I'm trying to get my computer to dual screen on a flat-screen monitor, and my CRT TV.

Here's the info I think you need (ask if you need more):

NVidia 8800GT
Windows XP 32bit
25 ft S-video cable w/ RCA adaptor (TV doesn't have a S-video port)

So, I've been trying to get it to dual screen, or even clone, but nothing works. I know how to do this with a normal laptop, and I've always been successful doing so, but for some reason my desktop won't work. I go to the desktop properties and try to extend windows onto the TV, and when I apply, my TV flickers and occasionally the desktop will flicker on and off for a second, and then go back to the black video screen. I've tried the NVidia dual monitor wizard, and have tried force recognition the TV, none of which worked.

However, I do know that it works, because in safe mode, with only the S-video cable connected, none of the DVI ports plugged in, it'll boot and show perfectly fine on the TV. So, I thought it might be because of the resolution, however, when dual screening, I used the control panel to change the TV's resolution to 800 x 600 and tried with 8, 16, and 32 bit color, and all I get is the flickering TV whenever I hit apply. Any other ideas?

 

maybe try a different driver for the vid card?

 

That's rather strange, I have a nvidia 7600 GT and I'm able to do this.

Did you read the specs of your video card? Does it specifically say it has the capability of dual screen? Also, what refresh rate are you using? 60 Hz? Is it APG or PCIe?

 

most crt tv's ive setup in dual screen use 640x480 resolution. (sucks i know)

 

yeah i was going to say check the resolution. It will usually be 640x480 but some will do 800x600. Also make sure the refresh rate is set to 60.

 

bingo!

a little edumacation:

crts are interlaced displays, they can only display 480i or 1080i over component/dvi/hdmi. since you tv only accepts composite, which is always 480i, you need to set it to 640x480.

many can accept 480p over component and up and 720p in hd crts, but its rare.

so i would try setting the tv as the 2nd display, setting it to 640x480, and always 60hz for the refresh rate on televisions using analog connections.

 

aboothman: I've tried 3 different, although all from NVidia. All of which are pretty recent drivers (from within the last 6 months?) and I've been trying to use the NVidia control panel, which is a better layout than basically the settings tab under the desktop properties.

chinoyboi: I've read the GeForce 8 series is the series where people have had a lot of problems with this. I've read some forums where a guy had a 7xxx card and it worked fine but his 8xxx couldn't work, so he was trying to find a way to run both. I can dual screen with 2 DVI monitors, and I'm using the 60 hz refresh rate. PCIe card.

evsoul & joltdudeuc: I think my safe mode runs in 800 x 600, which worked on the TV. However, switching the resolution to that doesn't work under a normal boot and I don't even have a 640 x 480 resolution on my card, but I tried using it as a custom resolution, and it didn't work. There's a few other parameters, which is set to auto right now, is there anything that I need to tweak there? Here's a screenshot: http://i39.tinypic.com/n5mp15.jpg


Thanks for the help guys, and any more ideas are welcome.

 

I just built a small htpc using a super old video card, 64MB ATI all in wonder PCI, and am using svideo out. i can set the resolution to 1024x768 and it fills up the screen the same as 800x600 on my 10 year old philips magnavox. you can't really read the text, but I use i use XBMC, so i don't really need to read explorer text

 

try to use a shorter svideo cable real quick. i've experienced the same "flickering" as well when i tried to use two svideo cables together with a switch box since my TV was so far away. it seemed to have trouble sending that much signal over the cables, or something.

so i used just one 6foot cable and it works