Tks for all the input. Decided safest upgrade is to replace the Nvidia 6800 with a nvidia quadro 440.
The quadro NVS 440 is a PCIe card, so you should check that your motherboard has the right slot first. Otherwise you can get the NVS 400 which comes in either AGP or normal PCI.
Well I installed a Quadro Nvs 440X16 256MB Pcie by PNY. the slot fits perfect, however: a) the Y cables they provided are for DVI to VGA.....so I will need to get two Y cables which are DVI to DVI so that I can run my monitors as DVI - Does anyone think that should be a problem b) when I hooked everything up, all my monitors stay black i.e. no signal from CPU to the screens....and yes I did switch all to VGA mode. I am totally lost on this tks for anybody's help/advice
Those are not "DVI-to-VGA" cables.. you have described a "DMS-59 VGA cable". If you want to run DVI, you'll need 2, "DMS-59 DVI cables". You can get them on eBay for about $9 each, including shipping. Should be less on shipping if you get both from the same seller. That "all of your monitors are black" suggests a problem with the card. Wrong driver? Card is incompatible? Card defective? Card not fully seated? At a minimum Windows should by default run 2 of those monitors, with both screens displaying the same image, and in VGA resolution... After you get the driver installed and the monitors activated for "extended desktop", you can then adjust the resolution of each monitor
This is my second card. First one did the same. First one was by HP so I thought it was not compatible. I switched to the Quadro Nvs 440X16 256MB Pcie by PNY. I'm not worried about DVI or VGA. I just want the monitors to respond. tks
Monitors powered "ON"? JK... well, not really. I spent 2 hours troubleshooting wife's laptop today only to find that a switch [which I didn't know existed] had accidentally been turned off. Duh!
You need to become more familiar with your computer. The Dell website says that the XPS-400 comes with an Intel 945P chipset that has 4 DIMM slots for DDR2-533 MHz SDRAM memory, AND 3 PCI slots to go along with a PCIe x 1 slot, a PCIe x 4 slot, and a PCIe x 16 graphics slot. You should have no problem inserting another Nvidia GeForce graphics card into one of the PCI slots at the base of your computer. Then, simply use Nvidia's free software application for multi-monitor support, called "NView". It will allow you to stretch everything across multiple screens. Just make sure that all of your drivers from Nvidia are current. Go to their website and find out. The only issue is that there just aren't many PCI slot cards out there anymore. May I suggest the BFG Technologies GeForce 6800 with 256mb of RAM and dual-ouputs ( 1 VGA and 1 DVI ). Only $70.00 and should easily support Windows XP. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...50001883+4026+106790703&name=GeForce+6+series