DIY eGPU experiences

I've been using my PE4L for over a year without problems. Then two days ago, right in the middle of computing, it disconnected my external monitor. A reboot later and it didn't revive. Tried reinstalling the driver, same thing. My video card is working fine as I tried it on a desktop. My monitor also works fine. My power supply should be good, it works fine to power my hard drive and a fan (beside the video card and PE4L).

I can only guess at this point it is the PE4L that is dead (both green light lights up just as normal). Anyone else have a eGPU device die on them? How long is the warranty from Harmonic Inversion?

 

I read someone just replaced the mini HDMI cable and it fixed it, might be the same thing

 

I just received everything I need to set up an eGPU today but I can't get the graphics card to detect.
I have a HP Pavilion dv7t-3000 and am trying to run a GTX 570 graphics card.
I hooked up the power supply unit and the graphics card to the board and connected it to my computer using the Express Card slot.
The graphics card and power supply are both running and 3 small green lights are on but no matter what I try I can't seem to get the driver for the graphics card installed.
Any advice for my situation?

Edit: I should add that I am running Windows 7 64 bit, have 6 gigs of RAM, and my iGPU is a GTX 230m. Also, I am using the PE4H setup.

 

Of course you could just have the one 6pin, but if buying a 203w Xbox psu, there would be no reason not to add the second 6pin for future expansion.

Or if really content with just the one 6pin (since you done need that much power) you could get away with one of the newer, smaller, lighter ( lower wattage) 360 psu's and mod that instead.

Looking forward to seeing the result! I'm loving my 203w paired with the gtx680

 

Thnx for the comfirmation, I will also add the second 'branch' of wiring for future expansion.

 

You said to PM you but your profile does not show PMs enabled or any other way to contact you. I might take some of the stuff off your hands for a discount instead of getting it from the HwTools/ HI folks.

 

@kizwan
The 560 is neither detected in Linux, nor in Windows. Here is the SIV-out concerning the external PCI slot:

[0 - 28 - 4] <- [PCI Bus] <- SIV64X - System Information Viewer V4.30

Intel HM55 Chipset PCIe Port 5 - Vendor ID 8086-3B4A-00000000-05 size 1000 PCIe BAR 0000E0000000 (255)

Device Class 0x060400 PCI Bridge
Command 0x0007 I/O Access Memory Access Bus Master
Status 0x0010 Fast Timing Has Capabilities List
Cache Line Size 16 4 ULONGs Latency Timer 0 PCI clocks
Header Type 0x81 Prof IF 0x00 Built-in Self Test 0x00
Interrupt Line 17 Interrupt Pin 0x01

Primary Bus # 0 Control 0x00 Controls Enabled
Secondary Bus # 6 Status 0x2000
Subordinate Bus # 13 Latency 0 Address Ranges beyond Bridge
I/O Port 0x2000 to 0x2FFF (16-bit)
Memory 0xD8100000 to 0xDA0FFFFF (32-bit) 32MB
Prefetchable 0x00000000D7100000 to 0x00000000D80FFFFF (64-bit) 16MB

Capabilities 0x40
PCI Express V2 Port 5 Device Type 4 Root Port of PCI Express Root Complex Interrupt Message Number 0
DCAP 0x44 0x00008000 Max Payload 128 (Supported)
DCTL 0x48 0x0000 Max Payload 128 Max Read Request 128 (Current)
LCTL 0x50 0x0000 Power Management Disabled
LCAP 0x4C 0x05114C11 Link Rate 2.5GT/s Width x1 (Maximum)
LSTS 0x52 0x1001 Link Rate 2.5GT/s Width x0 (Negotiated)
SCAP 0x54 0x0024B260 Slot 4 Power 10000 mW Capabilities Hot-Plug Surprise Hot-Plug Capable

Message Interrupt MSI Disabled Message Address 0x00000000

Subsystem IDs SSID 0x9069 SSVID 0x104D

Power Management Current D0 D0 - Device fully-operational, no power saving

The USB port on the PE4H module works, LEDs 2, 3 and 4 are lit and I tried another mini HDMI cable. Then I switched the laptop to an old Fujitsu Siemens running Win XP (and Ubuntu): Same result; ATI works, nVidia doesn't. I even tried different PSUs (from 350W output to 750W output).

