DIY eGPU experiences

More screens.
Ran all tests at 1650x1050 (built-in screens' resolution) to better show the performance difference.
All settings on HIGH.
Internal card: M8600GT
External card: 5770













I can't explain why I get less frames in SFIV in 1650x1050 than in 1920x1080 (see quote). I'll have to double check that I didn't change the settings.

I'll also appreciate help with my other 2 questions.
Thanks

 

Be sure you have the 6pin power connection attached from the video card to the power supply AND the 4 pin connection to the PE4H.

My 8800gt screams like that when i do not have the power plugged in to the card.

 

The Help instructions that come with Setup can guide you. All you need to do is use the 'Edit Startup' menuitem. Then make startup.bat contain the three activities you require: switching port 5 to x1E mode (call iport x2 5), doing PCI reallocation (call pci), and chainload to XP (call grub4dos xp).

Code:

call iport x2 5
call pci
call grub4dos xp

Then to use your DIY ViDock, boot DIY ViDock Setup v1.x USB stick allowing it to countdown OR hit return on the default Automated startup option. Your 1920x1080 benchmarks would be faster than 1680x1050 if done using x1E link mode.

 

Yea that was it, I was looking and seems like the cord is broken so ordering a new one. Should have benchmarks up in 2 weeks after a mission trip next week. BTW... how do I download the benchmark programs? (DMC4, RE5?)

 

I'm studying ways of disabling the LAN circuit that can be easily reverted just with this in mind. Yeah, it seems that quite a few people are reporting better x1 performance with NVIDIA GPUs so I'll look into this as well. I've ordered a small PSU with a Palit GTX 465 to compare its x1E performance with my Sapphire HD5750. I'll use the 7-day return policy to run some tests and make an informed decision. I'll have some results over the weekend.

 

Very much looking forward to side-by-side comparison of a HD5750@x1E versus a GTX465@x1E. A great pioneering service to the DIY ViDock community All GTX4xx results so far are at x1 1.0 (not x1E).

 

Google is your friend.

techPowerUp! :: Download Devil May Cry 4 Benchmark


Resident Evil 5 PC Benchmark Utility download from Guru3D.com

they are hosted all over the place so its up to you where to D/L from.


Oh and glad i could help with your card

 

K so, I posted the above quote and have been banging my head against the wall tryingk to figure this out. I also received another stop error, however this one happened while using my normal integrated chipset. I have included a screenshot of my system info if that helps. It appears that I have 4GB of memory installed but am only utilizing 2.6GB of it, unless I'm reading this wrong. I'm thinking about upgrading to windows 7 32-bit, but I don't know if it will be worth it on this lappy. Any suggestions?

Found a new problem...when I try to open WoW I receive an error stating that a suitable display device could not be found. I then went into the Catalyst Control Center and it does not show my monitor however I am using my monitor so I'm stumped....

 

Ok I got a problem, with Sony Vaio VPC F115FM Laptop,
Specs: i7 1.6GHZ, 6GB DDR3 Memory, Geforce 330M, FULL HD Monitor 1080p.

When I tried Both Ati 5770 or Nvidia GTX 470 external cards, Ati did not work, Nvidia had Code 12, but worked when you restarted with Express card inside (but only external monitor worked) Now I took out 4GB of memory, Now both internal and External Nvidia Cards work. But perfomance depends which is primary display. Lets say External is primary, then 3dMark Vantage shows 7800 score, if you make Internal primary it gives like 3000. And comparement RE5 Test, 1280x1024 full details 16Q AA all settings maxed. On Internal 24FPS, External 51FPS.

So I tried VGA to DVI Dummy to make it work on internal Display, but UltraMon doesnt seem to work on my system normaly I have to drag image from External( dummy ) monitor to main monitor all the time. And it still slow as before.

Also how do I make it work with 6GB Memory not 2GB? thanks.

 

oh yea and I want to use full HD resolution on my internal and have same speed as on external thanks. External Does have 1600x900 max resolution only.

 

Alright, my Casegears 480W power supply doesn't do anything when I plug it in and turn it on. It's not hooked up to anything. Is it supposed to do something?

 

You need the SWEX or paperclip trick to switch it on, even if you switch it to "on" on the rear switch.

