Non-standard multiple monitor arrangement

[Sero]

So, I'm running into a maddening problem. I've googled without success. At this point, I need a sanity check. Is it even possible to arrange monitors in Windows 7, into an arrangement other than a horizontal row or vertical stack? Even windows built in tool for arranging multiple monitors seems like it would support this, you can drag the monitors into the correct arrangement, it even keeps grid coordinates for them so it seems like it wouldn't be an issue, but, I hit apply, and it just flattens them into a horizontal row.

[EvanED]

If I understand you, yes. I have a portrait-mode monitor next to a landscape-mode monitor. Neither the top nor the bottom is aligned. I've done this in XP as well.

Perhaps your video card drivers suck?

[Sero]

No, you don't understand, and I'm not sure how you got that assumption from my description, but let me try again: I mean, does anyone know of a way to arrange monitors, on the software side, to match physical arrangements other than a vertical stack or horizontal row. I'm not talking about whether I can have non-homogeneous resolutions, I am referring to the relative positioning of the screens, as in, with, say, three monitors, being able to arrange them in an 'L' shape.

[PhoenixEnigma]

Absolutely. I just tried - Windows will adjust my pair of monitors so that they touch at a corner, at the minimum, but otherwise I can position them freely, and they behave exactly as you'd expect.

What video card(s), drivers, and display connections are you using? Three monitors tends to have much less support than two in many cases - AMD's Eyefinity might provide a few more options in that regard.

[EvanED]

No, you don't understand, and I'm not sure how you got that assumption from my description, but let me try again: I mean, does anyone know of a way to arrange monitors, on the software side, to match physical arrangements other than a vertical stack or horizontal row. I'm not talking about whether I can have non-homogeneous resolutions, I am referring to the relative positioning of the screens, as in, with, say, three monitors, being able to arrange them in an 'L' shape.

What? Who said anything about homogeneous resolutions?

My point is that my logical screen is non-rectangular and it works fine. I only have two monitors though, so you might still call that a "horizontal row"; I still don't know what you mean by that precisely. (E.g. do you demand that the top or bottoms be aligned? Do you demand they are the same resolution? If all you demand is that they're next to each other, I don't know how to make a non-row/stack out of two monitors.)

I have not tried to make an L out of three monitors. I'm not sure I even have a computer I can hook more than two monitors up to.

[Panonadin]

No, you don't understand, and I'm not sure how you got that assumption from my description, but let me try again: I mean, does anyone know of a way to arrange monitors, on the software side, to match physical arrangements other than a vertical stack or horizontal row. I'm not talking about whether I can have non-homogeneous resolutions, I am referring to the relative positioning of the screens, as in, with, say, three monitors, being able to arrange them in an 'L' shape.

I'm not sure you understand his response.

I think what he was saying, and what I am confirming, is that in my windows set up, I can drag the monitors into any formation I wish and have them stay that way when I hit apply. Where ever I drag them to, causes them to behave like they are arranged that way in realspace.

I can make an L shape, I can make a square out of squares, I can make them corner to corner to corner on my triple monitor set-up.

Check your drivers, check the software that came with your graphics card that may be preventing/over riding what you are trying to do in windows itself. It's possible with windows stand alone, so you either have a card that doesn't support it (Would be odd but possible) or you have a glitch. Check, and post back.

[Sero]

Panonadin, do you mean I don't understand EvanED, or EvanED doesn't understand me? Pronouns ambiguity!

https://imgur.com/a/VkyZo The first image is what I WANT, the second image is what happens when I hit apply.

It's good to know, though, that this is at least possible. I have a modern (6900 series) AMD card, so I don't think it's an incompatibility issue. Oh, Phoenix, I'm running through mini-DP connectors, though converting through dongles to DVI.

Knowing it's possible, I agree, it's either a glitch or something in the software settings for the cards is overriding the setting. I went through the AMD Catalyst Control Center software pretty thoroughly when I was first setting these up, but it's possible I missed something. Unfortunately, since I posted this, CCC has started doing that thing (It's been a recurring problem for me, unfortunately I can't remember what the hell I did to fix it last time...) where you can't launch CCC. Spent several hours and much googling on it the other night, and I've about given up. The cards work fine in games, etc, I just can't access the settings for them. I think that is a separate issue, though, as it developed after this problem.

[PhoenixEnigma]

Looking at AMD's eyefinity configuration support page, I'm wondering if you might be able to create a 1x3 Eyefinity group for the bottom three, and then have the upper two as a pair of extended displays?

Though I am a little concerned that they list 5 monitors as "Currently Not Supported", and none of their examples show 5 displays, either

Also worth asking, though I don't think it should be a concern in your case: are you using active or passive DP->DVI adapters?