Dual external displays on VPCZ12Z9E/X

[ascidian]

Hi!

I have just gotten a vaio VPCZ12Z9E/X but I can't get it to use my two Samsung 1980x1200 displays. I have tried with and with out portreplicator. In the Nvidia setting menu it indicates that i should be possible but that I need to reboot first to get the GPU right. But it doesn't work. In the window7 display set up, I can choose the to external displays but when I try to apply the setting I get an error saying the setting can't be saved. During all my testings the internal display is not active.

I run window7.

Cheers,

Jonas

[ascidian]

Hi thalamus_!

I must say that if you are right, then its a huge minus for a otherwise perfect mashine. My 4-year-old thinkpadT60 could use dual external displays. Why can't I use one port (dvi and vga) for each display? Are they conected to the two different graphic cards? In that case is it possible to acivate both graphic cards at the same time?

I would really like to find a work around that doesn't involve bying more hardware.

[Thalamus.]

Hi Ascidian,

welcome to the Club Vaio Questions & Answers Forum..

Unfortunately without additional hardware you can only attach one monitor to your Vaio..

However something like the Matrox Dual head to go  should allow you to connect 2 additional monitors to either your Vaio or port replicator..

[Blencogo]

Hi Jonas,

This question has come up in the past and, unless something has changed on recent models, no solution has been found except to purchase additional hardware.

The nVidia graphics chips in notebooks are all 'dual view' - they can only output up to a maximum of two displays.  The design of Vaios appears to prohibit the laptop display from being detatched from the chip, even if deselected, and will always be counted as one of the two possible displays.  This means only one additional monitor can ever be attached.  The Vaio manuals only allow for one extra monitor in addition to the laptop display in the section on multiple monitors.

For the same reason, the port replicator only provides for one output - both DVI and VGA cannot be used together.

A small number of other notebooks can connect to two external monitors via VGA and HDMI but the internal architcture of Vaios seems not to support this.

[ascidian]

Ok, thank you!

But then the question - Can the Nvidia grafic card (DVI-port) support 2x1920x1200 as needed if I get a Matrox dualhead2go?

Jonas