Geforce FX5200 TwinView help!

[eddyg]

After all this time and driver revisions, I still am unable to get an FX5200 to work with TwinView.

I've tried every combination of DFP & CRT on the "ConnectedMonitor" line (including "CRT,CRT" while using a DVI->DB15 adapter and two "regular" VGA displays) and it never works.

I either get the:

Configuration not supported by hardware (when setting ConnectedMonitor to DFP/CRT)

message (as shown above) or:

Only one display device connected; disabling TwinView (when setting ConnectedMonitor to CRT/CRT.)

I am so completely frustrated I could just scream! (Actually, I have screamed about this problem many times, mostly lots of 4 letter words.)

Why isn't it detecting the second display?!?! I always end up seeing a clone of the main display on the secondary display.

There. I feel a little better. Can anybody recommend a video card that is known to support TwinView, works in a regular AGP 8X slot (no PCI-Express) and doesn't have any fans? I could care less about 3D performance; I just want dual monitors!!!

[eddyg]

So here is a summary. Does anybody have any ideas?

When I have:

Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT, DFP"

in my xorg.conf, I get:

(II) NVIDIA(0): Using ConnectedMonitor string "CRT-0, DFP-0"
(EE) NVIDIA(0): The requested configuration of display devices is not
(EE) NVIDIA(0): supported in the hardware.

and the X server does not even start.

Now instead if I use:

Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT, CRT"

(and use a DVI-to-DB15 adapter), or if I remove the ConnectedMonitor line altogether, I get:

(II) NVIDIA(0): Using ConnectedMonitor string "CRT-0, CRT-1"
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Inappropriate ConnectedMonitor string. <-- this implies to me "CRT, DFP" is the "right" option!
(II) NVIDIA(0): Connected display device(s): CRT-0
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Only one display device connected; disabling TwinView.

but the X server does start, but both monitors display the same image (no TwinView = useless).

So what gives? The "CRT, DFP" (or "DFP, CRT", doesn't matter) option should work since the 5200 should support TwinView... or are there versions of the FX 5200 that have both the DB15 and DVI connector but do not support TwinView?! I have an Albatron FX5200LP, lspci shows it as:

0000:02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA])

and X logs:

(II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU detected as: GeForce FX 5200
(--) NVIDIA(0): VideoBIOS: 04.34.20.18.00
(--) NVIDIA(0): Interlaced video modes are supported on this GPU
(II) NVIDIA(0): Detected AGP rate: 8X
(--) NVIDIA(0): VideoRAM: 131072 kBytes

For reference, SaX logs this additional info:

(--) NVIDIA(0): Found 2 CRTCs on board
(II) NVIDIA(0): Supported display device(s): CRT-0, DFP-0, TV-0
(II) NVIDIA(0): Boot display device(s): CRT-0
(II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU detected as: GeForce FX 5200
(II) NVIDIA(0): Chip Architecture: 0x30
(II) NVIDIA(0): Chip Implementation: 0x34
(II) NVIDIA(0): Chip Revision: 0xa2
(--) NVIDIA(0): VideoBIOS: 04.34.20.18.00
...
(II) NVIDIA(0): Connected display device(s): CRT-0
(II) NVIDIA(0): Enabled display device(s): CRT-0
(II) NVIDIA(0): Mapping display device 0 (CRT-0) to CRTC 0

(and my card doesn't even have an S-Video port!)

[eddyg]

I'm beginning to think more and more that perhaps my FX 5200 card is somehow "crippled" (or maybe the driver is broken).

Searching the net, I found other lines from log files like this:

(--) NVIDIA(0): Found 2 CRTCs on board
(II) NVIDIA(0): Supported display device(s): CRT-0, CRT-1, DFP-0, TV-0
(II) NVIDIA(0): Boot display device(s): CRT-0
(II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU detected as: GeForce Go 6600 GT

and even a log file from an FX 5200 in this forum post that clearly shows two CRT entries!

(--) NVIDIA(0): Found 2 CRTCs on board
(II) NVIDIA(0): Supported display device(s): CRT-0, CRT-1, DFP-0, TV-0
(II) NVIDIA(0): Boot display device(s): CRT-0, DFP-0
(II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU detected as: GeForce FX 5200
(II) NVIDIA(0): Chip Architecture: 0x30
(II) NVIDIA(0): Chip Implementation: 0x34
(II) NVIDIA(0): Chip Revision: 0xb1
(--) NVIDIA(0): VideoBIOS: 04.34.20.56.01

Notice how it shows both CRT-0 and CRT-1... but in my case, it only shows a single CRT-0 entry...


Can anybody from Nvidia confirm what is going on? Am I screwed because I have a "rev 0xa2" chip and BIOS 04.34.20.18.00?

[DaveWeis]

Did you ever get this figured out? I am having the same issue, I believe.
I plug a VGA cable in everything works fine. If i turn the machine off and in DVI the monitor will act like its alive, but nothing will be displayed on the screen.
If i run dual monitors VGA works of course, and DVI displays no images, even though the software recognizes both the monitors.

[Maggie]

Hi I'm having the exact same problem as well.

When I plug in a secondary monitor on the DVI slot it all it does is produce a clone version of the first monitor. I've tried downloading new drivers but nothing seems to help.

When my card is set on a dual "span" display mode. It recognises there is a second monitor and behaves like it is using 2 monitors however both monitors are only displaying the same output.

Does anyone know of a solution to this at all? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[netllama]

nvidia-xconfig -a --twinview