Vostro 220s Dual Display

Paul--doesn't the ATI Radeon have both DVI and VGA outputs?  It can drive two video cards.  On a Vostro 200 I added a PCI video card (Visontek x1050) and was able to drive a third monitor.

Regards,
Gerry

your only choice is to obtain a video card with two outputs. There is no way to alter the bios

The ATI Radeon HD3450 card includes just a DVI onboard and is low profile.  The Bios in the Vostro 220s only supports the add in card OR the original on board card, thereby defeating the possibility of running two video displays simutaneously.  I was hoping some one knew of a way to disable this in the Vostro's bios, or had another method to utilize the current hardware in a dual display configuration.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks,

Paul

Of course, now that I think about it, I have no idea if the bios will disable the USB video card when something is plugged into the on-board vga...

I am about to order a 220s and have the same (similar?) issue - connecting 2 vga monitors.  here's my suggestion.  forget the ATI card.  buy an IOGEAR External Video Adaptor USB 2.0 .  Use the integrated VGA and this adaptor!   I purchased one last week for $60 (from CDW) set it up on an IBM notebook and it works perfectly.  I had not heard great things about USB video cards, but i have no complatins about this one so far.

Jim

Paul, We are in the same situation.  We ordered the secondary video card, which only has one output connection. Dell recommended us to purchase from another company a dvi splitter. Did your system come with anything that allows you to hook up two monitors without purchasing another part? The analog video card does appear to have "two" displays in contorl panel just like the add on card.. Perhaps you could purchase the low cost vga splitters, and have two analog outputs that way.. we are not very happy with these systems, the realtek network cards are causing huge problems, which require power to be unplugged completely to resolve..

Paul,

We are in the same situation.  We ordered the secondary video card, which only has one output connection.

Dell recommended us to purchase from another company a dvi splitter.

Did your system come with anything that allows you to hook up two monitors without purchasing another part?

The analog video card does appear to have "two" displays in contorl panel just like the add on card..

Perhaps you could purchase the low cost vga splitters, and have two analog outputs that way..

we are not very happy with these systems, the realtek network cards are causing huge problems, which require power to be unplugged completely to resolve..

I ran across this. If you have the add on card that has both a DVI and HDMI port, you can use an HDMI to DVI cable on the HDMI port.

Connect one monitor using the DVI cable. Connect the other using the HDMI (male) to DVI (male) cable

Now you have 2 DVI links on the card and it works flawlessly.

There are adapters to convert HDMI to DVI but then you need the HDMI cable it is cheaper to buy the conversion cable instead of making your own

I suggest you to go for XFX ATI RADEON HD 4350 which is delivered with low profile brakcet which includes DVI & S-Video port on low profile bracket! I've just installed it today on My Vostro 220s Slim Tower & oh My My.. it's worth paying for it!

Hoping I can get some help here setting up a DELL Vostro 200 to run two monitors. 

I added an ATI Radeon HD2400 XT video card to one of our VOSTRO 200 systems.  The site I bought the video card from (ebay??) said the card was compatible.  I also purchased that particular card because I saw in a forum posting where it worked for someone else though I can't find that posting now.  Grrrr.

The problem I am seeing follows.

With a monitor plugged into the onboard VGA ( it doesn't matter if a monitor is plugged into the new PCI-E Radeon or not), on power-up I get a message telling me that a video card has been detected and that I should unplug the onboard monitor and move it to the video card and reboot and all should work OK.  OR  hit F1 to continue which then allows me to boot up to Win XP using the Onboard video.

If I do as told and move the monitor to the video card, I get absolutely nothing on bootup.  Both video monitors stay blank. 

Other info and questions.

As stated earlier in this thread the BIOS only allows me two options for video.  [Onboard or PCI].  With the video card installed the BIOS is set to [PCI].

If I try to instll the ATI driver for the monitor I am told that no hardware was found.  Catalyst aborts after messaging that no compatible hardware was found to install.

The ATI Radeon HD2400 comes with a dongle that allows two vga monitors to be hooked up to it.

I have been fighting this battle part time for two weeks and need to resolve it because I have four other VOSTRO 200's that I need to add monitors to.

Meanwhile I'll look at the Radeon 4350 guessing there is not much difference between it and the 200.

Any cost effective (preferred) or other ideas are welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Fred

well it seems you bought different card. but as I mentioned I've Vostro 220s Slim Tower with 250W power supply & installed XFX Radeon HD 4350 with low profile bracket wich came with it, it's working great! I'm connecting TV with PC using S-Video port... you should have tried that...

here is the link I bought that card from...

http://cgi.ebay.ca/NEW-Radeon-HD4350-HD-4350-512-Low-Profile-Card-PCI-E-2_W0QQitemZ170337117458QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCC_Video_TV_Cards?hash=item27a8e22512&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Thanks for the quick reply.

  What do I need to run two monitors, in lieu of a TV.  If I take off the VGA cable to fit low profile all I have left is the DVI and S-Vid outs.  Our monitors only take DIV or VGA.

Thanks,

Fred

then you will need DVI splitter.. which gives you 2 out put of DVI...

Okay Folks.  After much research I am told this will work.  Notice the word "told" since I have not tried it myself.  pccables.com has part number 01750, which is a DVI-I splitter that splits to DVI-D (digital) AND SVGA (analog).  So plug it into your DVI-I card and now you have two separate outputs.

The part number is 01750 and it costs $22.95.  I am not affiliated with pccables in any way, but their information on the product states it is similiar in design to DELL DP/N 0X2026, whatever that is. 

I was told by another that this is the solution to the problem of dual displays on that bugger small form factor dell.  SInce you are not plugging in the second monitor to the on board vga connector, it should work. 

Please anyone ordering one let me know if it worked for you and thanks.

Paul Jechura

Hi Desichap,

I just bought the Vostros 220S Mini Tower and wanted to add a dual monitor. After Dell sending me the wrong graphics card I decided to search on the web.

Can you confirm that the graphics card you bought extends your desktop to two separate monitors and not the one desktop with the same thing on two monitors? Is it hard to install (not great with electronics)

Thank you

Jeremy