FS 2004 accepts only one of my 2 video cards

[Guest]

My system has two video cards:1: NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX/MX400 with 64 MB (AGP)2. S3 ViRGE DX/GX with 4 MB (PCI)Configuration:In the BIOS the S3 (PCI) is the default monitor. If I select the NVIDIA as default monitor the system doesn't start up the S3 anymore (I suppose because the S3 is too old to act as an non-default monitorIn Windows XP the NVIDIA is the default monitorProblem:This all used to work fine. When I boot up the system I get the boot-up screens on the S3 and during the boot the system switches to the NVIDIA as the primary monitor. I have successfully used this configuration with FS2002.With FS 2004 it takes the S3 as video card. I get a message that I do not get HW 3D, because the video card doesn't support it. I can not switch to full screen mode and in the FS dispay hardware settings I see no card to select. However, I can undock panels and drag them to the 2nd screen.I have tried to start FS 2004 with the S3 disabled. This works fine, but when I enable the S3 after starting FS the hour glass starts flashing with a high frequency and the system all but freezes.Does anyone know a clue?Thanks in advance.Jan van Bekkum

[wsieffert 0]

Look in your BIOS to see if you can swap the primary card for startup. You may have to set several switches.If you find the settings, write down their present settings, then change them to the opposite. Reboot, restart fs2004, and see if the problem remains. If you still have fs2002, test it also.W. Sieffert

[Guest Rafael Cervera]

Interesting set up. But as I can remember, windows supports multiple monitors if video cards are same brand so they can use same drivers. I have dual monitors from one AGP card. If I use the second monitor with FS the FPS go down thru the floor. Do you have this problem?

[Guest]

I tried swapping the videocards in my BIOS (selecting AGP instead of PCI), but then only the NVIDIA is visible. In Windows I then don't see the second card at all.Jan van Bekkum

[Guest]

It works fine with different cards in any application except FS2004. Performance in FS2002 is fine.Jan van Bekkum

[Guest padds]

S3 cards are not very good with multi-monitor. The Virge DX/SX etc... line were never designed to work as a slave to any other type (they are pretty much before it was possible in the mainstream).Even their Savage III cards are not great multi-cards though they do support being a slave to an AGP card, they dont work as well as other makes.I must have 20 of the things here, from 375 to 700 series chips and they are all the same.-Jonathan

[Guest]

Hello Jan!You are not alone with this problem. I read in some German Forums about this problem without any Idea. It seems a problem of FS2004, in FS2002 it works fine.If you can try an other PCI-Card (XP-registered)Greetings Rolf

[Guest]

Hello Jan!One of our members cured this problem. He changed his old PCI-card with a new one (64MB) and everything works fine.GreetingsRolf