Whatever is set as your primary display is what the application will use as the gpu to run on. So set the primary as the HD5770/GTX470 to get the faster speed.

You'll need the DIY ViDock Setup v1.x to get the HD5770/GTX470 working with the internal gpu, using 6GB. It can be done because a similar specced Sony Z119 did it here. I understand the 1.0c grub was giving you some issues. Keep an eye for the 1.0d release any day now which uses the original grub4dos as default in case the beta was problematic for you.

 

Alright, so it will work once I hook it up to the PE4H, right?

Just making sure it isn't DOA.

 

Removed: wrong thread.

 

If you use the SWEX and plug that into the 20/24 pin MB connector of the PS then flip the swith in the back then the PS then it should turn on. if yo uwant to test the PS now you can use the paper clip trick as Nando said.

http://deron.meranda.us/create/case-modding/avocet/water-pump/atx-power-bypass.jpg

 

I don't understand why, but you're right.
I'm getting almost the same performance (or better) with a much higher resolution. How odd.







The 1680x1050 pics can be seen here.

 

Finally something promising! I received the error 12 thing today and know I need to do that boot disk thing with the thumb drive. Now the problem is that I download the file and save it to C:\DIYVdock and run the program to make the disk and I get this fun little error that says " There are no valid DOS system files at the specified location." Am I misreading the instructions? Or is this something that has been posted about before that I just didn't see in my hours of pouring through this? Atleast there is a glimmer of hope now though, right?

 

These are my preliminary benchmark results comparing Radeon HD5750 1GB vs Geforce GTX 465 1GB on a DIY Vidock x1E setup.

Notebook
Brand/Make: Asus F8SA/P
CPU: Core 2 Duo T9300 2.5 GHz
RAM: 4 GB DDR2 (667 MHz)
Platform/Chipset: Santa Rosa/Intel PM965, ICH8M
Laptop Graphics card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 1GB
OS: Windows 7 Professional x64
Drivers:Catalyst 10.6, Forceware 257.21

DIY Vidock
Graphics cards:

• Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD 5750 1GB
• Palit Geforce GTX 465 1GB

Adapter: PE4H v1.0 + EC2C
Connection: PCI-e 1.0 x1E (see notes here)
Power supply: 400W ATX PSU

Here's the Everest shot showing the Palit GTX 465 up and running at x1E:


3dmark 06
DirectX 9 - Fullscreen - 1280x1024 - Default settings - Feature tests

3DMark06	3DMark score	SM2.0	SM3.0
HD5750 x1E	10392	4986	4899
GTX465 x1E	5239	2144	2000

3dmark Vantage
Performance test - DirectX 10 - 1280x1024 - Graphics test only

3DMark Vantage	GPU score
HD5750 x1E	5442
GTX465 x1E	6472

Resident Evil 5 Benchmark
Fullscreen - 1280x800 - High settings

RE5 (variable)	Avg fps (DX9)	Avg fps (DX10)
HD5750 x1E	65.0	44.9
GTX465 x1E	69.1	65.0

Devil May Cry 4 Benchmark
Fullscreen - 1280x800 - High settings

DMC4 (scene 4)	Avg fps (DX9)	Avg fps (DX10)
HD5750 x1E		43.84
GTX465 x1E		70.19

Unigine Heaven 2.1
Fullscreen - 1280x800 - DirectX 11

Unigine Heaven	FPS	Scores	Min FPS	Max FPS	Tessellation
HD5750 x1E	26.1	657	16.6	54.8	disabled
HD5750 x1E	16.3	411	10.5	49.4	normal
GTX465 x1E	16.5	415	10.1	64.2	disabled
GTX465 x1E	15	377	9.1	63.4	normal

Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Fullscreen - 1280x1024 - Low settings

BF: Bad Company 2	Frames	Time (ms)	Min	Max	Avg
HD5750 x1E DX9	10033	140538	49	125	71.39
HD5750 x1E DX10	6911	153124	27	80	45.133
HD5750 x1E DX11	5727	167017	22	66	34.29
GTX465 x1E DX9	8641	154833	33	98	55.809
GTX465 x1E DX10	8570	157929	21	102	54.265
GTX465 x1E DX11	4876	136310	21	52	35.771

For this one I just drove a tank around Arica Harbour on an empty server, demolishing the MCOM A building, circling around the back of the compound and doing some damage to walls and watchtowers while switching viewpoints. I tried to retrace my steps for every iteration reasonably close.

