Mr. Gnome: The PCI driven monitor didn't seem to want anything on it whatsoever. No, I haven't done anything with the chipset driver. But here's the thing... It did with the PCI card what it has always done with the AGP card with 2 monitors, only worse. Other than updating that INF file last night, the chipset is one part of this equation I haven't explored...which is interesting, because on more than one post people have suggested that there are problems with certain intel chipsets with P4's and multiple monitors. As tired as I am of fooling with problem, I'm tempted to do the experiment with the original Nvidia card. I didn't know much about computers 6 months ago, but with what I've learned lately I'm pretty sure I should be able to bring up 20 charts with just one monitor without any problems, or excessive cpu usage. I wouldn't be able to see all the charts, of course, but they would still be being updated as if they were visible. Also, I think I'll look for a forum on Intel's website for posts on similar problems. Thanks. Alan
One late thought. Did you try a different PCI slot? Maybe your first in line is bad. (I had a bad DIMM once... it was the middle one. COULD happen!) You might try a different PCI card [in 2 or more slots] or the PCI card alone [set BIOS for PCI Primary]. The more you can isolate, the more likely a quick fix.
When I went in to the bios a couple of days ago I discovered it was set to PCI already. I switched it to AGP, and had hopes this might solve the problem. I should have tried a different PCI slot when I tried a third monitor, next time I will. What would happen if I just used the PCI card alone, to drive two monitors? I've been told the AGP's performance is superior, but other people are using 2 or 3 PCI cards in addition to an AGP and they don't have any problems. Maybe I could learn something by doing this. Like you say, this problem will probably only be figured out by trying to isolate it by trying different things. Thanks. Alan
Hi Alan: Sorry to hear about your CPU issue. Someone mentioned trying each card separately to isolate the problem. This is called half-splitting and is a good approach. I also have heard that the video card should be in the highest PCI slot number/position (1 being highest). That would be the slot next to the AGP card. I think priority is given to the higher numbered slots. Thus, the most intensively used cards (e.g., video) should be put the the highest priority positions. When you're in Tasl Manager (I have Win2000--not sure if 9x has task mgr), click the Processes tab and see what process is hogging the resources. That should expose the culprit. Sorry if I have rehashed what's already be covered in this thread. Just posting what came to mind when I saw your problem. Good luck!
Heh, I heard the opposite about that first slot. Somebody (on Elite as I recall) posted that in some situations, the first PCI slot may share something (IRQ or something else, don't recall) with the AGP slot. I've got a GeForce4 4600 in my AGP and 3 Dual G450s in slots 3,4 and 5. Works fine. EDIT: Dunno if that thing about PCI slot 1 is true or not, just what somebody else on the board said.
I want to thank everyone for all their help yesterday. I got a lot of good ideas to work with-which is what I've been doing all day today. I installed the original single output Nvidia card the cpu came with, and it still uses way too much processor... averaging over 50% with MBTrading and 4 DTNiq charts. So it really wasn't a multi-monitor issue at all. An IBM tech person had me go in and disable something that was always looking for Microsoft updates, and this helped considerably, but it still is averaging 5 or 6 times the cpu usage it sounds like others are experiencing with similar setups. But I'll keep at it, there has to be a solution. Again, thanks for all your help. Alan
Alan - when looking at the Task Manager's Processes tab, what's the process CPU utilization breakdown? If you're seeing the MBtrading or DTNiq software consistently eating 50%+ of your CPU, then looking at your hardware, bios, etc. probably is a waste of time (if it was a hardware or bios based contention, your system would just be slow but it wouldn't show up as process CPU utilization). If one or more of the processes is consistently (not just pegging, but averaging) showing high CPU usage, then it's more likely that there's either a problem with that software (most likely) or maybe something to do with a system library inconsistency on your machine. Also check the memory utilization of the processes in question and see what available system memory is (on the Performance tab of the Task Manager) to see if you've got one or more processes using so much memory that they're pushing your machine into having to do a lot of virtual memory paging. Also check to see if your disk drive is overly fragmented - I believe the Windows memory management subsystem still pages unchanged pages directly from the executable file itself rather than using page file space, so if you are doing a fair amount of paging of a large executable and the file is highly fragmented it'll further exaccerbate the situation. And of course of any data or caching files used by the software are fragmented it would slow down the software's access to them. Anyway, a few more ideas for you. Good luck.
This is truly a strange deal... In thinking back, even when I would run a streaming audio(radio station), cpu usage averaged around 55%. After a complete system recovery, it dropped down to about 15%. After disabling something that was constantly looking for Microsoft updates yesterday, cpu usage dropped enough to where I could finally run AGP and PCI G450 cards, three monitors, and it actually functions(for the most part). But either MBTrading or DTNiq can load this thing up, without the other's help. That, coupled with the audio usage mentioned above, tells me that something other than just a problem with DTNiq is most likely. At the end of today an IBM tech had me disable something else that is geared to constantly searching for updates, so I'll see if that makes a difference. The few times I've looked at the memory usage it was always around 130mb, out of a total of 896. I keep my disk defragmented, and it's about 82% free. I don't know that much about computers(although I've sure learned a lot working on this problem ), but I'm beginning to think, because I've had this problem after restores, with different versions of MBTrading and DTNiq, with different video cards and drivers, and with listening to audio, it may be something pretty out of the ordinary. As hopeless as it looks(I estimate I've spent about 120 hours trying to fix it), I feel pretty close to a solution. Thanks again for your help. Alan
Alan, We have all been through something like this. I'm sure we each have a couple of horror stories that consumed mucho time (and numerous hair follicles). I'm a great believer in backups. If I were you, I'd get my hands on a 2nd HD and install your setup from scratch. Format, fresh OS install, drivers, and your trading programs. Nothing else. Then see if your problem clears up. If it seems like a waste to have a 2nd HD lying around, consider it cheap insurance. (I have 2 back-up HDs which I refresh with up-to-date copies of my system every couple of months... using MaxBlast 3 from Maxtor, which comes free with HD purchase. If I'm lucky, I may never get put through computer Hell again!) Ping me if you want. I'll be glad to try to help..