Are there any known incompatibilities regarding PE4H 2.4a and the GTX 560?

 

@Filiecs
Did you do all the steps explained on page 1 to check if your notebook is compatible with an eGPU setup?
Also, does your GTX570 appear in the device manager (perhaps with error code 12)?

 

Today I bought the additional wiring I needed to hook up the xbox360 power supply.





The PE4L gets some power, I see the D1 Led turning green and the D3 led turning orange.

Problem is the power supply doesn't switch 'on', the led on the power supply stays orange meaning it is in standby. To switch on the power supply I need to short the +5V and the ground wire on the floppymolex that leads to the PE4L, but that can't be done since the PE4L needs the input from the floppymolex.

Since there are other xbox360 users here, how do you guys switch on the power supply? If I look back at the diagram from 'thendless' on the previous page there isn't a switch or something the like. I used the same wiring.

EDIT: Everything works great using an ATX power supply, first run 3dmark06 gives 8805 points using the GTS450 and CoreI5-2410m. I still would like to use the xbox360 power brick though...

ANOTHER EDIT: Enabling optimus compression was a bit hard to do, plugging in the express card while the laptop was asleep caused a reboot, and rebooting with the eGPU already connected resulted in no optimus compression. The solution was to just hot plug the express card while already booted to windows. Drivers were installed and 3dmark06 rose to 13734!

 

Please resize your picture. It's too big. Use HTML code:-
(* don't forget to removed " \")

HTML:

[URL='http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3117/img201206231455491.jpg'][img]http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3117/img201206231455491.jpg[/img][/URL]

Preview:-

 

Hey guys, everytime my T400 tries to use the egpu, it either restarts itself or goes into a blue screen. The first time I plug the expresscard in, it detects the correct graphics card and installs the drivers (from windows update). But as soon as it is enabled, it crashes.

I'm using an old Geforce 7600 GT if that matters at all (if it works, I plan on getting a GTX 460 or 560). I know that there is nothing wrong with the card itself because I've tested and taken it from my desktop. Could this be the problem anyway?

I have also checked my TOLUD and it is at C0000000, so I'm assuming that's not a problem. Right?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

wow, just checking if my notebook is compatible is a headache to do and learn

do I need to donate $25 just to install the Set-Up 1.x? (I want to check FIRST if my notebook is compatible)

how can I check if my notebook is compatible with an eGPU if the set-up already requires a $25?

the FAQ's "How can I check if my notebook is compatible with an eGPU?" is incomprehensible to me. The alternative to determine compatibility is running the set-up, which needs $25

 

As you can read I just started the eGPU adventure, and I too found all the information a bit confusing and overwhelming. To check if your laptop is compatible the first thing I would recommend is to check if you have an express card slot, if not you would have to use an internal mPCIe connector, which leads to more trouble wiring etc.

If you have the express card slot, or decide you don't mind using the internal mPCIe connecter, figure out which graphics card(s) your laptop has. Easiest will be an integrated intel hd3000 or something the like. If you have some sort of coreI generation laptop, the eGPU setup has great chances to work.

Long story short, tell us which laptop you want to use

 

I checked my memory bus's TOLUD and it's a C0000000 (3gb) so it should be compatible.
I do not see it appear under display adapters at all. Just my iGPU shows up.

 

I have:
Acer Aspire 4745G
64bit Win7.... i5 430m .... 2gb Memory, upgraded to 4gb ... ATI Mobility Radeon HD5470

about Express Card Slots:
I have no idea what it looks like. Googling images doesn't show definitively what it looks like
On multiple websites, it says the Acer 4745G has no Express Card
On multiple websites, it says the Acer 4745G has a built in Express Card


about the GPU:
it's got a switchable gpu
ATI Mobility Radeon HD5470 512mb

 

Ok, from what I've seen in the quickstart manual of your laptop it doesn't have an express card slot. The slot looks a bit like a large memory card slot and if you google 'express card slot' for pictures you will get an idea.

Maybe you have a miniPCIe slot on the inside of the laptop, you have to check for that yourself following step 3 of the pre purchase faq.

AFAIK after checking for a free miniPCIe slot, you have to run setup 1.x to be completely sure your laptop will run an eGPU.

 

Any update on this? Make sure dGPU is disabled in BIOS & when boot with eGPU connected, you can see both iGPU & eGPU is detected in Device Manager.

