Hiya,

My pc died last week, and after 6 days of trying to resuscitate it I had to accept that somehow the onboard network controller had been fried, and that the rest of the motherboard was failing as well... a very sad moment for me.

But, silver lining, a new pc has been bought!

Its a super dooper one too, photoshop loads as soon as i think about it, but I have a prob.

I use 2 monitors and the video card outputs 3 ports, VGA, DVI-D, HDMI.

I have 1 monitor plugged in the vga port, but I can't use the DVI-D or HDMI ports as they output digital, my lcd screens are both analogue.

Has anyone else had this issue & gotten past it?
I know I can buy cords to convert from HDMI to VGA, but my understanding is that this will not work as the signal will still be digital.

I've had 2 monitors for 6 months now, I can't go back to 1, it's so weird.

Thanks in advance if anyone can help!

Mario

(My old pc had vga & an analogue DVI output in case you're wondering)

when I had dual screens, I had two VGA monitors. I hooked one monitor to the VGA out put, then bought a $5-$10 adapter that turned DVI into VGA. Worked fine.



Don't ask me how this little thing converts digital to analog. My guess is that the DVI output has an analog signal somewhere in the pins and the plug just conforms that signal to a VGA configuration?

yep same thing here it works
got mine from dick smiths about $18 au

...but once you used the convertor, the signal won't be digital anymore. So you we'll need to calibrate the focus within monitors menu (or through autocalibration).
There are some losses, but most of the times theyre not noticeable, if the monitors are good enough.

Mario, both HDMI and DVI-D are pure digital connectors. If it is indeed a DVI-D port only, then it is missing the lonely 4 pins on the left (pics above), or the holes respectively.
If you see the 4 holes, you might be lucky enough to have a mixed output. Doublecheck the description of your graphic card! If you find it being a mixed DVI port, such a converter should work easily.

Anyway - if it turns out to be digital, i'm afraid you have no other choice than getting a new monitor with digital input, either a DVI or HDMI.
A tip: if you want to use DVI then and get a cable for it, make sure it is a DVI-D cable. If your card doesn't have the said 4 holes, but the (mixed) DVI cable has the pins you'll find yourself quite... disappointed...

Thanks for the feedback guys, unfortunately it doesn't help.

Apparently there are 3 types of DVI outputs:
DVI-I = Digital & Analogue Signal
DVI-A = Analogue only signal
DVI-D = Digital Only Signal

I had no idea that there were differences so when I saw that the new comp puts out DVI-D, I assumed that's what I had been using on the old comp too.

After checking I now know that my old one is actually DVI-I and I'll put money on it that Glenn & Blurker's are too.

Thanks anyway guys, but I think I'm stuck till I can afford a new digital ready screen.

*EDIT*
Sorry Dunno we posted at the same time!
You're right, I'm screwed!

what computer is it? it should have 2 vga outputs, one from the integrated chip on the motherbooard, the other from the video card, i know mine does. Maybe all you need is a video card with dual vga exit