danieldrader

I hope I'm posting in the right area, if not, apologies...

OK, the basics of a new computer I bought:
It's an Acer, running Vista and has the Nvidea 8600 video card. My plan was to use the HDMI connection in the back which runs to my Sony LCD but only has DVI or Component in. So I bought an HDMI to DVI adapter and connected it.
Going in to the controls of the Nvidea card and other video settings, it wasn't even recognizing that I had a 2nd monitor. After a lot of reading, it seemed that you need to try connecting S Video to get the option for a 2nd monitor. I managed to get that but the options I was given were DVI, S Video and Component. I did select each of these thinking the picture might come through on the HDMI out, but no such luck. I also don't understand why the software gives the option of Component video out when there's NO component jacks on the video card-as well as NOT having the option of HDMI out when there IS an HDMI connection on the video card.

Anyway, my main problem got me thinking that, the PC will not recognize a 2nd monitor unless it is connected-as I did with the S Video cable and maybe it's that I'm using an HDMI cable on the computer end, but on the TV end of things, it's DVI and somehow the computer doesn't see a connection to my LCD at all. Is this possible? And if not, should I just write off the Nvidea card at this point, because in my reading the past 2 days, I'm not seeing a lot of positive stuff on this card with Vista