1. Uninstall current Nvidia drivers.
2. If after uninstall the drivers, it asked to reboot, just reboot the computer.
3. When boot into windows again, make sure (only) both iGPU & eGPU is detected in Device Manager. If windows want to install the driver for eGPU, just let it install.
4. Install Nvidia Verde driver (with modded nvam.inf file). The installer will check/detect whether there is a Nvidia GPU or not. If it failed to detect, it won't continue the installation.
5. After Nvidia Verde driver installation finish. Don't reboot your computer yet (IIRC the installer won't asked you to reboot). Try open Nvidia control panel. You should be able to open it. Just in case you can't open the Nvidia control panel, then you need to reboot & after reboot, try open Nvidia control panel again.

You should be able to open Nvidia control panel. I don't know what to troubleshoot if you can't open the Nvidia control panel in this specific situation.

Unfortunately that doesn't help.

Look in your DSDT & find "Device (PCI0)". If you can see DWordMemory entry under it, then you can use the DSDT override. It's universal & applicable to almost all notebooks except older notebooks.

Hint: Command-line interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So, in windows you will use...?

First thing you need to do before installing drivers is make sure the graphic card is detected in Device Manager. When drivers is not installed yet, it will detected as "Standard VGA device".

Try these one by one:-

1. Power ON notebook with eGPU already connected (already turn ON)
2. Connect eGPU to notebook but not turn ON yet. Turn ON notebook & before windows loading press F8 to halt windows loading. Turn ON eGPU & continue boot into windows.
3. Connect eGPU to notebook but not turn ON yet. Turn ON notebook. When you see "Starting Windows" screen & you see the four dots emerged to form windows logo, turn ON eGPU.

Too bad. EC2C is a passive adapter. PE4H-EC2C works like a passthrough; meaning when you connect the graphic card to PCIe port, it's like connecting directly to mini-PCIe port. There shouldn't be any compatibility issue with Nvidia card. Try this oldskool method; clean the PCIe interface on the graphic card using rubber eraser. Then try connect Nvidia graphic card to PE4H again.

When ATI works but Nvidia not, there must be something wrong with the Nvidia graphic card. Sorry, you may already do this but I don't remember; did you test Nvidia graphic card on desktop computer?

7600 GT is old graphic card. It's hard to tell whether GTX460 or 560 will have the same problem or not.

Watching unboxing video on youtube. Aspire 4745G doesn't have ExpressCard slot.

 

@Kizwan

Tried that, didn't work. I also tried it on another computer with similar (slightly different) specs but had the same problem.
Edit: It doesn't appear in the device manager at all. Not as anything.

 

Hey.. Thank you for the post.

I got everything setup, the fan is running, all cables go where they are supposed to go. But my laptop just won't detect my GTX 560 SE. How can I enable my desktop graphics card or just to create a connection between the two?

 

it is NOT the ground and the 5v that must be jumpered...

To switch on (aka go from standby amber to on with the green led)... the pwr-enable wire must be jumpered with the 5 volt wire, on one of my previous posts I posted a pic of my setup, basically just tie in a line off the 5v line, and put a rocker switch in connecting to the pwr-enable line (I think this wire is blue or purple if you opened up the Xbox cable). If you google 360 psu pinout it will also show you this.

You don't need the rocker switch, but it is nice so you don't have to unplug the psu to turn it off

I also noticed that the diagram is slightly wrong on the two grounds that connect to the floppy molex it has one of the grounds connecting to the pwr-enable wire.

Both grounds should lead to the same grounds as the others.

The pwr enable wire is used for nothing else but turning on the pwr supply

 

Thnx for your reply, I indeed meant the PWR_ENABLE wire (red) and the +5VSB wire (blue) had to be connected to start the power supply.

This week I'll rewire the thing and see how it goes. Am I getting you right if I think that I can split the red +5VSB wire coming from the power supply, and then take one branch to connect to the floppy molex and the other branch to connect to the PWR_ENABLE wire through a switch?

I will also search for your other posts, hard to find the information you need in this enormous topic.

 

Okay, forget my last question. I just purchased the DIY eGPU setup software, but now am I suppose to get that now? There are no info on where I can get the software after purchasing... What should I do now? Are they going to mail me the program or what?

