Can I ask a computer monitor question

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

I figure this is somewhat hot tub related, as I view this site on a monitor  

Here's the deal, I run dual monitors and had two at 19". I just picked up a 22" wide screen. I was running the 19's at a resolution of 1280 x 960. Now with one 19 and one 22 wide screen running the same resolution, the wide screen looks pretty bad as it just stretches the same "picture" wider. What I really want to do is run the 19 at 1280 x 960 and run the 22 at 1700 x 980. Anyone have any clue how to do this? Currently I'm on Win98, but should be at XP by the end of the week (running all three monitors).

[Brookenstein]

We are running XP, but can change each monitor separetly just in the display properties.  Its real simple and easy.

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

Are you running more than 1 monitor? And can you have different resolutions for each monitor?

Best I can tell, with win98 both monitors have to run the same resolution (though it may be in the video card). And, my options for resolutions don't include anything based on wide screen ratios (4 x 3 vs. 16 x 9)

[Brookenstein]

Yes, we are running 2 monitors. It's hard to play poker on six tables at once with one monitor.  There are seperate display options for each monitor that we can adjust and choose the resolution for each in the display option. We have 2 identical monitors and choose to run them at the same resolution (duh) but, it is set up that if we were in your situation we could adjust them.  It very well could be our video card though... not XP itself I'm not sure.

Do you have a single video card with multiple outputs or 2 video cards?  We have a single video card with multiple outputs.

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

Current comp has 1 video card with 2 outputs...... New comp has 2 video cards, each with 2 outputs.

[geekd]

Your new comp will run 2 monitors at different resolutions.

You old comp won't.

On a side note, Win98?  Whoa.  About time your getting a new comp.  It was about time 3 years ago.  

I get a new computer every year.  But then, I have 4, and computers are my job.


-geekd

[badval]

I run 2 Dell CRT monitors, one 19" & one 17" @ different resolutions & different refresh rates from a Single ATi X850XT video card.  WinXP Pro OS, desktop extended across both monitors.

Win98SE will reportedly run up to 9 monitors simultaneously (assuming you had a motherboard that could contain enough VGA cards & they were all on the "MS compatability list").  I don't know if Win98SE allows you to use different resolutions with multiple monitors.  Your VGA driver manufacturer may provide a software work-around if Win98SE doesn't have the native support built in like NT & XP do.

Regardless, your migration to XP will resolve this - and you get the added benefit of not having to do complete reinstalls every 6 months  

Added tip:  Avoid issues with DirectX and video applications (games, movie players, or other software that uses overlays) by placing your secondary (& in your case tertiary) to the left of your primary monitor.  You don't have to physically locate them in any particular order, but in your display settings, your computer should "think" the rightmost display is the primary monitor.

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

For the most part, win98's been good to me. The thing is stable (usually  , though not at stable as the win2000 at the office. It's a little slow at times, but not much. However, my 18 gig HD only has about 1/2 gig of space left........... but, I do have about 3 gigs of backups I just haven't burned to a disk yet.

Oh well......... off it goes. I'm seeing a problem already though. My primary monitor is planned to be the center wide screen, with a 19" on each side... That and the fact it'll probably take a week to transfer all the programming i use/need over  

[dkersten]

On win98, there is no native support for the multiple monitors, so it is totally driver based.  Your vid card drivers would be the only way to run the two monitors at different resolutions.  

My questions are:  what brand 22" wide screen is it?  I have a 20" dell wide at work and a 24" wide dell at home, and I have bought a few 19's and 20's from Costco and such lately, but I have not seen any 22's..  Most 20" wides have a native resolution of 1650x1080, and I run 1280x768 at work on my 20.  I have tried other resolutions but this gives the closest ratio to the native resolution that I can get.  If you are off too much from the native resolution ratio, the text will be horrible.  LCD's do not adjust the pixel size at different resolutions like a CRT would, so certain resolutions will not look good at all.  If your 22 is a TV with an RGB input then its likely the max res is 11somethingx768.  One more thing to note, many of the less expensive wide monitors that are out now do not support the lower wide resolutions, so you are left with native resolution or the standard 4:3 resolutions (800x600, 1024x768, 1200x1024, 1600x1200).  

If your new computer will have 2 vid cards in SLI or crossfire mode (nvidia or ATI cards) then even though you have 4 video heads, the driver usually only supports 2 monitors.  Matrox just came out with a triple head converter though that will supposedly work with any vid card and their drivers.  This will allow 3 monitors on any standard configuration.  HOWEVER if you have 2 vid cards just for multiple heads, and are not running them in some parallel fashion for better video performance, you can run 4 monitors.

One more note.. win98 is over 8 years old now, and thats like 80 years in computer years.. definately time to upgrade, even if you just surf the net.  I maintain about 85 computers here at work now, and I still have a couple 98 machines, but at the first sign of trouble, I upgrade them to xp.  It is odd finding a machine with 64 or 128 megs of ram these days.. seems like winxp wont even run on less than 256 anymore.  I actually miss the old days when you could boot your entire operating system from a 256k floppy, and still have room on it for your software.  Now winxp takes almost a full gig for the core operating system.  Quite sad.