I still need to fill in some blanks and rrun some more tests but here are my observations so far:

• DX9: HD5750 performs better than the GTX 465
• DX10: GTX 465 performs better than HD5750
• DX11: HD5750 is better optimized for Unigine Heaven but chokes with tessellation. In-game tests are inconclusive

Unfortunately the GTX 465 died on me before I could collect results for other game benchmarks and from its performance at x1. I will resume testing once the replacement card arrives.

 

Your great post above has been linked off the first post News section.

I hope the RE5/dmcv4 results are not due to NVidia specific optimizations. NVidia DX10 results showing GTX465 being ~50% faster than a HD5750. Need some more games to get a feel of what's the overall performance difference.

Can you also do x1 1.0 tests? I'm working with a PM55+GTX465 users who has switched to x1E and sees no performance difference. Wondering if x1E is specific to ICH7/8/9M chipsets, or could it even be a handshaking issue with ATI cards, with the ATI card switching to a lower performance mode that does not apply to NVidia cards? Your results will tell us then if x1E does increase performance in NVidia cards and so then Intel chipset have a legitimate issue in delivering proper x1 1.0 performance.

BTW - 3dmark vantage is showing you are running the HD5750 with 870/1430 clocks. If so, that's a pretty big overclock from the stock 700/1150 levels. Meaning you're running more of a HD5770 than a HD5750.

 

Nando, I will have my new benchamarks ready from my 9800gt posted later today.

DMC4, RE5, furmark, and Heaven and , all showing and increase in x1E vs x1 on my toshiba
3dmark vantage will also be added but not showing and increase for some reason.

all test were run in Dx10 mode and default settings for the benchmark.

 

Woah, beastly! The Geforce strained the PE4H too far and bust the voltage regulator circuit for the laptop-style plug. The PE4H LED for power doesn't turn on now and the laptop power adapter makes a strange buzzing noise (with two different power bricks). I can start up the PE4H if I connect it to the PSU via the floppy molex and the HD5750 boots up fine but the GTX 465 gives me a BSOD. Ouch.

My PSU is a 400W dual 12 V rails that should be sufficient to power the GTX 465. I only plugged in the laptop power adapter to give some extra juice as I was already getting some instability in the final tests last night. Today, the GPU crashed while running 3dmark06 at x1 and I haven't been able to start it up since (fans are spinning but BSOD in windows 7).

I really hope the GTX 465 isn't damaged...! I'm thinking that the GPU is still power-starved so I'm off to buy a 4 pin 12 V to molex converter so that I can connect all the lines from the PSU and put both 12V rails and all 400W on the PE4H+GTX465. Wish me luck!

EDIT: Power starving is the likely reason as it appears that my PSU can only output <180W on the 12V molex/sata cables. The remaining capacity is hooked up to the second 12V rail, which means that I need to find an 4 pin 12V ATX to molex adapter to tap into some of that power. Unfortunately, there isn't one that I can find so I either make one myself or replace the PSU with one of more adequate design. Argh!

UPDATE: the GPU is a dud. Even with a single rail 550W PSU the card crashes at the login screen. On the other hand the little HD5750 keeps chugging along. The PE4H is fine and so is the PSU. I'll RMA and send the card back on Monday.

 

If the prelim results make the GTX465 a keeper, may suggest you obtain a PNY or Point-of-View branded GTX465 as a replacement. Their units are 1.2GB (10mem chip) GTX470 flashed with a GTX465 bios, sold as a GTX465. Easily flashed to be a GTX470 as shown here. Some even flashing a GTX470 to a be a 1.2GB GTX480(!!).

This will give a clear indication of x1 versus x1E on NVidia cards. Can you post your results results here?

 

nando4, really sorry but there's too much to go through so i thought it'd be easier to ask you directly.. I have a Dell Studio 1737 which i'd like to boost with an external GPU.. So could you tell me what are the parts i'll require so that i could make a neat setup out of it.. And also refer a card to me, nothing over the top, say a ATI 5xxx or nVidia equivalent cuz i don't have a deep pocket yet.. And probably still use it as a normal laptop and carry it around by disconnecting the externals if possible.. Thanks..

