would offset the overall-price of the extra flat-screen.

I'm getting too-old for squinting at the screen!


The old machine I'll keep as the correspondence/billing Admin-machine, intra-office network and DSL-hub. Any immediate thoughts, or caveats?

PostPosted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 9:22 pm
by Neil Blanchard
Hello Ted,

Two of any size/shape monitor is better than a single! :twisted: All else being equal, I would go for two 4:3 aspect 1600x1200 20.1" monitors with narrow bezels (so they sit closer together). Like these, for example:

Image

But this would certainly be a sweet set up, too:

Image

There is another big difference, the 4:3 monitor can be pivoted up to "portrait", which comes in handy sometimes. I like the height to be a little taller in proportion to the width.

PostPosted: Sat May 24, 2008 7:20 am
by Neil Blanchard
Hello,

Since the images links in my original post seem to be broken, I'll repost similar screen captures. Here's my 4:3 20" 1600x1200 and 5:4 17" 1280x1024 monitors with a "maximum DataCAD" set up:
Image

Here's how I use the Layer Manager:
Image

Here's the Symbol Browser browse dialog open:
Image

The next one is hard for me to duplicate -- because my current monitors are different sizes, so extending the main drawing window across them both won't work the way it does when they are the same size.

I can view a photo on the second monitor and draw in DataCAD -- this is one of the things I do all the time:

Image

PostPosted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 1:53 pm
by Neil Blanchard
Here's a crazy-price-is-no-object monitor:

Image

...it's curved, and ultra-wide -- all for just $6,500!

PostPosted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:46 pm
by MtnArch
Almost like the old Disneyland CircleVision! Does the $6,500 include the SurroundSound system to go along with it? :wink:

Re: Dual Monitors -- why I use them.

PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 2:19 pm
by Neil Blanchard
Major thread bump - I've got a new dual 24" monitor setup (3840x1080):
Dual 24in Monitors.png
Dual 24in Monitors.png (166.74 KiB) Viewed 73697 times

These are Acer models that NewEgg had on sale - $130ea shipped. :shock: :o

Very nice units, but not as sweet as the HP unit I have at home, which is an IPS monitor and a very sturdy and fully adjustable stand, built-in USB hub, etc.

Re: Dual Monitors -- why I use them.

PostPosted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 9:05 am
by Neil Blanchard
I upgraded to a dual monitor stand - look Ma, more desk space!

ImageImage

These are my 24" monitors - the stand is intended for up to 27" monitors. It clamps to the desk, and has very good cable management, and is quite sturdy. (It's on sale at NewEgg for $50 until Monday: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824992149 They also have a desk stand version for $48.) It is height adjustable and tilt and rotate, if you want them in portrait, even.

Oh, and NewEgg also has 24" IPS monitors (in-plane switching meaning they look good from wide angles), and very high contrast - with internal power supplies even - on sale for $100 each until Monday, with a promo code: EMCRBRD22

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824106003