 

I had the exact same reaction. Eventually (mine took just about 24 hours) they email you a download link. It would be really really less frustrating of them if they
a) made any indication at all that you'll receive a download link in the mail, instead of leaving people confused and haplessly searching for where to download it, and
b) didn't have it take so long, or at the very least tell the user it might take that long before they purchase it so they know to expect that! When people make an online payment for a downloadable piece of software, they expect to be able to download it immediately, as that's how everything has worked for the past 10 years, and it's really frustrating when you find out after you bought something with the intent of working with it for the next few hours that no, now you have to wait an unknown amount of time, oh you planned your day around that? haha too bad for you.

Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that the software exists, as I can't get mine working and now Setup 1.x is probably my only hope of succeeding... but you guys need to recognize that if someone in the DIY community is purchasing software after already purchasing hardware, they've almost certainly tried to make it work already, and are frustrated and caving in to buy the software with the expectation that they'll be able to use it to make things work, not that they'll then have to wait a day to even try it.

 

Thanks for the follow-up. Unfortunately I've been trying to make it work for the past 3 hours or so with no luck. In all that time, uninstalling and reinstalling drivers in different order over and over, I did get the control panel to open ONCE, but it just showed the title page, and as soon as I tried to switch to a settings tab it stalled out. After rebooting I never managed to get it to come up again.
I'm now going to see what I can do with Setup 1.x. I've backed up my bcd so hopefully I shouldn't be able to make anything worse...

 

The 5v is red, and power enable is blue, and yes splitting the red to give 5v to the floppy molex, and 5v to jumper the pwr-enable is what to do. ( I recommend adding a switch between the 5v and the pwr enable while you are at it)

All the yellow wires are 12v and go to a common line in the psu, and all the blacks are grounds.

 

OMG thank you so much for responding. You just regain hope for me. Yea I left like 3 messages and called them like 4 times. So now I just have to worry about the setup. Thx man and GODDD I LOVE YOU!! YOU JUST SAVED MY DAY

 

So at the moment I am in a state where both the dGPU and the eGPU are shown as working correctly in Device Manager, so I thought I'd take a moment to compare their Driver Details since they're now both using the same 301.42...
Obviously I would expect there to be some differences given that they're fundamentally different cards, but the Quadro 1000M has 17 entries that the GTX 560 does not. The 560 has 2 that the 1000M does not, so I'm considering system32\nvEncodeAPI64.dll and SysWow64\nvEncodeAPI.dll for the GTX 560 to be equivalent to the system32\nvdecodemft.dll and SysWow64\nvdecodemft.dll for the 1000M. That might be arbitrary, but whatever. There's a point to this that I don't think can be dismissed by "whatever they're different chipsets"...
Here's the list of drivers the 1000M has that the GTX 560 doesn't:

c:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\coprocmanager\detoured.dll
c:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\coprocmanager\Nvd3d9wrap.dll
c:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\coprocmanager\nvdxgiwrap.dll
c:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\coprocmanager\detoured.dll
c:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\coprocmanager\Nvd3d9wrap.dll
c:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\coprocmanager\nvdxgiwrap.dll
c:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVSMI\nvidia-smi.1.pdf
c:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVSMI\nvidia-smi.exe
c:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVSMI\nvml.dll
c:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\nvkflt.sys
c:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\nvpciflt.sys
c:\Windows\system32\nvdecodemft.dll
c:\Windows\system32\nvinitx.dll
c:\Windows\system32\nvumdshimx.dll
c:\Windows\SysWow64\nvdecodemft.dll
c:\Windows\SysWow64\nvinit.dll
c:\Windows\SysWow64\nvumdshim.dll

What glares in my face here is the coprocmanager stuff, which is known to be related to switching between iGPU and dGPU. Not being in the driver list could be related to the reason why my control panel doesn't recognize an NVidia chipset as being present while the display is outputting to the Intel HD...
Also, the NVSMI, or System Management Interface, is interesting. It lists any nvidia GPUs found, and it only lists the 1000M, not the GTX 560. If the control panel can't get information about the 560, that could also be related...
Any thoughts? (I haven't tried Setup 1.x yet because the chainloader fails, so I gotta go remember how to configure GRUB)

Edited to add: Oh yeah, I was going to ask as a result of this, why nvam.inf and only nvam.inf? And why Section099 and only Section099? There are other inf files that contain information about all sorts of hardware, and other sections in them which differ from one another, and I'm wondering if the coprocmanager or NVSMI stuff would work if I added the 560 to one of these other inf files or sections.