 

The best bang-per-buck setups atm imho being:

US$250 low-power HD5750 + AC Adapter here
US$250 HD5770 + ATX PSU using PE4L-EC2C
US$380 POV/PNY GTX465 + ATX PSU using PE4L-EC2C (POV/PNY can be flashed to be a GTX470)

If you need CUDA processing or what appears to be significantly faster DX10 performance from prelim benchmarking than an ATI card, suggest spend the US$130 extra over a HD5770 on a NVidia GTX465.

Your Studio 1737 might have the same port3+port4 mpcie+expresscard slot layout as the Studio 1555 here. In which case you may consider doing a x2 setup linking those ports for 30-60% better FPS performance. To do that add US$62 to use a PE4H-EC2C+PM3N instead.

For parts listing see first post->Getting Started-> What parts do I need?

 

Thanks a ton.. But do you have any idea whether i'll get all this hardware on the indian sub-continent??!! Lol.. Other than the card itself..

 

hwtools ship the PE4H/PE4L worldwide from Taiwan. tech freegans could get you an ATX PSU from a dumpster diving session. Many of your questions likely answered in the Getting Started and Mini-FAQ sections on the first post.

 

Hey nando4

My laptop got two free pcie 2.0 x1 and one of them is an expresscard, i was just wondering if i should buy the PE4H or PE4L, the graphic card that i will be connecting is gtx 260 and mainly use for video processing and a bit of gaming. I might upgrade my graphic card with gtx 460 in near future. Should i go with X1 or X2 link?

 

Hi nando,

My laptop is a Clevo m570RU, Windows 7 64 Bit, 3GB RAM, 8700m GT and has the following ports free:
PCI-E 1.0 x1 port #1
PCI-E 1.0 x1 port #2
PCI-E 1.0 x1 port #5
PCI-E 1.0 x1 port #6

Is it possible to connect these 4 ports? To make it the x2E you said?

I would like to achieve the maximum amount of power I can squeeze out of this laptop and price isn't an issue. I'll be using this laptop for gaming. From the research I have done on your threads, I would just like to ask if I am correct in saying that all I need is a:
- PE4H
- PM3N
- Video Card (5870, is any higher possible?) + Compatible Power Supply

Did you also pay any additional fees when importing it to Australia?

Thanks in advance.

 

Updated from the first post:

2. Can my system use PE4H's x2/x4 link for superior performance shown in PCI-E Scaling Analysis?

hwtools' PE4H has made provision to allow compatible 2xmini pci-e ports, or mini pci-e port and expressport to be combined to form a x2 port. To identify what is possible, find your Intel I/O chipset below to identify what ports can be combined to create a x2 or x4 width link.

[/TR]

Intel Chipset max# pci-e ports x2 link x4 link ICH7M 4 p1+2, p3+4* p1+2+3+4 ICH8M/ICH9M/HM55 6 p1+2, p3+4*, p5+6 PM55/HM57/QM57/QS57 8 p1+2, p3+4*, p5+6,p7+p8^ p1+2+3+4, p5+6+7+8
	2510P's port	DV2000's port

*=switches port1+2 into x2 mode. ^switches port5+6 into x2 as well. An Intel limitation.

Other combinations to get x2/x4 ports such as p1+3, p2+4 do not work! In example above, the 2510P can't do a x2 link since it has only the 1 physical mPCIe slot. The DV2000 has expresscard=port1, mPCIe=port3, mPCIe=port4. So the DV2000 can do a x2 link using the 2 mPCIe slots as port3+4.

The best way to identify your port layout is to insert a expresscard e-sata card and see what port it reports as being on, then checking too the wifi card. If have multiple mPCIe slots, worth swapping the wifi aiming for a port1+2, port3+4, port5+6 setup. Could consider too using >Accessing BGA pins<- to find nearby vias and wire them up manually if missing ports.

No import duties in getting gear into Australia.

A X9000 CPU + unlocked multiplier + HD5870@x2 or GTX480@x2 would be as far as you could push your system's performance.

 

Humm... The GTX 465 is clearly superior in DX10 but unexpectedly chokes in DX9. DX11 is not relevant yet so I am not too worried about it. Still, it's a bit disappointing that the GTX465@x1E doesn't really deliver with the tessellation tests, which should be its forte. Right now, I am not sure +25 fps at DX10 and -20 fps at DX9 justifies paying twice the price of the HD5750 for a GTX 465. I will wait for the final x1 tests and additional benchmarks (Crysis, World in Conflict) to make my decision.

