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Dual Monitor Issue

n_tops

New member
Got a new system with a Quadro4 750xl which support dual monitors. Hooked up two monitors fine, however whenever both are enabled Pro/E will only run in Win32_gdi mode and not OpenGL accelerated. Tried different drivers, and a dozen other tricks to no avail.



Anyone know how to enable OpenGL acceleration on a dual monitor system?



System is an Athlon XP 2200+ 1GB Ram running Windows XP Pro.
 
The cause of the problem is the fact that Windows OS's disable OpenGL acceleration once they detect more than one screen in operation.



Found a resolution for the issue. Using Nvidia's nView use the spanned desktop rather than the standard dual desktop. This then behaves as one screen for the OS.



Just thought I'd post my findings for anyone else that has the problem.
 
I had a similar problem with my Matrox G400 in dual monitor mode. The latest drivers offer the option for Separate resolutions and color palettes for both displays. This option solved another problem I had in DualHead mode. Whenever I openned our legacy CAD software, Cadkey, the aspect ratio was wrong in the part display window. Rounds looked like eggs. I had to disable DualHead mode, start Cadkey and then switch back to DualHead mode to get it to work correctly.



I hadn't thought to experiment with OpenGL again since making this switch. I just did and voile, my Matrox card now works just dandy in OpenGL graphics mode.



The only negative I've found is that the taskbar only spans the bottom of one monitor and quickly becomes full. I may try making it double high and see if that's easier to live with.



Bernie Hayden

XKL LLC
 
Were you able to get Pro/E to open windows on one monitor only. I have tried setting windows_scale and reserve_menu_space with no luck.
 
n_tops, Did this approach fry your graphics card? I did the same setup with nvidia. After a week, my icons and any open programs dissapeared. I rebooted, and after an hour it happened again. When I rebooted the second time, the fan on the graphics card surged, and then the card died. Have you had any problems with yours? I have the Quadro4 900 XGL.
 
n_tops, Did this approach fry your graphics card? I did the same setup with nvidia. After a week, my icons and any open programs dissapeared. I rebooted, and after an hour it happened again. When I rebooted the second time, the fan on the graphics card surged, and then the card died. Have you had any problems with yours? I have the Quadro4 900 XGL.
 
n_tops, Did this approach fry your graphics card? I did the same setup with nvidia. After a week, my icons and any open programs dissapeared. I rebooted, and after an hour it happened again. When I rebooted the second time, the fan on the graphics card surged, and then the card died. Have you had any problems with yours? I have the Quadro4 900 XGL.
 
I have since left the company so I can't guarentee that its still working, However the second machine I installed before I left was a MaxPac P4 2.53 from maxvision, with a Quadro4 750. I know this machine is still running dual monitor set up, and the case isn't exactly designed for cool running.



When we first set it up it blew a bridging card (that rotated the AGP slot 90deg to fit in the case) that was replaced it ran flawlessly.



Never found a solution for keeping the menues on the same screen as Pro/E other than rescaling each window after it opens, then using acticate window to refresh the menu position.
 
Good afternoon gents. We were given the option today to go with either a 20 LCD flat panel, CRT's (we could use 2) or a 24 widescreen CRT. We are looking into the various monitors and seeing which video cards we are going to be getting in the new computers (looking at the itaniums from HP) and trying to come up with the best solution.



I don't know if I could get used to the dual monitor set-up very quick, having the black borders around the monitors between the images, so the widescreens are looking good right now.



What do you guys think?

We are going to be upgrading from Sun unix boxes to PC's finally. My computer is slow.
 
I'm using a Sony 24 wide screen CRT at 1920 x 1200 with a Quadro FX 500. I love this setup for Pro/E. With the multiple desktops set up I can run office apps on one, Pro/E on another and FEA on a third. This is not the highest end nVidia card by any means but it seems stable and very cost effective. If you are looking at Itaniums then you have a much bigger budget than I do!
 
I'm using two 19 CRTs. I'd have a hard time adjusting to a single monitor again. The more screen real estate the better; especially if you're running more than one application at a time. Even with pro it's nice sometimes to have two parts open using full screen mode on each monitor. I'm using a Matrox G400. It's long in the tooth now but still works just fine. I forget the terminology but one dual screen mode runs the menu bar across both screens and the other has the menu bar across only only the primary monitor. That's the way I use it for a number of compatibility issues.



How about using the 20 LCD for your promary monitor an stick a 19 CRT off to the side as the secondary monitor. The secondary monitor can be driven by any old SVGA card.



-Bernie-
 
I have heard that in the near future (2005-2006 maybe) Windows OS will go to a wide screen format. This is why we are beginning to see wide screens on laptops.
 
I have justinstalled an ATI FireGL T2 128 together with a 21.3" iiyama LCD connected to DVI and a standard 17" CRT connected to the VGA. The set-up works like a dream. The PC spec is a P4 2.8GHz with 1Gb RAM. The LCD screen is the primary and the CRT is the secondary, the taskbar is on the primary display only.


I can't see how I coped with just a single screen. That's my penny's worth!


Red
 
I have a ATI FireGL T2 128 as well, with a Dell 20" 1600x1200 LCD, with the Thinkpad T41p Laptop monitor as my secondary display. Ive found however that ProE crashes more often than not (compared to just using a single screen). Any ideas on fixes or solutions... possible updates on Proe Wildfire 2?
 
I don't have anymore crashes than when I had a single screen. Have you got the latest drivers or the drivers certified by PTC for the FireGL card? Could it be you using the Thinkpad as your secondary monitor? My secondary monitor is just a standard 14" CRT.


Not much help I'm afraid, sorry.


Red
 
For quadro4 users:



Best use 42.53 drivers, the latest are not good, i had the same problem
as the thread starter, and now i have full features in both monitors,
the part will show up perfect even when rotated between my 17" and 21"
crt
 
We had best results on an XGL900 with nVidia driver 43.54 under Win2k
which not only maximises Pro/E to the first monitor but also many
OpenGL and DirectX games. Most of the newer drivers would immediately
disable DirectDraw when the Pro/E OpenGL Custom settings were selected.



We also found we had to disable spanning whenever we wanted to run Doom 3 or most of the menus were unreadable.
 

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