Move my BIOS to the other screen on Dual Monitors!

uncle_rufus · 1 Mar 2013 at 23:19

Hey all,

It's late on a Friday and I'm getting the distinct feeling I'm being a complete dummy

, buuuut...

2 Monitors, new graphics card... secondary monitor is a small one, and presently the splash screen, POST and BIOS (if I enter it) all load on the secondary little screen. It's not a major problem really but I'd prefer them to be on the main screen, anybody have any idea how I can switch them?

In before someone says "Just switch the cables over"... This is exactly how I remedied the same issue on my old graphics card, but it doesn't seem to be an option this time. Main monitor is DVI, secondary is VGA going through a VGA-DVI adapter, and unless I'm mistaken there are some slight differences between the two DVI outputs on my card which mean the adapter will only fit in one of them. (There's a set of 4 pins surrounding the sort of tab in the right hand side of the adapter and no holes for them in one of the card inputs).

Any ideas? A Googling suggests that there might be an option in the BIOS but I'm unsure which one, and another guy suggests that booting with just the primary screen connected and shutting down a couple of times magically sorted things out (I'm dubious)...

Orcvader · 1 Mar 2013 at 23:43

What card and motherboard do you have?

For mine it displays the BIOS on both screens, both are connected via DVI though.

Admetos · 2 Mar 2013 at 00:56

There is a BIOS option for what PCIE slot is primary, should say PEG1, PEG2.

paulstung · 2 Mar 2013 at 01:35

With my AMD card in catalyst control center , you can just choose which of the 2 monitors is your primary display . Like you I have 2 , a 22" for monitoring whilst gaming and a 32" for the action . Is that what you mean ?

marc2003 · 2 Mar 2013 at 06:10

uncle_rufus said:
Main monitor is DVI, secondary is VGA going through a VGA-DVI adapter, and unless I'm mistaken there are some slight differences between the two DVI outputs on my card which mean the adapter will only fit in one of them..

one is a DVI-I connection meaning it supports digital and analog. the other will be DVI-D which is digital only.

JasonM said:
There is a BIOS option for what PCIE slot is primary, should say PEG1, PEG2.

that's great except it looks like the OP is running 2 monitors off 1 card.

paulstung said:
Is that what you mean ?

no. windows drivers/settings have no control over what happens before windows is loaded.

in short, i don't think there is anything that can be done about this. i could be wrong though - i don't know for sure.

Gibbo3771 · 2 Mar 2013 at 08:18

Swap the connections around? lol

mranderson · 2 Mar 2013 at 08:25

Get a DVI-VGA adapter that does not have the extra pins (surprised to hear though that the DVI connectors of your card are different)

uncle_rufus · 2 Mar 2013 at 10:02

Card is a MSI GTX670 Power Edition, Mobo is Gigabyte D3H...

Can you definitely get an adapter without the extra pins? I've got a total of 4 right here all from different sources and they all have the extra pins...

marc2003 · 2 Mar 2013 at 10:50

mranderson said:
Get a DVI-VGA adapter that does not have the extra pins

you might want to read this....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface#Connector

The long flat pin on a DVI-I connector is wider than the same pin on a DVI-D connector, so it is not possible to connect a male DVI-I to a female DVI-D by removing the 4 analog pins. It is possible, however, to connect a male DVI-D cable to a female DVI-I connector. Many flat panel LCD monitors have only the DVI-D connection so that a DVI-D male to DVI-D male cable will suffice when connecting the monitor to a computer's DVI-I female connector.

me said:
one is a DVI-I connection meaning it supports digital and analog. the other will be DVI-D which is digital only.

you already have an adapter to use with the DVI-I port. the DVI-D port is digital only and obviously you cannot run an analog monitor off it.

Braka · 2 Mar 2013 at 14:10

ye when i used to run 2 monitors 1crt 1lcd the boot up screen would always default to the vga connected display , annoying since i used to only turn that on sometimes for gaming

Idleman · 2 Mar 2013 at 14:50

I have the same thing. I have a Samsung Sync monitor, connected via DVI-VGA adapter and a Samsung TV, connected via HDMI. The TV is configured as a clone in the Nvidia Control Panel. For some reason TV is screen 1 and monitor is screen 2. If I start up the PC with both Monitor and TV turned on, the bios appears on the TV. So if I wish to go into the bios for any reason, I only have the monitor on at start up. Have not bothered to try and sort it, as I only use the TV for video play back.