 

I still can't get my computer to even recognize that there is any connection to the eGPU. I've tried replacing the power supply to see if it wasn't getting consistent enough power but still all that happens when I try to hotplug it in is that the fan just whirs faster

EDIT
apperantly this meant the eGPU was not getting enough power. After switching power supplies AND plugging in the PEG connectors it now kind of works.

 

I actually just noticed that it might be registering as an unknown device. (error code 28) I'm not sure, but maybe.

Edit: No, that wasn't it. Still no sign of my device.

 

I opened the back panel of my laptop last night, trying to look for an MPCIE slot
I know what my memory looks like and my hdd, as I replaced those, and there were 2 other things on the back panel that I have no idea of. Hopefully one of them is mpci-e slot
Are there any keywords or series of letters/numbers that I should be looking at to determine if Im looking at an MPCI-E slot or not?
I image-googled for mpcie, but the images are showing me cards(i even add "-card" "+slot" in the search)
Im supposed to be looking for an empty slot, right?

 

Hi there.

I am back after nearly a year of using my 1X PE4H-EC2C setup with an Nvidia GTX 560 and an Acer 6920. I am generally very happy with how it is working, but I have two questions now.

First off after an idle day mucking around with the laptop's innards I realised I have the potential to do a 2x port using 1 or 2 mpcie ports.

My port setup is as follows:

1: Atheros Ethernet
2: Expresscard (Nvidia GTX560)
3: mPCIe - free
4: Wifi mPCIe
5: Jmicron tyass card reader
6: empty

on an ICH8 chipset.


Can I do a 2x link with an EC2C+mPCIe or an mPCIe+mPCIe and would it be worth it? Would a 2x EC2C+mPCIe link work using ports 2 and 3? I am sitting at aroundabouts 5.3k I can run just about every game I want with overclocking, including the Witcher 2 on High, but I would love to squeeze more power out of the card.

Secondly, I have to use Setup 1.x to compact my PCI memory, but the compaction only gets me 128 MB of contiguous space. This works fine for my Nvidia card, but I was wondering whether it is leading to any addressable slowdown, and if the DSDT override is a possibility for me.

PS: When did this whole donation drive for the Setup 1.x program start? Who is the money going to and is it worth upgrading for those still using the cobbled together free version?

Much love to all you guys here who worked to get this information assembled - especially Nando who guided me last time.

 

WOOT!!!!!!!!!!
I GOT IT!!!

I just had to plug in several more cables from my Power Supply directly into the GPU. That gave it enough power and it now detected!

 

Still waiting for the download.. I think I'm starting to get impatient.

 

If you want I can get you an ollllld version that works for me - maybe there was some problem on their end...

 

Hey guys,

I did the DSDT override on my laptop and I now have the 'Large Memory' bus available in device manager. I have tried using the Setup 1.x boot manager to try and run the gpu, the external monitor will output but once windows starts to load I get BSOD - with the error saying: The bios in this system is not fully ACPI compliant. I can turn the computer on, and then plug in the graphics card during startup or put it to sleep and plug it in but I still get the code 12 error.

I have disabled the onboard card, and it still gets the code 12 error. I know i'm either close to getting it done or the system just wont take it.

For some extra background information I'm running a Sony Vaio F Series laptop i7 1.73ghz with 8GB ram win 7 64 bit. Also the eGPU card is an ATI Sapphire HD5850 the onboard card is an Nvidia gt310m

The DSDT override definitely worked, the other part that I need to mention is the setup 1.x still has the iGPU and dGPU on off, during startup of it, it does detect the card.

Any ideas?? I couldn't find a similar situation on this forum - I think the card might not be allocation to this larger memory allocation automatically - i have run the dos prompt on the setup 1.x like in the DSDT page and it does something but doesnt get the card working anyways

Thanks!

