Three monitors on Dell Studio XPS 8100 with Radeon 6770

[timeshifter]

Had a frustrating evening trying to get this to work. For years customer has been running two monitors on this setup, each monitor with a DVI connection. The video card has two DVI ports, one HDMI port and one DisplayPort port.

Bought an LG display with HDMI inputs. When I connected it to the HDMI port along with the other two monitors running as they always did I only get two monitors to light up - the new LG on HDMI and one DVI connected monitor.

I've tried:
- installing latest release of drivers and software from AMD
- connected one DVI to the motherboard connector (don't think the BIOS lets that one come on, couldn't find a BIOS setting to activate)
- used a DP to HDMI adapter and connected the LG to that. (It came on but the other DVI screen still wouldn't light)

Based on my Google searching it seemed an answer involved using DP or an adapter from DP to HDMI, but it was emphasized that it needed to be an active adapter. The adapter I had on hand is supposedly an active one. It's made by Plugable. Came in a dock kit model TBT3-UDV https://plugable.com/products/tbt3-udv The box lists contents and calls it "Active DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter". The adapter itself has "plugable.com/dp-hdmi2" on it which conveniently 404's when you go there. As I write this more and more evidence indicates that I have an active DP to HDMI adapter.

I was hoping an active DP to HDMI adapter would be the solution. Maybe I don't have one or the one I have is bad or incompatible.

When he first asked about getting a third monitor I started recommending he go ahead and get a new PC. But later, after talking to him he was fine with what he had, which already has a 1TB SSD, etc. Plus, I had a lot of difficulty finding a new Dell with the specs he'd need that wasn't a many month long build time.

I'm reluctant to get a new video card just because I'm not sure what to get and don't want to spend hours researching them for this purpose and not fond of the idea of installing a new video card in an old PC.

Note that there is one open expansion slot in the PC but it was a PCI slot not PCIe.

The existing monitors each have one DVI and one VGA input. The new monitor has HDMI and VGA.

 

[GTP]

Have you gone into Settings > Display and "detected" the monitor?

 

[timeshifter]

Have you gone into Settings > Display and "detected" the monitor?

Yes

1 and 2 were clearly detected, full sized squares with the model of the monitor shown below. 3 was shown but it was much smaller, nothing identifying the monitor, that drop down was blank. If I hit detect a 4th box would show up with some text in it saying something about nothing detected.

 

[GTP]

Elementary questions and I apologise but sometimes its the simplest thing...
Have you browsed the settings in the Catalyst Control Panel?

Add: I've setup between 2 and 6 monitors on systems - both AMD and nVidia using DVI, HDMI, VGA and Display Port. Never had an issue tbh.

 

[Nathan Igo]

With older cards and using DVI, they all have to be digital if using more than 2 monitors. Look up the connector difference for DVI vs DVI-D and you will see the pinout difference. I want to say the monitor and GPU support both so it just comes down to the actual cable. I would check the 2 DVI cables first before going down the rabbit hole of converting DP to anything. DP on its own can be finicky with a straight connection.

 

[timeshifter]

Here's a pic

So it looks like we've got DVI-I which includes analog, or not all digital. I didn't look at the pins on the actual cable. So if the cables have the "analog pins" I could just swap them for cables without the "analog pins" to make it a purely digital signal and thereby allow the use of a 3rd display?

 

[timeshifter]

Hey @Nathan Igo (or anyone else) do you think using these will work?

https://www.amazon.com/Dvi-d-Female-Adapter-Compact-Plated/dp/B075YFPQJV

 

[HCHTech]

XPS 8100 - that's got to be 10 years old by now, yes? I'm thinking you are asking a lot from hardware that old.

 

[timeshifter]

XPS 8100 - that's got to be 10 years old by now, yes? I'm thinking you are asking a lot from hardware that old.

Agree.

If there's not a simple solution like maybe the adapters I linked above I'm going to push for a replacement.

Of course, when I start thinking about that I wonder if the monitors I have will be compatible - (2) with DVI and VGA and (1) with HDMI and VGA.

 

[Nathan Igo]

So the card has DVI-I connectors so they are a little different setup. I was thinking the 6k series cards still have either dvi-d or dvi-a signals. Since the card ha -I it pushes both digital or analog but are on a separate channel or 'lane' from the HDMI and DP.

So you have 2 options:
Option 1 is use the HDMI, one DVI and one active DP>DVI converter *Not entirely sure but believe that will work
Option 2 is trying one of those $15 USB > DVI dongles. I've used them a few times on cheap systems that just had a VGA out to add a second screen and didn't have any issues but never tried them for a third. Picture seems fine for office work but don't expect that screen to be great for high refresh or anything.

 

[mikeroq]

Idk what the brand of the card is but the manual for one 6770 with 2x dvi, hdmi, and dp states:

Three displays:
Both dvi, and dp
One dvi, one hdmi, one dp
One dvi with vga adapter, one dvi, and dp
One dvi with vga adapter, one hdmi, one dp

So I think your easiest bet is to just get a DP to HDMi adapter and keep the other two DVI.

I've had some dp adapters not work before with certain systems.

Another option is to just replace the card with something that had multiple DP and adapter out from that.

 

[timeshifter]

So I already ordered two of those adapters on Amazon, should be here Monday. Guess those won't have any effect?

Option 1 is use the HDMI, one DVI and one active DP>DVI converter

If I don't have an active DP>DVI converter I guess I could haul a DP monitor over there to test?

Option 2 is trying one of those $15 USB > DVI dongles. I've used them a few times on cheap systems that just had a VGA out to add a second screen and didn't have any issues but never tried them for a third. Picture seems fine for office work but don't expect that screen to be great for high refresh or anything.

I'm gonna skip that. Machine only has USB 2.0, might work but doubt he'd be happy.

So I think your easiest bet is to just get a DP to HDMi adapter and keep the other two DVI.

I tried that already.

One dvi, one hdmi, one dp

Sounds like you agree with @Nathan Igo on that one, that's encouraging.

Idk what the brand of the card is but the manual for one 6770 with 2x dvi, hdmi, and dp states

Did you find the manual online? I think the card came with the system so maybe a Dell branded / OEM version?

 

[mikeroq]

It was manual for a HIS branded one but usually these things are decided by GPU/memory config.

 

[glricht]

The traditional way to use multiple monitors was to use the graphics card and ensure that it could handle the add'l outputs of the desired type (HDMI, DP, VGA, etc). Now-a-days there's a simpler solution.

I've got a lot of customers with multiple monitors, including one with 5 monitors on his laptop. All done using the Plugable USB graphics adapter. I love using them. First, some of the adapters support any connection type you've got. Second, since they're USB-based, you can remove them and move them to another PC irrespective of the PC type and OS. Third, you can daisy-chain them to get up to 6 monitors.
Take a look at this. (This model is for HDMI only, but there are other models that can connect to multiple types of adapters.)