3 monitors on a dell inspiron

I have a dell inspiron 1525 with 2 LG flatrons, i also have 2 vga to usb converters, but i cant get all 3 to work at the same time. Any thoughts?

 

Welcome to notebook review

If you have only one display port on your laptop, you need a Matrox Triple Head to Go in order to get three screens to show out of your laptop.

If you have two display ports, (ex. DVI and HDMI) You can have one screen plug into HDMI, and a Matrox Dual Head to go for the DVI port.

K-TRON

 

The problem is is that the triple head to go doesn't have vga ports, the monitors are vga. I have two usb to vga converters. I want to use 2 vga converters, plug them into a 4 port hub and one usb extender to plug into my usb port.

 

Two things: first, VGA cannot go directly to USB or vice-versa; it will require an intermediate converter box. If that's what you have, ignore that sentence. Second, USB is not going to be able to support 2 monitors of normal resolution, there's not enough bandwidth, especially if you're attaching even more accessories.

 

Ok, so should I return the converters and then get a new video card?

 

You can't upgrade the graphics card.

 

You can just use a "usb graphic card" for $20 and it can output resolution greater than 1400x900. Highier end ones can go beyond 1920x1200.

 

I have a usb graphics card,its a vga to usb converter, and i really cant upgrade the graphics card, the dell tech guy said i could?? I'm CONFUSED!

 

VGA to usb converter? Are you sure it's not the other way around?

Anyways.. the dell guy is confused because he probably never heard of a "Usb graphic card" which came out in 2008-2009. He was referring that you're not able to upgrade the internal integrated graphic card on your dell.

The usb to vga "graphic card" will definetly work.

 

Ok then, here we go , I have 2 usb graphics cards, i hooked them both up to a usb hub, and ran a usb extention cord to my laptop. Then I turned it on. I can get an image on both external monitors, but i can't mouse over onto the left monitor, only the right. This is a problem because I need to be able to drag windows onto both of the monitors.

 

Did you "extend" your desktop to the left monitor? Is your start menu on the middle?

Check the graphic properites to see which monitor is which.

 

1. To connect one monitor to USB is already not that recommendable. USB is slow, taxes your CPU, it only supports a limited resolution and anything graphic intensive, like watching a movie is impossible on the montitor which is connected to the USB port.
2. To connect 2 external monitors via USB is silly, there are better alternatives available.
3. Why don't you use your VGA and HDMI port on your notebook to connect the 2 displays? (there are active adapters from VGA to HDMI/DVI,or from HDMI/DVI to VGA)
3. If you want to connect two VGA displays, then connect one display directly to your notebook and the second via USB (still, to connect a display via USB is silly in my opinion)
4. If you don't want to, for whatever reason, you can buy an external graphics card, like this one: http://www.villagetronic.com/vidock/index.html To connect enough montiors to your notebook.
5. Sell the monitors and buy a better large single display.

 

Well, I wasn't planning on watching movies, just watching stock charts and seperate windows, and I thing i'm going to get the Toshiba dynodock, connect one on the vga port and the other monitor with the usb graphics card, and plug it into one of the 4 usb ports on the dock. I only have one vga port o my laptop. And by the way, the usb connection really isn't that bad, the resolution was good and so was everything else.