Dual monitor setup help

W

Wfs0801

New Member
First off, hello. I'm new to this forum and from what I've seen of the people here so far this will be a very educational journey and I will be here for a long while (WooHoo! :))

Let me also start this post off by warning all those who dare to read: I am a complete and total noob when it comes to anything about computers. I know absolutely nothing about how they function and I will gladly admit to that, only because I'm attempting to educate myself on this matter.

Now that you have been warned, let's get started. As the title suggests, I'm looking to make a dual monitor setup for my home desktop. My computer is pretty much only used for online gaming and online banking. On most occasions while I'm playing games online I thoroughly enjoy streaming videos and/or internet radio in the background for a little extra entertainment. That is where the dual monitor setup has come into play. I would like to expand my desktop onto a 2nd monitor to use that monitor for extra browsing/video playing while gaming or doing other miscellaneous things on the first monitor. I've done a bit of Google browsing on my own in the past few hours, and honestly it's just led me to confusion. Hence the reason I began searching for a good forum to begin my journey with.

Now that you know my goal, let me tell you a bit about the hardware I'm using. Please remember, I'm a total noob and have no idea what I'm talking about with this stuff :P.



Desktop:
Compaq Presario CQ5700Y
Single VGA Port
Single DVI-D (dual link) Port
AMD Athlon II 170u Processor
ATI Radeon 3000 (Graphics card I believe, specs from home site)


Current Monitor:
Actually home TV
27" (I think) Dynex tv, nothing special
Single HDMI Port
Single VGA Port (Current plug in to desktop)
AV In 1 & AV In 2
Component plug-ins (no clue what these are, several colors though)


2nd Monitor:
Monitor that came originally with desktop
roughly 25" (very close to same size as the TV)
Single VGA Port
Single DVI-D (Dual link) Port



Now, in my quest for knowledge earlier this evening I had discovered that I could possibly successfully complete the setup by running a matching DVI cable from the desktop to the 2nd Monitor and that could do the trick. Well, while researching a little about the DVI cable I discovered that this cable only transfers video, no audio. This is a issue, as I would really prefer to have sound on both monitors so that I don't have to drag a video or radio to 1 specific monitor at any given time that I'd like to listen to something. After being certain that I had confused myself on Google, I took a trip to the local electronics tycoon to have a chat with their techs and see if they could help me. I explained my situation and current knowledge to the gentlemen and, upon being a little flustered and somewhat confused, he basically told me that the DVI cable would work, but getting sound probably wouldn't happen while extending my desktop across 2 monitors, he said "the sound card would simply get confused on which monitor to produce sound from" after that statement I got a little discouraged. Especially after I began to explain to him that the 2nd monitor has no built in speakers like the current one does (Because it's a TV). He told me that my desktop should have a light green plug-in that I would normally run a wire from that to the monitor to connect my sound (Which is done on my current monitor) and that connecting a sound splitter and doing this with the second monitor would pretty much just confuse the sound card.


So, if you've made it this far, I must say thanks and I feel that you are truly here to help if you've taken the time to read this much! Now that you know pretty much the entire story of my night with this, what suggestions and/or solutions might any of you have to help me? If you do need additional information about the desktop/monitors to aid in finding a solution I will be glad to (attempt :P) to find this information. Again, thanks for reading this far, I apologize for some bad grammar and/or spelling mistakes that I may have missed. I'm greatly looking forward to finding a solution to this and continuing to become a part of this community.
 
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Hi Wfs0801, welcome to CF!

I'll try to answer your question in 2 parts to help clear this up.

Video:

here is the breakdown of the 3 cables. VGA is the standard non digital cable. DVI and HDMI carry the same digital video signal but HDMI does have the added capability of carrying an audio signal with the video.

Audio:

Your audio will not be split due to what is on each monitor. all of the sounds on the computer will be heard from whatever audio output is chosen as default in Windows sound.

Hopefully this makes more sense:

c01452459.jpg


The speakers are the ones that will use the 3.5mm jacks in the back of the PC

The high definition audio choice is most likely an HDMI port.

