another dual monitor problem lol

fopah · #1 08-13-2007, 05:00 PM

i bought a new dell cause putting it together myself would take too much research

anyways i get it and am instantly dissapointed

i got the dimension c521 its "slim" design keeps from getting a good graphics card in there.

so im stuck with the one they gave me which isnt bad but doesnt have dual monitor inputs so im like bah no dual monitors?

i read through the manual and see you can use a dvi Y cable into the one dvi slot they give you to dual monitor. so score one for the good guys. i buy said cable and plug my monitor into it in anticipation. nothing happens. i get pissed.

i call dell support(lol foreigners). i struggle to hear him tell me no way the cable is broken(they test these things before the ship them).

i relenquish control of my computer to him and he screws with stuff for 2 hours. nothing happens. it doesnt detect either of my monitors plugged into the y cable.

whats my move?

description of comp:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/pro...;l=en&s=dhs

the cable:

goldtoes · #2 08-13-2007, 05:16 PM

how do you know exactly that you did not receive a bad cable?? you have never received something new that did not work as it was supposed to, even after being tested??

fopah · #3 08-13-2007, 05:20 PM

it was half sarcastic, the guy from india got really defensive when i told him i thought it might be the cable. i didnt know if there would be anything else affecting it

goldtoes · #4 08-13-2007, 05:23 PM

well I mean my first reaction would be that your card does not support it, but if they included the cable I would assume that it does. I don't have time right now to check out the specs of the card you have but I will try when I get home.

fopah · #5 08-13-2007, 05:33 PM

it didnt come with the cable, the manual told me the cable would work and the tech support guy never said it wouldnt work of course he might not know what hes talking about.

the video card is a ati radeon x1300

goldtoes · #6 08-13-2007, 09:57 PM

fopah, it looks like your card has 1 DVI and 1 VGA port, so you wouldnt need a cable - unless you want both to be DVI, which I'm assuming is what you want.

I honestly don't know if the cable would work or not :/

fopah · #7 08-13-2007, 11:48 PM

its a different video card than the one you find on the net all it has is dvi and s-video, it was shrunken to fit the case and they took out the vga part aparently

MadScientist · #8 08-14-2007, 11:55 AM

tigredirect or some such place has usb to vga cables, the New ones can support 1600x1200 resolution.
Also a pci graphics card would work too.

MissA · #9 08-25-2007, 06:59 PM

I have been fighting with this same problem for about three weeks now. Finally got it solved - hope this helps you.

Sounds like i ordered the same computer, Dell Dim C521. I actually did not get the Radeon X1300 video card at first - when i first called Dell, they swore that upgrading to that video card would solve all my problems. When it didn't, they sent me to buy a DMS-59 cable, which also didn't work. Then they sent me to buy the Y-adapter cable you've pictured below.

First off - i've learned that the y-adapter cable will work with two monitors, but with two unacceptable results:
1) you have to use the lowest resolution (600x800) and only 16-bit colors. the picture isn't very good, and it isn't useful for multi-tabling (or for much of anything really)
2) the same picture is displayed on both monitors. the desktop cannot be extended over both monitors - the adapter simply splits the same picture in half. how useful is that?

The solution was to get a different video card. It has to be a "low-profile" card in order to fit into the slimline case. Dell wanted to sell me one for $700+, but since that was nearly twice what i paid for the whole computer, i looked around on my own. This is the one that worked for me, and the price is reasonable.
http://axiontech.com/prdt.php?item=79051

Be sure to plug it into the PCI-E slot (it's the small one that will match the number of teeth on the card).