In a classroom or a workshop you may need to show the presentation on each computer present in the room. For this you need to have multiple monitors connected to a single laptop. How to connect the laptop with docking station and two monitors?
Multiple monitors are useful for many computer owners.
This feature is available for Macintosh, Windows, and Linux Operating systems. There are two modes available to add more monitors to one system.
1) Mirror mode The new monitor being added is the replica of the image on your PC's screen.
Many laptops have a monitor port to view a mirror image. This is sent to the projector to view the replica on a larger screen. But if the screen of your laptop is advanced than that of the other monitor, then the image will be inferior. The problem is that the image quality cannot be guaranteed though both monitors have different settings.
The other thing is that if you move the cursor on the original screen it should also be replicated on the second one. In this way you can control you original system by having an external monitor. You may require special software like UltraMon.
2) Multi-monitor mode This is different from the first mode. Multiple monitors can be connected to the already installed video card in your laptop. You can create one huge desktop using n monitors. Each monitor represents 1/n part of the screen. this is ideal setup for video games.
HOW DO YOU CONNECT MULTIPLE MONITORS TO YOUR LAPTOP?
The prerequisite is that the operating system must support this and the video card must support this mode. Following are the methods to connect:
1) VGA OUTPUT
Many laptops have visible VGA port to add monitors. Default settings of the monitors must be mirroring of screen. This port is for direct connection of multiple screens.
2) USING USB Modern monitors can connect via USB instead of the VGA port. For this to happen, the video card must be set to multi-mode.
3) PCMCIA VIDEO CARD
Install a PCMCIA video card having the capability to add monitors.
if you have a PCMCIA card, just insert in the slot present on your computer. You might have to download the current driver to ensure that the video card is working properly.
4) DOCKING STATION
if you can access a docking station through your laptop and it has a video card in it set to multi-mode, then you can use the station to add monitors. Example of a docking station is EasiDock 1000EV.
You just have to install a video card in the docking station and connect your PC.
5) EXTERNAL VIDEO CARD
Devices can be connected to you laptop that have external video card.
6) SECOND LAPTOP
You can use the monitor of the other laptop and connect through a network connection. You can do it either by WIFI or Ethernet. You may need special software like MaxiVista.
Some of the chips that support Multi-Mode are ‘Rage Mobility, Rage LT Pro, Ati Mobility Radeon’.
