Hey, i'm trying to connect dual monitors to my Dell Inspiron 530S.

I have an Acer monitor which is connected to the DCI port.
and a Sony monitor which is connected to the AVG port.

I cannot understand why they are not working?

I have done some research and it seems you need two graphics cards but my Dell comes with the two ports already?

I have looked at my setting and clicked the 'Extend the desktop to this monitor' on the second monitor and then applying but it doesn't want to work..

Both monitors are being recognized as well.

I'm confused

Please help

Nick.

First, there are no such things as DCI or AVG ports. Common graphics ports include,

VGA - also known as D-Sub or Analog - the old standard used for CRT monitors and analog LCD monitors
DVI
HDMI

It is important to use the right terminology because there are also PCI, PCIe, and AGP graphics interfaces and we need to make sure we are talking about the same thing.

I am going to assume you are referring to the two ports integrated in your system, the VGA and the DVI. Is is common for on-board graphics to support one, or the other, but not both. So I think that explains why you cannot get both going at once. Your manual suggests that if you want to use two monitors, you need to use a card.

You do not need 2 cards, however. You only need one card that support dual-monitors. And there are many to choose from, across many price ranges. From what I can see, your motherboard supports PCI and PCIe (PCI Express). Don't let their common name confuse you, they are totally different and incompatible card interfaces (slots). PCIe is the latest technology, and preferred, but if not serious gaming, there are several nice PCI cards around that will do nicely too.

The only worry left is your power supply - it appears to be only 250Watts, which is small by almost any standard. Graphics cards can easily consume more power than most CPUs so care must be taken to choose a card that is not too power hungry, or plan on replacing the PSU in the process. But sadly, that too presents a problem. Dell has a history or using non-standard, proprietary motherboards and PSUs so a call to Dell may be in order, asking them if you can use a standard ATX PSU. ATX is the standard that ALL motherboards, PSUs, and cases use to ensure you can use any ATX PSU with any ATX motherboard in any ATX case. Your manual says ATX, but I would check. Plugging a standard ATX PSU into a non-standard motherboard my result in damage to the board.

Do note that using just about any card will result in better overall computing performance than using on-board graphics. This is because computing today is very graphics oriented, and just about any card has a better graphics processor unit (GPU) than on-board. Also, cards have their own dedicated RAM tweaked for graphics, while on-board steals a large chunk of system RAM for graphics processing. So with a card, you get a better GPU, dedicated graphics RAM, and by using a card, the previously stolen system RAM is released, in effect giving you a little boost in system RAM.