Adding a second card WITHOUT setting it as a monitor (in windows)?

[Zotia]

In Windows, it seems that not only do you need a monitor plugged in (or a dummy plug), but you also need to set the monitor as active (Desktop -> Properties -> Settings -> "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor").


This is really annoying for a computer that actually gets used (as opposed to a dedicated bitcoin mining computer) for several reasons:
-my cursor will go off of my screen when I move my cursor past some of the edges or corners (depending on the "location" of my fake monitor)
-causes some bugs/problems with programs that don't support multiple monitors
-causes some bugs/problems with programs that DO support multiple monitors (since they will assume you have both monitors on)
-screenshots will show both screens (the real one and the fake one)
-windows will often open on the wrong monitor (either partially or completely)


I don't mind the need for an extra monitor or dummy plug, but the need for it to be an "active monitor" is a problem for me.


Is it possible to get around the need for two active monitors?

[FalconFour]

Um, it doesn't... have to be... active... o_O

I've done quite a bit of mining with an adapter that has nothing plugged into it, and nothing being displayed on it... in fact, it often results in better performance since it doesn't have to draw the desktop.

What error are you getting when you try to do so yourself?

edit: meh, let's squish all the little "give me more info" bugs here and now:
- OS (Windows what, 32/64-bit)
- GPUs (obviously you have two. spill them both.)
- Motherboard/PC
- Drivers, what drivers do you have installed? If you don't know, you can't mine. srsly.

[Cosbycoin]

I just get it running then remove the monitor then hook it up when I need to. Or you could use logmein or vnc to remote into it. But then I think there are issues with that access option.

[FalconFour]

Meh, my miner runs 24/7 without a monitor (OK, admittedly, it has one plugged in, but always switched off), controlled even locally using TeamViewer. Since I set up an account, I just double-click it, and it hands me the screen. Pretty nifty.

So, yeah, you don't even really need one monitor attached to make mining work

[Zotia]

-Windows XP 32 bit SP3
-Two Radeon HD 6870's... one from HIS (H687FN1GD), one from Sapphire (100314-3L)
-Motherboard: ASRock P67 EXTREME4 (B3)
-Driver: Catalyst 11.6



My problem was that guiminer (using OpenCL) doesn't show the second card unless it has a monitor active.  

[FalconFour]

1) IT IS TIME TO MOVE ON. You cannot use modern GPU-compute technologies in Windows XP; the underlying technology simply isn't there. Go download Windows 7 from somewhere. Your computer WILL run better for it.
2) XP can't support the display driver model required by independent dual GPUs.
3) Fucking... SERIOUSLY?!!! A Sandy Bridge platform, running fucking Windows XP? You should be taken out back and shot. Get on Windows 7. NOW. Or I'll hunt down that PC of yours and put it out of its XP-induced misery for you.

XP, what the hell are you thinking...

edit: I'm not one of those newfangled "OMG every new version of Windows is better than the old one", Microsoft-cock-sucking, Steve Ballmer disciples. I have a "designed for Windows XP" bumper sticker on my car that I even paid to have designed and printed based on the original PC case sticker. I've moved on. Purely from a technical standpoint, Windows 6.1 ("Windows 7") is vastly superior to XP (Windows 5.1*) on modern hardware. Modern hardware has to run in a special compatibility-mode to support the 10-year-old technologies that power Windows XP. The fact that I can run Windows XP on a Pentium-II with 128mb RAM should be enough to prove that to you... it's time to move on! And if anyone told you to put XP on that thing as a "good miner", they should be taken out back and shot, IMO.

*:
Win7: Windows 6.1
Vista: Windows 6.0
WinXP: Windows 5.1
Win2K: Windows 5.0
Windows NT 4.0: self-referential, Windows 4.0 and the "start" of the modern NT lineage that powers our PCs today.

[Zotia]

XP, what the hell are you thinking...

Some programs I need don't run under Windows 7.

2) XP can't support the display driver model required by independent dual GPUs.

I'm not sure what you mean by this.  I can run two GPUs just fine.

[FalconFour]

Some programs I need don't run under Windows 7.

Virtual XP is your friend. I coordinated and executed a whole migration from XP to Windows 7 at the office I work at, and despite the mess of proprietary software we use, there was only ONE piece of software that ONE person uses, that wasn't compatible with Windows 7. We later found their newest version works, we just need to get the new version (a 0.1 version update). Long story short: bullshit, you haven't even tried, have you?

I'm not sure what you mean by this.  I can run two GPUs just fine.

What I mean is pretty simple: XP DOES NOT SUPPORT MODERN GPU ARCHITECTURE. It's well-established that GPU-compute technologies are specific to Windows Vista's WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) architecture, something that's not present at all in Windows XP. XP has to use a bunch of hacks to even allow modern GPUs/CPUs to operate, and far from "efficiently".

But hey, if you can "run two GPUs just fine", why are you even posting here?

I'm not even close to kidding here. Stop torturing your Sandy Bridge-based PC with the slums of Windows XP. It'll treat you a lot better if you run it within its design parameters, and put a modern OS on the thing that supports its amazing new technologies. XP is a compatibility-mode hack on your system. An insult. It honestly makes me physically ill to think about how badly the thing is abused while running XP...