Dell Optiplex 740 (Enhanced) Dual Monitors

by **TheIcarusEffect** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:31 pm

Hey,

I have a large number of Dell Optiplex 740's my organization purchased to use in classrooms. I need to have dual-monitor support on them. I have PCI graphics cards to put into them to accomplish this (in conjunction with the onboard video cards already in them), but I have no BIOS option to use both of them. Is there any way of using both? I'm not very concerned with warranty or anything, I just want to know if it's possible. I need them all up and running in a few weeks, this could mean serious trouble for the organization.

by **TheIcarusEffect** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 12:33 am

Nobody has any idea?

by **stonent** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 12:45 am

You need the special PCI Express card that Dell sells that lets you use dual monitors (One on VGA and one on DVI). We order all of our dells that way. You can get them off ebay for pretty cheap as well.

The card looks like this: http://compeve.com/images/Silicon_add2.jpg

Alternately...

On my Optiplex 745 at work I have the onboard video, DVI, and added a 10 year old ATI Rage Pro card. In order to make it work I have to have the Rage Pro card as the main video card in windows. I tell the bios to use the PCI card as the main card. So when it powers on my third monitor displays the windows loading screen.

I have reassigned my far left monitor to be the primary display after windows loads so my logon screen and task bar appear on that screen.

When I go into the multi monitor setting in display properties, it looks like

[2] [3] [1]

ALSO:

If you put in any other PCI Express card other than the one that Dell sells. The onboard video will automatically turn off. In that case, you need to use a PCI Express card with dual outputs.

by **edwin** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 8:57 am

If you put in any other PCI Express card other than the one that Dell sells. The onboard video will automatically turn off. In that case, you need to use a PCI Express card with dual outputs.

That is the crux of the story, you cannot have both onboard and a PCIe working in common unless you buy the Dell one.

by **stonent** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 7:09 pm

Yeah the card dell sells is just a dumb card that adds an output to the onboard video. It doesn't actually have any video guts itself.

by **MasterSplinter** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 11:40 pm

I was having the same issue... My company has only Dell PCs but no half-height Dual Display PCI/PCIe cards (for this half-height case). The task was to get the onboard display and another display card to play nice.

I Google’d around to find suggestions… found this forum.

I did get it to work… but I think it had to do with the ATI Catalyst Control Center software.

I tried a few combinations of Dell video cards… and found that the ones that didn’t support the ATI Catalyst Control Center didn’t allow use of the onboard VGA…unless it was accompanied by a card that the ATI Catalyst Control Center liked. At one point I had a 4 display output if I wanted.

ATI Catalyst Control Center won’t run unless it finds compatible hardware.

In the end, I was using the ATI Radeon HD 2400 (PCIe, DVI) and the ATI Radeon Xpress 200 series (onboard, VGA). The PC I was working on was a Dell OptiPlex 320.

It was set in the BIOS for Onboard/Card as the Primary Video.

by **edwin** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 11:58 am

The PC I was working on was a Dell OptiPlex 320.

which works differently from the 74x series

by **mitzlpitlick** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 7:30 am

Can anyone give me the model # for that card or at least the name of the card.