Option for 2nd monitor not working

[SuzanG]

I have 2 monitors and used to be able to go in to control panel, display, settings and extend to the 2nd one.  Now it does not even show up.  Any suggestions?  The monitor that is working is plugged in to the same card, so I don't know what the problem could be.

[DaveLembke]

Sometimes the video cards have a driver utility that takes control over these options generally there is a tool to be found to access these features. Is this an ATI or nVidia video card or some other card to point you to the utility that might be present?

I have systems with both ATI (AMD) Radeon Video Cards as well as nVidia GeForce Video Cards and they each have a utility installed to configure dual displays and fine tune features.

[SuzanG]

I don't know what kind of card it is.  It was added by prior owner.  As mentioned in first post-it used to work and now it does not.  I opened the tower and the make is FATAL1TY.  Strange that the VGA side works but the DVI side does not.  I took the card out and put it back in hoping that when I restarted the computer it would search for drivers.  Nope, nothing. 
When I go to Device Manager there is nothing under Display adapters and there is a question mark next to "Other devices" and then under that it says Video Controller (VGA Compatible) with a question mark. 

Very strange and frustrating.

[patio]

We still need the card info though...
DLoad install and run Speccy and see if all the details for the card are listed...if so Post back with the details.

[SuzanG]

Operating System
   Windows XP Professional 32-bit SP3
CPU
   Intel Pentium 4 630
   Prescott 90nm Technology
RAM
   4.00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 265MHz (4-4-4-10)
Motherboard
   Dell Inc. 0RD203 (Microprocessor)
Graphics
   Standard Monitor (1024x768@1Hz)
   LogMeIn Mirror Driver
Storage
   149GB MAXTOR STM3160812AS (SATA)   39 °C
Optical Drives
   HP DVD Writer 1160d
Audio
   SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC

[patio]

What does it say for Graphics device ? ?
If it's not listed try SIW...
System Info for Windows...also Free...

[SuzanG]

Nevermind, I got it fixed.  When I took the card out and put it back in, the computer did not automoatically identify new hardware and offer to look for drivers.  I went into add hardware and chose the video card and it downloaded them-GeForce 8500 GT. 

So strange that it did this all of a sudden.  Glad I have dual monitors now though!!

thank you for your prompt effort to help. 

[DaveLembke]

Good to see that you got the problem worked out.

Looking at the info you shared... never knew that Dell used Fatal1ty gaming boards.

I had a similar Fatal1ty gaming board with SLI running Windows XP over 5 years ago with tons of RED surface mount LEDS everywhere so it came to life with a red glow in the tower, and integrated POST diagnostic Green LED readout. I got rid of this back in early 2009 when it sadly would not take a better than a Pentium 4 socket 775 CPU of which I had the 3GHz HT CPU, and games I played required a better ( true dual-core vs Hyperthreaded single-core ) CPU at the time because they were lagging out as the CPU was pegged at 90 to 100% for physical and virtual HT cores almost constant trying to keep up with Need for Speed Carbon and World of Warcraft. So I bought a cheap Dual-Core AMD CPU/Motherboard bundle which was 3x more powerful than it for $65 and was able to move my 1.5GB of 667Mhz DDR2 RAM and Video Card GeForce 7800GT over for the easiest Motherboard/CPU combo upgrade by using all the other original hardware from the Fatal1ty build which was all compatible with the newer dual-core upgrade. Sadly that Fatal1ty board would not take a Core 2 Duo, otherwise I'd probably be still running it today. I gave my board away to a friend who was hard up for a basic computer, and its still running today 5 years later. Good Motherboard, but sadly limited to Pentium 4 Class socket 775 CPU 

But the AMD Dual-Core Motherboard/CPU combo upgrade now made these games play without lag that I had prior. I almost bought a new video card thinking it was video card related, but the CPU showing it pegged stood out that I needed more processing power as well as these games were suggesting Dual-Core CPU's for proper gameplay in the game spec requirements.

Are you gaming with this system with modern games? If so which ones and what type of performance are you getting out of it?

Looks like yours is also the 3Ghz HT P4 same as what I was running. I forgot that it was the P4 630.