AIW 9700 Pro and component output

[Darren Garrison]

Okay, I'm still running an old AGP AIW 9700 pro (I'm not a gamer, I don't need
more power). I had THOUGHT that this card supported two VGA outputs as one of
the options. Seems that I was wrong.

Today I found a cheap LCD TV/monitor-- resolution is 1440x900, and it has both
VGA and component inputs. My 9700 pro has the DVI output, and I have the DVI to
VGA adapter connecting it to a CRT. Apparently, there is no second VGA output
option, so I'd have to use the component output.

My plan for the monitor was to run it as a secondary monitor with differnt
output, not simply redisplaying my same desktop. More specificly, I planned on
mounting it in portrait orientation, (and running it with the display rotated to
fit), using it for an ebook reader for PDFs and such.

My questions--

1.) would I be able to do what I wanted with this monitor using the component
outputs-- running it as a rotated, secondary display and not just a repeat of my
current desktop?

2.) If so, would I be able to run it at full 1440x900 (or 900x1440) resolution?

3.) If I can't find my old component output cable (unused in 5+ years) which one
of these would be the correct one for me to buy?

http://shop.ati.com/searchresults.asp?search_id=10

4.) If the above solution won't satisfy me, how about this? I still have my
previous video card, a PCI ATI AIW with 32 MB of RAM. Would I be able to use
this to drive the second monitor (with a DVI to VGA adapter attached) and get
the results I wanted?

 

[Darren Garrison]

This will depend on the model name of your PCI AIW card. If it is really old
(i.e. doesn't use modern Catalyst drivers) then you have a problem. Do you

I took a closer look at the old card (which has been collecting dust for 5 1/2
years, but I have a hard time throwing old tech away) and it is an AIW Radeon
32M. Looks like Catalyst does support it. So I think the path I need to take
is to install the old PCI card alongside my AGP card and use it. I'll probably
need to order a new DVI to VGA adapter since I can't find my old one, but that
should be cheap enough.

have the INF file for that cheap LCD TV/monitor? 900x1440 obviously isn't a
standard resolution.

No, it didn't come with software and I can find little information on the web
(it was an impulse buy at a grocery store, not a well planned purchase-- but the
price was right) This is the model:

http://tv.manualsonline.com/manuals/mfg/venturer/plv36199s1.html

I checked, and Catalyst does support rotated displays, as mentioned in this
thread (I looked for the option in my desktop properties-- it is there)

http://forums.firingsquad.com/firingsquad/board/message?board.id=hardware&thread.id=83740


When all is said and done, what I'm hoping to end up with is having everying
pretty much as before on my "old" monitor, but with the extra desktop space on
the second monitor rotated to be able to read PDFs a page at a time without
scrolling.

 

[Darren Garrison]

Not the current Catalyst drivers. You will need to use earlier Catalyst
drivers that still had support for the 1st-gen. Radeon cards (aka 7x00
series), the last of which was Catalyst 6.5. To avoid conflicts, you will
need to use this driver for both your 9700 Pro and the PCI card.
http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/previous/radeon/aiwradeonxip-cat65-xp.html

Thanks, but when I go through these menus:

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

plugging in the info for XP Home/pro, Radeon, Radeon x700 series, it sitll takes
me to the 8.7 drivers page Also does the same for when I enter the info for
the older (x600 and x800-- x700 wasn't listed) AIWs, it took me to the 8.7
drivers page. So wouldn't that mean that the older Radeon is still supported?