Error on boot up - This computer has an add in graphics card....

You cannot use onboard VGA when you have an adapter card installed.

The XPS 8500 comes standard with an integrated video graphics adapter or optional high performance video graphic adapter.  If you look at the quick start guide (seen here support.dell.com/.../DAO.pdf)

You will see ports 16 and 17 for the integrated vga and hdmi connectors.  Since you mention that you have an HDMI connector that suggests that you have an optional high performance video graphics adapter for which the port is located in the area marked as 20 in the quick start guide.  When an optional graphics adapter is present it is where your primary monitor should be connected.  Most graphic adapters support dual monitors but they may have ports for various type which in turn require you to have adapters to make them connect to your monitor.  Report back the exact models of your monitors and video graphics card as detailed on your invoice and I can be more specific on how you can connect your two monitors to this system.

For starters, with one monitor working, you have to open BIOS Setup (reboot and press F2 before Windows starts to load).

In BIOS Setup look for the Onboard Device Configuration options. Change the setting for Intel Multi-Display to ENABLED. It's Disabled by default. Without that set to enabled, you can't use 2 monitors.

If you have the 7570 video card, you should be able to connect one monitor to the VGA port and one to the DVI port on the video card, assuming your monitors support those inputs.

ps. Found a dell document that says the HD 7570 video adpater has a HDMI and an DVI port.  Additionally, the card is supplied with an adapter to convert the HDMI to VGA.  So connect just yoru vga monitor to the HD 7570 HDMI port using the HDMI to VGA adapter and see if the error message goes away.

In addition to the Radeon hd7540 graphics card your XPS 8500 has integrated graphics.  The integrated graphics is represented by the VGA and HDMI ports found in this section of the back panel:

Since you have a dedicated video card you can not plug your primary monitor into ether of these two port (directly or with an adapter).  Also, you can not plug in a seconday monitor into either of these ports if you do no have at least one pluged into the dedicated (non-integrated) graphics adapter.

I am not certain, but as far as I know the HD 7550 graphics card only has one HDMI port.  Please look at it and state what it has if different (could be VGA, DVI, DMI, DisplayPort, ot a combination of two or more of them).

The HD 7570 ports will be found in this area on the back of the computer:

You have mentioned attaching a VGA cable and so I am thinking that you have connected it to the vga port on the integrated graphics controller as detailed in the first photo and you have nothing connected to the port of the HD 7570.  If this is correct then that error message is correct.  And if this is correct and you do not have an hdmi monitor to connect to the hdmi port on the HD 7570, then get an hdmi to vga adapter so that you can connect your primaryvga monitor to that port. It would look like this:

How are you connecting the VGA>DVi adaptor? Is the VGA end connecting to the PC or to the monitor? Are you sure you're connecting to the correct ports on the video card, as marked below?

What ports are available on each of your 2 monitors? Eg, do they have VGA, DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort? Do your monitors support Dual-Link DVI input?

According to this, the HD 7570 supports Dual-Link DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, and VGA, but the photo above, whichcomes from Dell's site, only shows 3 ports on the video card. I can't tell from this photo if the 3rd one is DisplayPort or HDMI, but I suspect it's HDMI.

It's hard to tell from the photo but it looks like the DVI port is DVI-i, meaning it supports both DVI and VGA outputs from that port. So if you're connecting a DVI-i cable there with a VGA adaptor on the other end going into the VGA on the monitor that should work.

Have you read this about configuring Win7 for dual monitors?

Hi Ron

I have now installed Ubuntu and it works fine without using the VGA -> DVI-I adapter. Now I have plugged one monitor via VGA and 1 via HDMI.

Any ideas why, if i boot with windows, i need to revert back to using this adapter? (and only 1 monitor)

(btw I am now using the other VGA, which you have not marked in the above screenshot, and the HDMI directly below it, of which, neither work when i boot with windows 7)

The VGA and HDMI connectors that I didn't mark are for the on-board video, not for your add-in AMD PCI-e x16 video card. Ubuntu probably doesn't have a driver for that video card so it ignores it and sends the signal to the two on-board video outputs.  When you boot with Windows, it sees the video card and turns off the on-board video.

It's beginning to sound like you might have a bum video card. Power off, unplug and press/hold power button on tower for ~15 sec. Open the case and carefully reseat the video card in its slot. See if that solves the problem in Windows.

If not, go here and download the driver for the 7570 card onto your desktop. Then manually set a System Restore point, just to be safe. Now go into Device Manager and find the entry for the video card. Right-click and select Uninstall. Reboot and when you get to the desktop, double-click on the file you downloaded to install it and reboot again.

If it's still not working right, contact Dell Tech Support for potential video card replacement. They'll likely tell you to try the same things I said, but you'll be ahead of them.

hi ron,

I got this xps 8500 just today and got the same error message as stated above at the beginning of the post.  What i did was transfer the hdmi to the graphics card port below. 

My issue is that the resolution still looks bad. doesnt even fit my whole monitor. when my monitor is brand new acer hi def. and plus the graphics looks very bad my game warcraft doesnt even work with the graphics.  i have a feeling that my videocard is not working or prolly just drivers not installed. what should i do?

@anthonyparedes

Be good idea to post the exact model number of the video card in your system...

I pinged my Dell contacts to see if they have any info to help you guys. Give them it a day or so...

I am not sure exactly what issue we are troubleshooting but see if any of this information helps -

The AMD Radeon HD7570 M209A/ML209A has two ports, DVI-I Dual Link and HDMI.

The AMD Radeon HD7570 OPGA9 has two ports, DVI-I Dual Link and DisplayPort.

The AMD Radeon HD7570 is bundled with DVI-I to VGA adapter. You would need to purchase optional second monitor adapters for DisplayPort and HDMI if you would like to have multi-display available.

1st monitor =  Integrated VGA port --> VGA cable --> monitor VGA port
2nd monitor = Video card DisplayPort --> DisplayPort to DVI-D Single Link adapter --> monitor DVI port
2nd monitor = Video card HDMI --> HDMI cable --> monitor HDMI port
3rd monitor = Video card DVI --> DVI cable or DVI to VGA dongle --> monitor DVI or VGA port

Chris,

Thanks. But now I'm confused too!

The photo (see my post above) from the XPS 8500 e-doc shows a VGA port on the video card,  though I don't know what card is actually installed in the systen that was photographed. 

Are you saying none of the AMD cards Dell is supplying with this system has a VGA port? In that case the e-doc is incorrect.

And are you saying the on-board VGA port works even when the PCI-e video card is installed? That's different behavior from prior Dell systems.

Do all DVI monitors support Dual-Link? If the video card is DVI Dual-Link and the monitor is only DVI Single-Link, will that work?

Not sure if the OP has solved the problem using 2 monitors using Windows or not. Second member seems to have different issue with video resolution.

Thanks,

Hi guys!

Thank you so much for your help.  I already figured it out thanks to all of ur comments.

Here are the things i have done to fix the problem.

1. Plug my cable to the videocards port.  NOT THE BOARDS port. lol. so noob of me.

2. I did not run the cd to install the drivers. I was so excited that i just plugged in everything and thought that it will all work lol.

3rd.  The resolution problem was just with the scaling settings.  i figured that out as well.

now I am enjoying games with my starcraft 2, and diablo 3 in max settings.  

thanks guys.