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stevensinsgrp
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January 11th, 2017 12:00
Optiplex 780 - Running Two Displays
Greetings:
I've been attempting to set up two monitors for my business for quite some time now. I can't seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I believe I've purchased all of the correct cords, dongles, etc. However when I try to set them up, EPIC fail. CONTROL PANEL -> DISPLAY -> CHANGE DISPLAY SETTINGS. Once I'm in CHANGE DISPLAY SETTINGS, only 1 monitor shows. I've tried to hit detect and get nothing.
I found some info online which stated, "Every graphics card provides at least two outputs, with most motherboards also providing display output and cheap access to a second graphics card."
Here are my questions:
1. How many graphics cards are in the Optiplex 780?
2. Do I need to add a graphics card?
3. If so, how do I add a graphics card?
4. What am I doing WRONG?
Thank you very much for your time and assistance in this matter.
Jessica Stevens
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Posted January 11th, 2017 17:00
Which form factor 780: desktop, mini-tower, small form, or ultra-small form?
Do you have an add-in (AMD or NVidia) video card? This system has built-in 'onboard' video but if there's an add-in video card, the add-in card automatically disables the onboard video ports. So if you're connecting the second monitor to an onboard port, it's not going to work.
Since we don't know which form factor you have, use this jpg of the back of the mini-tower as an example:
Onboard video ports are located in the area marked 13. Add-in video card ports will be in the area marked 14. So if you have video ports at 14, the ones in 13 won't work.
If you only have onboard video, you may not be able to connect a second monitor to a port at 13. If you have a video card (eg, at 14), the next question is if the card supports more than one monitor at a time. Only way to know for sure is to try connecting the second monitor to the video card, assuming the card supports the right ports for both your monitors.
If you only have onboard video or your video card only supports one monitor, you can either install a new add-in video card or you can get a USB>video dongle, where "video" is one of the ports supported by your second monitor, eg HDMI, DVI, VGA, etc.
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Posted January 12th, 2017 09:00
It says Attention:unsupported video configuration system halted.
This is true for the Optiplex family that visually looks like this.
Which is 620, 745, 755, 760, 780, 960, 980
RoHe
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Posted January 11th, 2017 17:00
Oh... here's an extra piece of info....
The manual says if you connect a monitor to the onboard DisplayPort video connector, it automatically disables the add-in video card. So if that's the onboard port you're using the add-in video card won't work...