Notes On Windows 2000 MultiMonitor

I have succeeded in building up a seven-monitor system at the Windows 2000.
Here is a hardware configuration.
Motherboard TI6BNF+ (AGP,PCIx6)
Pentium II 300MH /128M
HardDisk 8G,CD-ROM
at the Motherboard BIOS setting, Init Display First :AGP

The seven cards are:
Slot [in which the card is installed],Device Name [reported by C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSInfo\Msinfo32.exe]
/Chip,Chip Vendor,Video Memory [as the above]
//Card Box Name [to general users],Card Manufacuturer [if different from Chip Vendor]

AGP,Matrox Graphics Productiva G100 AGP
/MGA-G100 B8 R2, Matrox Graphics,8M
//Productiva G100,

PCI-1,3Dlabs Inc. Ltd. PERMEDIA2 (MS)
/3Dlabs PERMEDIA2, 3Dlabs Inc. Ltd.,4M
//Graphics Blaster EXXTREME,Creative Technology

PCI-2,Number Nine Visual Technologies Imagine 128 Series 2 (4 Meg VRAM)
/Imagine 128 Series 2, Number Nine Visual Technologies,4M
//Imagine 128 Series 2,
(VGA disabled)

PCI-3,Matrox Graphics Mystique PCI
/MGA-1064SG R2, Matrox Graphics ,2M
//Mystique PCI,

PCI-4,ATI Technologies Inc. 3D RAGE PRO PCI
/ATI 3D RAGE PRO PCI (GT-C2U2), ATI Technologies Inc. ,4M
//Xpert@Work,

PCI-5,3Dlabs Inc. Ltd. PERMEDIA2 (MS)
/3Dlabs PERMEDIA2, 3Dlabs Inc. Ltd. ,8M
//Picasso 2V,EONtronics

PCI-6,Matrox Graphics Millennium PCI
/MGA-2064W B2 R2, Matrox Graphics ,2M
//Millenium

New Vintages as secondary cards.
Secondary cards are that graphic adapter cards which expand the Windows screen at the second, the third (and so on) displays connected to each of them. Needless to say, this feature must be supported by proper software drivers.
At Windows 2000, Permedia2 or Matrox cards will take almost the same position---stable secondary cards--- as S3 Virge or ATI Mach64 or Rage cards have taken at Windows 98.

Imagine 128 Series 2
With the Windows 98 CD-ROM built-in driver, Number Nine Visual Technology's Imagine 128 Series 2, a pre-3D age product(released in 1996), works only as the primary display card of a multimonitor system; this card can never be a secondary card. No driver to support this feature is found in Number Nine's web cite.
However,this card, as HCL.TXT in Windows 2000 CD-ROM shows, turned out to be capable of being a secondary card at this new OS. I guess some of Windows 2000 developers have long felt enthusiasm for this once 'quality' card (or this manufacturer), a envy of Cirrus Logic or S3 card users. It should be noted that, in order to revive this card as a secondary, it is absolutely necessary to set the on-board VGA BIOS jumper switch to the off position. Without this (i.e. default switch position) Windows 2000 will never start this card as secondary.
In addition to Imagine 128 Series 2, its predecessor, Imagine 128 and its successor ,Revolution 3D have been tested. I verify that at the same setting (VGA BIOS off), both of them can be utilized as secondary cards.
While Matrox Mystique, Millennium and G100 shares one driver(mga64d.dll) provided by Windows 2000, this OS installs the separate driver for each of Number Nine's card; n9i128.sys, n9i128v2.sys and n9i3disp.dll. Is this fact suggestive of how consistent Matrox's chip design has been or how deeply OS developers have been paying close attention to these Number Nine's products?

ATI Rage Pro
Luckily this card is among my ATI cards collection. My tests were also on Rage Pro's brother or sister chips (chip-based cards); Rage I,Rage II+, Rage IIC, Rage LT, almost perfect secondary cards at Windows 98. At the Windows 2000 Device Manager every card is reported to be either the yellow Iconed(cannot start) or working fine. Yet in any case none of them will open the new screen; Windows 2000 expects these cards to be well behaved just in an ordinary single-monitor system.

Riva128 (by Canopus, Japan)
  Windows 2000 regards Canopus's PWR128 as Riva 128 compatibles. But the behavior of the card is clearly abnormal (as if the display were blown off!). The internal design of this card might be somewhat out of what Microsoft expects of 'generic' Riva 128 cards. I am afraid of installing this card as single display system. It is hoped that Canopus will release the specific driver for this card.