"dual head" on Geforce2 mx?

kilowatt

kilowatt

mach-o mach-o man
I have a quicksilver G4 (not mirror'd drives) with an Nvidia GeForce 2 mx.

Believing that this card supports TwinView (perhaps it does not, I may be mistaken), I purchased an ADC to VGA adaptor in order to connect two VGA monitors to the card, and support "Desktop spanning", or "dual head" mode.

Upon rebooting, both screens booted mirrored. That is, each screen displays identical content.

Inside the System Preferences, under "Display", there is not an "arrange" tab, nor is there a "detect screens" option.

According to the Apple System Profiler, video mirroring is off, and I only have one display connected.

I'm running Mac OS X 10.3.4 (7H63).

I have tried the infamous ibook video hack (entering a command into openfirmware), but received a "DEFAULT CATCH" after typing the command, indicating to me that whatever this command does, it doesn't apply to my computer. Upon reboot, both displays continued to be mirrored.

Interesting to note, I have a cheap VGA extension cable attached to the ADC to VGA adaptor, which creates small "shadows" on the display (its cable is not likely shielded, nor the correct impedance). This shadowing effect is present on /both/ screens.

Is it possible to use two screens in a "dual head" mode on the GeForce 2mx? Any tricks/hints?

Thanks in advance!

Here is a copy of what the Apple System Profiler says about my graphics card:

Code: 
GeForce2 MX:

  Type:	display
  Bus:	AGP
  Display Type:	CRT
  Slot:	SLOT-1
  VRAM (Total):	32 MB
  Vendor:	nVIDIA (0x10de)
  Device ID:	0x0110
  Revision ID:	0x00a1
  ROM Revision:	1055

Display:

  Resolution:	1024 x 768 @ 75 Hz
  Depth:	32-bit Color
  Mirror:	Off
  Online:	Yes
  Main Display:	Yes
 
The NVidia GeForce2MX for Mac is not a dual-head card. In fact, it's not even designed to run two monitors at the same time, even in mirrored mode -- I would highly suggest discontinuing your current method of running two monitors off of the card.

It does have two ports on the card, but it's an "either-or" situation, not both at the same time.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
The NVidia GeForce2MX for Mac is not a dual-head card. In fact, it's not even designed to run two monitors at the same time, even in mirrored mode -- I would highly suggest discontinuing your current method of running two monitors off of the card.

It does have two ports on the card, but it's an "either-or" situation, not both at the same time.
Click to expand...

I was afraid of that.

What, then, do you think they are saying about it in this pdf?
http://www.nvidia.com/object/LO_20010718_4432.html

Here is a choice quote:
GeForce2 MXTM brings the power of NVIDIA’s 2nd generation Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to Apple® Power MacTM computers. With its innovative TwinView®Architecture, GeForce2 MX is the only GPU capable of driving two displays independently, including one Apple display which uses the Apple Display Connector (ADC), and any analog display device with VGA connector such as a monitor or projector. The result— a stunning visual experience consumers have come to expect from NVIDIA products.
Click to expand...

My guess is there is only one VGA output, and I've essentially split it. Looks like I have to have a true digital display to use the dual-head functionality. I'll 'borrow' my room mate's 17" apple flat panel tomorrow and try it out.

This'll sure be a bummer if it doesn't work. :(

Thanks for the quick reply, I'll be disconnecting the cable momentarily.
 
If the GeForce2MX is truly a Twin-View card, it shouldn't matter if you have a VGA-to-DVI adaptor on one port and an ADC-to-VGA on the other port, or whatever adaptors you wanna use.

That's strange -- for some reason, I wanna say that earlier GeForce2MX cards did not have twinview, but now I can't find any links to anything backing that up... perhaps I was wrong!
 
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