(easy) Need compatiblity advice

Computer Forum CPU, Motherboards and Memory
1

Hi All,

Great forum btw, hopefully I can get a little help.

I’ve just a computer blow up so I’ve bought a new MB and I’m starting the re-build.

I’ve bought a GA-M68M-S2P motherboard, but it only has one on-board VGA, and I’d like to have 2 monitors.

I installed my old GeForce 8400GS PCIe card and when I was booting up, I got one long beep and then a short beep, so I took out the card.

My question is:
Can anyone tell me a PCIe card that will let me run 2 monitors using this Motherboard?

I’m a newbie to the forum, but fairly comfortable building PCs (when they cooporate)

Many thanks,
Clint

2

Hm, i don’t suppose that card requires a separate 6-pin power connector from your PSU, does it?
Any VGA with two DVI/VGA outputs will allow you to use two monitors. You can even buy a card that has one output and buy a DVI/VGA splitter, like this

Most new cards already come with at least two output though…

3

I don’t see anywhere on the card for additional power. http://p.gzhls.at/262126.jpg

This seems to be the exact model I have Sparkle GeForce 8400 GS, 256MB DDR2, VGA, DVI, TV-out, PCIe (SF-PX84GS256U2LP-HP) | Skinflint Price Comparison EU

Any other ideas?

I want to span my desktop over two monitors and right now I only have the one VGA port on my MB
http://www.simtechs.com/product/motherboard/images/Gigabyte%20GA-M68M-S2P%20Socket%20AM2/album/mb-am2-gB-ga-m68m-sp2-2.jpg

Thanks for the reply and thanks for any more help you can provide!

4

Hm, according to your motherboard’s manual, a long beep followed by a short beep indicates a problem with your memory or motherboard. I’m guessing your PCI-e port is messed up. I would try and install the VGA on another computer to truly understand if the problem lies within the card.

If you find that the card is not functional, i would buy and test out another card that has two DVI or HDMI ports. Otherwise, you can buy the splitter, as mentioned before, and use it on the integrated graphics card.

5

Hey Scorps65

It seems like it was the graphics card. I found an ancient QuadroFX 330 (which has a special port and VGA splitter) at work, downloaded the legacy drivers, and BOOM, 2 monitors. I’m tempted to see what happens if I hook up a third monitor to the on-board graphics card now.

But until then, many thanks for the help!