As a side note, I keep thinking that the reason for the extra performance on the GTX 465 probably is in driver optimizations and also on the fact that this GPU architecture doesn't seem to make use of Turbocache (share memory) hence lower waste of PCIe bandwidth. I wonder if it's possible to disable Hypermemory by tweaking the ATI drivers. Perhaps it would boost the performance of ATI cards on DIY Vidock setups significantly. Would it be worthwhile to get in touch with some driver tweakers (e.g. DNA, Omega, etc) and see what they say?

That's bizarre. I haven't OC'd the HD5750 at all (Overdrive is disabled). The fan hasn't sped up from whisper quiet in any of my tests so that must be bogus. Still, I'll keep an eye on the monitoring data the next time I run Vantage.

 

Disabling ATI's Hypermemory

I investigated this possibility, leading me to hmem.tumblr.com who emails you this pdf indicating the bios itself holds the data to enable/disable hypermemory. I've asked for a 'free trial bios with hypermemory disabled' to test to see if this makes any difference to DX10 ATI performance in x1 1.0 setups. Hope the hacker agrees. Otherwise my 2GB HD4870 results did not indicate any worthwhile DX10 performance improvements.

Certainly. It would be worthwhile contacting a driver tweaker (DNA/Omega) who might be able to give some insight into why ATI's DX10 performance is inferior in our x1 10 setup.

As it stands it looks like you'd need a GTX470 to give a HD5750's DX9 performance, and the ~50% faster DX10 performance. A GTX470 starts at US$330(!!). Unless get the PNY/POV GTX465..

FYI: DIY ViDock Setup v1.0d released today. Quite a few improvements/bug fixes over 1.0c.

EDIT: Contacted omegadrivers.net requesting x1 1.0 DX10 ATI driver tweaks.

 

oh, chill

that "boot disk thing" means that you have to shutdown your computer and restart booting to DOS and only DOS from your flash drive instead of your hard drive. research this somewhere else as its a much broader topic.

 

Did you try any of the other possibilities listed in the .pdf file, especially the ATI Tray Tools one? It´s quite an advanced tool, so it is likely to detect the external card and thus be able to disable hypermemory without any hardcore vBIOS hacks/modifications.

 

The option in ATT mentioned in the PDF controls the software's shared memory feature that is used for the in-game overlay (fps counter, sensor data). Despite what's mentioned in a couple of forums, it's strictly a ATT setting that t doesn't have anything to do with Hypermemory.

 

Thanks nando4*

My experiences.

Brand/Make: Asus A8SR
CPU: Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2 GHz
RAM: 3 GB DDR2 (667 MHz)
Platform/Chipset: Santa Rosa, Intel Crestline-PM PM965, ICH8M
Laptop Graphics card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 128mb
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit
MSI 1GB GDDR5 R5750 PM2D1G





3DVantage GPU: 5253 CPU: 3666 (1280x1024)
3DMark06 8860 (1920x1080), 9237 (1280x1024)

RE5 Benchmark Variable 55.5FPS, Fixed 29.3FPS Direct X 9.0C (1920x1080)
Overclock 855/1400mhz Variable 66.5FPS Fixed 25.8FPS Direct X 9.0C (1920x1080)

RE5 Benchmark Variable 40.2FPS, Fixed 28.9FPS Direct X 10.0 (1920x1080)
Overclock 855/1400mhz Variable 41.8FPS Fixed 26.6FPS Direct X 10.0 (1920x1080)



Q: I don't seem to like to see the fan running all the time even when i am not using, attracting dust, but if i unplug the vidock, everything goes black and i need to restart my com to get it working again....is there anyway i can hotplug it back without restarting?

