problem with a nVidia GeForce 7300GT dual screen (help please)

[Radio Homer]

hi guys, i have a nVidia GeForce 7300GT (512mb) graphics card running a dual screen setup one from the VGA (blue) output and one from the DVI-I (white) output
the game and dual screen setup works really well in-game having all my panels and GPS ect.. running on the second monitor.

ok so the problem...
well its hard to describe but ill do my best

whenever i go to the map or change some settings or into the fuel and payload screen when i click ok to accept the changes or even cancel my second monitor (the one with the panels and stuff on) starts to flicker, my first monitor is fine though.

i hope you can understand and help me resolve this.
im just about to update my graphics card drivers so i will report back on how that goes in the next hour or soo

thanks guys 

[Radio Homer]

anyone ?? im still having the same problem even after driver update

[Steve M]

I've never set up dual screen in that way, usually both are DVI or both VGA. Try switching your primary monitor and secondary monitor around in the control panel and see if the other monitor starts to flicker. (without switching cables)
If so, your monitors, cables and connecter pins are likely good and the problem may lie somewhere in your vid card.

[Radio Homer]

ok i will try this and my vid card only has one vga and one dvi

[Radio Homer]

no still got the same problem, just flipped so screen 1 is fuzzy and screen 2 is ok

anyone else know what this could be??

[Demious]

Hey Homer,

I'm no computer expert, but what I found with my computer might be of some help? I'm not sure if it has anything to do with this, but who knows, what I found can set you in the right direction.

I had a 512MB GeForce 8800GT and an unknown pci-card in my computer and noone could tell me what that second card was.
I ran into several problems with two monitors, even seeing that they mostly seemed to perform fine. Monitoring the use of the video-RAM I saw I was working at the top of the video-RAM, constantly, but it didnt get fully up to 100%, so it still should be enough.

Since I rather have some extra headroom, instead of working at max use, I decided to upgrade my video-card and got one with 1024MB, but still the amounts of memory used didnt exceed 512, or they would do that in huge sudden peaks of over 700-800MB, which caused FSX to crash.
Still epxerts told me not to remove the unknown pci-card since they didnt know what it was and it didnt seem to have caused problems before.

Eventualy I did remove that card and on the underside was a small sticker with a number that led me to info that this was a PhysX Accelerator for my old Geforce.
Now this was removed, my new card all for sudden got above 512MB use very smoothly, so it seems to me that this extra card puts a brake on the use of the memory, when it gets close to using all 512MB.

Can it be that you have such an accelerator card? On the meters it makes it seem that the 512MB isnt not used to the total max, so it seems that your video card can handle the power asked from it, but in a fact, the memory is used to its max and everything that the computer asks beyond that would then simply be denied...

I noticed with my old Geforce 8800, that when I tried to use only half of my second monitor for the FSX windows, the use of memory dropped by quite a lot and problems I had decreased noticably. This effect told me that the 512MB on my old card wasnt enough to run both monitors fully and now the new card with 1024MB can work freely without being limited by the accelerator, memory-use seems to work way better.(still having issues with windows, so I cant tell you exactly which problems are or arent related to this, or to what extend...)

In short, the use of two monitors is still a huge load to process for a 512MB card, so whatever it is that makes it seem that 512MB is enough to run both monitors, might be fooling you.

[Radio Homer]

thanks for your kind words there Demious,
the only cards that are plugged into my motherboard are my graphics card and my sound card, however...

i do have PhysX installed as a program. maybe this could be the cause of the problem im having.
i will un-install the PhysX program and will post the results up on here

thanks again

[Strategic Retreat]

If you tried already to change drivers with no success, and you're sure about your power supply, there is something dodgy with your card, Homer. :-/

I've had a two monitor (well, a one monitor plus TV as a second one) configuration ever since my ancient Gefo TI4400, in 2004, and since then I changed video-card four times, and only once, with a cheap Gefo 5600LE, had something distantly resembling what you describe, even if it was WAY more sedate, hearing your problems.

I have since ascribed that behavior to a cheap low quality circuitry/adapters/chips/whatever-were-they on the video-card (it was a cheap one, indeed), since the very first attempt I did was to change power supply (a GREATLY underestimated problems source in PCs) with no success whatsoever, and since neither the high quality TI4400 nor the high standard 6600GT nor the actual brand 9600GT have ever suffered form the same flickering problems.

Sorry to be bearer of bad news. :-/

[Radio Homer]

not to worry it was a cheap card
im now looking at a THIS ONE
do you think that will be up to the job??
if not could you recommend a GCard that supports PCI Express ??

[Strategic Retreat]

Doesn't look bad. It's a good brand, it's top of the line, has enough memory to throw around... the only concern is the price, but if you can, go for it. [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

The one I use (in the signature) is a Peak and has never failed me, goes well under FS9, X-plane, TS and whatever I decided to throw at her, may you find your perfect video-card as well.

[Radio Homer]

i dont think its a bad price for the specs of it... its about $220 (including delivery) so thats about

[Strategic Retreat]

[quote]i dont think its a bad price for the specs of it... its about $220 (including delivery) so thats about

[Steve M]

no still got the same problem, just flipped so screen 1 is fuzzy and screen 2 is ok

anyone else know what this could be??

I see your getting things sorted so good luck and best wishes. If you reread my post above it says that if your problem flipped screens as it did in your case then the problem may lie somewhere in your vid card and not connector pins, cables or monitors.