So you can chose where the sound gets played by setting either entry as the default playback device. Speakers if you want it to play through external speakers from the 3.5mm jacks, High Definition if you want it to use the HDMI and play through the TV.
 
Thanks for the reply, so if I understand you correctly, the sounds coming from both monitors will automatically come from whatever speakers (currently the 'TV' or current monitor) I have connected to the desktop? Will I need to run the sound splitter to connect to the 2nd monitor as the tech from the store suggested? This does give me a much better insight on what to expect. Unfortunately my desktop doesn't have any HDMI Ports so I won't be able to utilize the Port on my current monitor/TV :(
 
Yeah I re read your post and I see that now. Well for your system here is the what I would do.

VGA to your TV as the main monitor. Use the DVI port to connect to your 2nd monitor.

In order to get sound there are two options that I see.

1. Use a long male to male 3.5mm audio cable to connect the green audio port to the back of your TV. There should be an audio jack next to the VGA port.

2. Use external speakers. Whatever your have is fine. Even something like this would most likely be better than the TV speakers

http://www.logitech.com/en-us/speakers-audio/home-pc-speakers/ls21-2.1-stereo-speaker
 
I see, well with my current setup (just the TV as monitor) I do use the first option you've suggested for sound. I have the male to male 3.5mm audio cable running from the back of my TV next to the VGA Port to the desktop itself. But I still have a bit of confusion with the 2nd monitor itself, will I need to run an audio cable from the 2nd monitor to the desktop in order to get sound out of it? And would I have to plug an audio splitter in somewhere in the lines to make that sound resonate from either the TV or the external speakers should I decide to buy those?

I just took a look at the back of what will be my 2nd monitor, and there is a 3.5mm jack with a symbol under it that I can only explain as to look like signal bars (thinking of a cell phone) pointing both to the left and right. Any idea what this plug-in is for?


Again, I apologize for my lack of knowledge and high amount of questions, but ya gotta ask if ya wanna learn right? :P
 
Wfs0801 said:
I see, well with my current setup (just the TV as monitor) I do use the first option you've suggested for sound. I have the male to male 3.5mm audio cable running from the back of my TV next to the VGA Port to the desktop itself. But I still have a bit of confusion with the 2nd monitor itself, will I need to run an audio cable from the 2nd monitor to the desktop in order to get sound out of it? And would I have to plug an audio splitter in somewhere in the lines to make that sound resonate from either the TV or the external speakers should I decide to buy those?
Click to expand...

I thought there were no speakers integrated into your 2nd monitor? If there are no speakers on the 2nd monitor you will not need any audio cable connected to it.

Wfs0801 said:
I just took a look at the back of what will be my 2nd monitor, and there is a 3.5mm jack with a symbol under it that I can only explain as to look like signal bars (thinking of a cell phone) pointing both to the left and right. Any idea what this plug-in is for?
Click to expand...

I have no idea. I would consult that manual about that one.

Wfs0801 said:
Again, I apologize for my lack of knowledge and high amount of questions, but ya gotta ask if ya wanna learn right? :P
Click to expand...

It's really no problem. The members here do this for fun.
 
there are no speakers integrated into the 2nd monitor, I guess I just thought I'd need the cable to run from that monitor as well for some reason. I will certainly look online for info and specs of my 2nd monitor to see what the small jack is, but it hasn't been used before so I guess it's not that big of a deal :P

So, from what I've gathered, all I really need to do is run a DVI cable from my desktop to the 2nd monitor and configure the settings and I should be good. This seems pretty much simple enough, I'm really excited to go pick up a cable tomorrow and see how it works out.

Thanks again for the kind tips and advice, much appreciated, and will post tomorrow to show whether or not i got it working :)
 
Yep. You should be good to go with that new cable.

I'll check the thread tomorrow to see how it went. If you have any other questions at all I'll be around most of the night to help.
 
Well I went out searching today and I've run into one of those issues of living in a smaller town. I hit literally every store that sells electronics equipment in the area and couldn't find a DVI cable to save my life, at least not the type I need. So I'll be ordering one online and will just have to wait a few days.
 
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