A: Found a solution!
1. With the HD5750 still running my external monitor(my main screen), i changed my main screen to the laptop screen from the display settings.
2. Then go to my Device Manager and right click the HD5750 and disable the HD5750.
3: Then the laptop will revert back to the HD2400 to run the laptop screen.
4. Then i can now turn off the SWEX and PSU (i left the ec2c plugged in the expresscard, although one of the LED on the PE4H will still have light, leave it because if i unplugged the mini HDMI cable from PE4H or EC2C, it will result in Code 12 error if i plug it back in again, so i just leave the EC2C plugged in with PE4H connected to it) / (HD5750 will disappear from Device Manager)
5. Then to use again just turn back on all the power and enable it(from display settings, change main screen to external monitor that HD5750 is connected to)
6. Not sure if I lost x1e..will check it later.. EDIT: x1E remains. =D

Note: I tried to experiment by turning off the SWEX and PSU connected to the HD5750 without doing steps 1-3 (disabling the HD5750), and after i turned it back on, the HD5750 will reappear in the Device Manager with the Code 12 Error resulting having to restart my laptop and to run USB Bootdisk again.

will try to post pictures and the steps to get through usb bootdisk...so hard until u know how to do it...lol


ok now the problem is, i don't know how to make direct boot without needing the USB bootdisk, could you give me a beginner step by step guide? i read the guide you wrote but i don't quite get it...(i need to reformat the bootdisk a few times as sometimes it will not work and after i chainload to my os, my os would not load and it will just hang there or blue screen of death, reformatting( again) solves the problem tho but i would rather get a simpler solution)

 

Suggestions:

- try another USB thumbdrive in case yours is flakey. I found USB 2.0 writes in DOS would cause problems. eg: ICH8M 2510P + Lexar USB drive works reliably using usb 1.1 speed. usb 2.0 speed boots up OK, but once I do a save or two (write) to it the USB drive reads become scrambled. A reboot fixes the problem until it reoccurs.

My workaround was to just ensure the \core\pci.bat \core\startup.bat are created successfully. Then I just use that USB drive to do a load (read) and it works fine at usb 1.1 or 2.0 speed. Not sure if it's the usb drive OR the controller being problematic. The 2510P would cold boot the Lexar USB in 1.1 mode then of it's own accord switch to the problematic 2.0 speed mode at odd times. I could tell because bootup was ultra fast.

- try a Selective compaction, choose 32-bit, then both your video cards. See if it finds a solution. If so, great. Then the USB controller doesn't get relocated which might cause problems on certain systems.

- use the "Automated Startup via startup.bat" menuitem to avoid needing to navigate the menus. The lines below being suitable to your system. The waitvid line is optional. That will wait for either the HD5750 to be powered up and on the PCI BUS, ENTER is pressed or 60secs elapses. The ramdisk line ensures that the USB thumbdrive is only ever *read* from. No writes are performed to it.

Code:

call ramdisk
call iport x2 5
call waitvid 60 1002:68be
call pci
call grub4dos mbr

See too 2. Can I setup my system to avoid the need for a USB bootdisk? here. Another user's guide is linked from the secondary link on how to do this. Requires a bit of techical ability.

 

So I posted a few times looking for help and I get ignored for the first few days. When I finally get an error that is mentioned in this forum and get a little excited because I may actually be able to get this thing working I basically get made fun of, which I think is uncalled for. I may not be the smartest person in here by any stretch of the imagination, but atleast I'm trying ot learn more about this kinda thing. As for the Boot disk, I know how it works, I weas having trouble making the stupid thing which didn't work even when I did make it and try to boot from it. So I guess since no one cares to respond to my original posts I will move on and give up on decent graphics for my laptop. Thanks for nothing.

 

Setup v1.0d installation instructions have been updated. Ensure you download and extract the .rar file to C:\DIYVDock otherwise the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool will issue the " There are no valid DOS system files at the specified location." error you were seeing.

 

what do you mean by "then both video cards"?

Is this the first option from the top when i boot the USB BootDisk?
how and where do i config this startup.bat?

Ok, everytime i tried to allocate resources, i will boot the bootdisk and select the ViDock Setup(win menu)....then I tried pressing "apply config using startup.bat", after i set up the chainloader, port and compaction but it gives me "Abort,Retry,Fail", is it meant to be like that?
i end up using the "apply config using chainload" option everytime...

Also, if i restart my computer with the ViDock still plugged into my system, most of the time the reboot will not be successful even though i go through the same process of compaction as stated above. I will just get stuck at a black screen after applying chainload.
Then i have to unplug the vidock and startup normally to my laptop and end up reformatting the usb bootdisk, and then after that i restart and boot from the bootdisk following the steps you written and it works..... this happens more than 5times alreadt...frustrated much...making me lazy to restart my computer...

