Microsoft Vista + external graphics card = BAD

[noetus]

Does anyone know a way of getting Vista to work with an external graphics card in a Dock? It doesn't like having two graphics cards installed (the internal graphics chip plus the external card) and will refuse to load the drivers. Doesn't matter if you disable the internal card. (Wikipedia has this to say: "Windows Aero requires WDDM driver support within any graphics cards and Vista will not allow more than one driver to exist in addition to a WDDM driver. This will particularly affect users of multiple graphics cards from different vendors who are seeking multiple monitor support.")

[seeplus]

Can you run two cards with identically branded GPUs from the same driver?

[noetus]

Here's what I've tried so far, in conjunction with the built-in Radeon 9600:

CompUSA-branded ATI X1300 256MB (Vista ready)
Diamond ATI 9250 128MB (not Vista-ready but should work sans Aero)
GeForce nVidia FX-5200 128MB (Vista ready)

None of these worked, and they all resulted in a similar (though not idential) error. Basically the graphics driver and one other driver, for a PCMCIA or a PCI driver (which is one of the drivers for part of the Dock II hardware), would not load, citing device conflicts. I've checked online, and an error like this when trying to run two graphics cards simultaneously is well documented in Vista Beta, RC1, and RC2. Apparently there is nothing that can be done, but hope for a fix in the final release. Disabling the internal card does not help. I suppose if it were possible to physically disconnect the internal card, that would do it, but of course it's not.

I had to ditch the CompUSA X1300 because it turned out it wasn't working with Windows XP either (perhaps the card was faulty, or simply doesn't like the Dock II), and instead I now have a Diamond ATI X1300 256MB which works peachily in the Dock. I haven't tried that with Vista, but I'm going to. (I'm also going to try something new - booting Vista with the Dock II without a graphics card installed first, then booting with the card).

Incidentally, NONE of the cards I have tried worked successfully in conjunction with the built-in card in Windows XP either, although the problem is not so severe - I can just disable the built-in card whenever the machine is docked. Has anyone successfully got cards to work together, so as to have simultaneous displays from the internal card and the external card? If so, how?