 

Thank you for your response nando. I did get the bootdisk made previously but it did not work correctly, however I don't think this is my problem anymore. After rebooting my computer I no longer get the error 12 message. I am once again losing all of my USB ports after about an hour of gaming. It has been suggested that there may be some communication issues going on between the lappy and video card, but I don't know. Also, I have upgraded to Windows 7 since my original post, but still having the same issue, so I guess it's back to the drawing board

 

I think you are having the same problem I was having with the ICH8M 2510P. Namely, USB 2.0 speed is causing an issue with your USB pendrive writes. This will not be evident when using the Menu-based setup since it runs from ramdisk. The solution then is:

1. See if the bios has a USB 1.1 only mode and enable it if it does.

2. OR use notepad to edit \core\startup.bat. Add the following lines. The ramdisk operation means then will only ever do the initial *read* from the USB drive. All other operations needed will then be done from ramdisk. The 'call waitvid' line is optional.

Code:

call ramdisk
call iport x2 5
call waitvid 60 1002:68be
call pci.bat
call grub4dos mbr 

I could see how this usb 2.0 write issue could frustrate someone for 3+hrs. I did not have the problem with ICH7M or ICH9M systems so it might be ICH8M-centric??

I would advise getting the DIY ViDock Setup 1.x working and use it to do as minimal PCI space compaction as you can get away with. Eg: Selective compaction, choose vid_* rather than "ALL". I found that Win7 does it's own PCI Reallocation with side effects like lost mice/usb ports which don't occur if using the Setup 1.x.

 

so do i type pci.bat or just pci?

thanks alot nando4, i hope this works....my 5750 gave me a grey screen(maybe cos of the overclock) and the restart failed again, .....so i think i am going to fix this, will post if there is any problem after i tried this....

if i remove this "call waitvid 60 1002:68be", does this mean i can restart my computer with vidock plugged in?

 

'call pci.bat' and 'call pci' do the same thing.

Your DIY ViDock will work with 100% success rate if you pass bios with it switched off. If your bios boots up OK with it switched on, then do another compaction and test again in which case it should work so long as you do a 'ALL' devices compaction.

Yes. That is what will happen if you haven't copied the files across to the USB drive successfuly. Can do a quick check in Explorer to see if you have these directories on your USB disk: \bin, \core, \devcon, \dos, \help, \setup. If these don't exist then follow the Setup installation instructions carefully, perhaps asking a friend/colleague for assistance if you get stuck.

 

Thanks Nando, I figured out what I did wrong. I just copied the DIYVDock folder over rather than the contents only, oops Now I'm going to continue and see if I can get this setup properly. Thank you very much for the help.

 

oh ya one last question...which startup.bat should i edit?

the one in c: or the one in my usb drive?

thanks.

lol i think this is a stupid question, i think should be the one in usb....

should i delete the "REM" words in front of "call"?

 

Edit [USB drive]:\core\startup.bat

Lines started with REM are a remark. The line is ignored. The existing startup.bat will have a number REM lines showing examples of what you may want to use. Delete the REM if you want to use the line.

 

thanks, thats what i thought, ah well failing my programming course was a bad idea lol...

anyways i will try to turn my vidock off and restart it and see what happens...

Update: failed again... I turned off my vidock while restarting was in progress.. then when the asus splash screen comes out and disappear, bootdisk menu appear and I turned on my vidock and select automated startup... and I get the ducking black screen again:...

 

Great tutorial, hoping to get this to work on my lenovo T61 laptop. 3GB ram, core2 duo 2.2 ghz. I have a PE4H with an ATI HD5670 1GB hooked up. I have the bootable usb drive working and everything. (I used the instructions on page 64).

and in this screen Imageshack - pciconfig.png i have three "yes"s everything running at 1x (I had to use ignore on the integrated graphics and compactor on all option).

But Using orig. and beta chainloaders my xp freezes during the blue loading bar. (This same thing happens if I try to use the PE4H without the bootable disk.) Any idea what my issue is, or what work around I can try?? If you need more info. please ask, as I really would like to get this working.

 

No error messages by the way. Unless I use the beta loader, then I get a blue screen.