 

All GPU PCI IDs are located in nvam.inf file. You only need to edit nvam.inf. Other 560 work just fine. Why Section099? I only inherited this from previous modder. There is good reason I believe (NVSupportOptimus):-

Code:

[Section099]
AddReg = nv_DRS_addreg
AddReg = nv_FTS_addreg
AddReg = nv_commonBase_addreg__01
AddReg = nv_commonDisplayModes_addreg__02
AddReg = nv_controlPanel_addreg
AddReg = nv_global_addreg
AddReg = nv_miscBase_addreg__46
AddReg = nv_opengl_addreg
AddReg = nv_timingRestrictions_addreg__02
CopyFiles = nv_Drs_copyfiles
CopyFiles = nv_cplSetup_copyfiles
CopyFiles = nv_detoured32_copyfiles
CopyFiles = nv_detoured_copyfiles
CopyFiles = nv_license_copyfiles
CopyFiles = nv_sysDrivers_copyfiles__02
CopyFiles = nv_system32_copyfiles__03
CopyFiles = nv_syswow64_copyfiles__03
DelFiles = nv_sysDrivers_delfiles
DelFiles = nv_system32_delfiles
DelFiles = nv_system64_delfiles
DelReg = nv_clearRegistrySwitches_delreg
FeatureScore = E6
NVBusUpperFilter = nvpciflt
NVCheckVersion = 1
NVOptimusHCloneDisabled = 1
NVSupportDisplayUpdate = 1
[B][COLOR="Red"]NVSupportOptimus = 1[/COLOR][/B]
NVSupportPhysx = 1
Reboot
RegisterDLLs = nv_common_registerdll__02
AddReg = nv_HDAudioInstall

It's strange the driver allow the installation to continue but after that Nvidia control panel failed to work.

It's not necessarily empty.

mPCIe = mini-PCIe = mini-PCI Express
PCI Express - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Port1 Atheros Ethernet is integrated device. You can't disconnect it. So, Port1 is unavailable. You can only do x2 link setup using Port3 & Port4. You can't use port2 & port 3 or port2 & port4 because that is how Intel design them. You can refer this to Intel chipset datasheet.

The PCIe power connector(s) on the GPU is there for a reason. If there are five PCIe power connectors on the GPU, you need to connect all of them.

But, congrats for successfully getting your eGPU to work! Please do some write up & post it here. It will help other people with the same notebook to get eGPU to work.

Your notebook have iGPU? Intel HD Graphics/3000? What is the full model name (e.g. VGN-Fxxx)?

If you get BSOD when starting up, connect eGPU but don't turn ON yet. Power ON notebook & when you see "Starting Windows" screen, when the four dots emerged to form windows logo, this is when you turn on eGPU. It's not when you see the four dots but right before they form windows logo, this is when you turn ON eGPU.


Guys,

Troubleshooting: Why eGPU is not detected?

• Try any of these:-
  1. Power ON notebook with eGPU already connected & already turn ON.
  2. Connect eGPU to notebook but not turn ON yet. Turn ON notebook & before windows loading press F8 to halt windows loading. Turn ON eGPU & continue boot into windows.
  3. Connect eGPU to notebook but not turn ON yet. Turn ON notebook. When you see "Starting Windows" screen & you see the four dots emerged to form windows logo, turn ON eGPU.
• PCIe power connector
  Make sure you plugged all PCIe power connector on the GPU with 6/8-pin PCIe power connector(s) from PSU. If GPU have two PCIe power connectors & you think connected only one 6/8-pin PCIe power connector is enough, you're totally wrong.
• Floppy power connector (PE4L/PE4H)
  Connect floppy power connector from PSU to floppy power header on PE4L/PE4H
• Jumper (PE4L)
  Check out jumper settings in manual which available from here:-
  1. PE4L v1.5: PE4L ( PCIe passive adapter ver1.5 )
  2. PE4L v2.1: PE4L V2.1 ( PCIe Adapter )

 

Don't know if it's already been posted but BPlus will be releasing an enclosure for DYI eGPU soon. Check the FaceBook link for more info.

 

The full laptop model is a Sony Vaio F series VPCF12rgx/b, the internal GPU i assume is the nvidia gt310m

 

GT310M is called discrete GPU (dGPU). iGPU is reserved for integrated GPU e.g. Intel GMA, Intel HD Graphics/3000. Integrated GPU is referring to GPU that is integrated in motherboard chipset or CPU.

Guys,
I has updated eGPU Troubleshooting FAQ page.

24 June 2012:-
Added checklist for troubleshooting when eGPU is not detected (Main FAQ).
Added announcement: >>>Driver version in this troubleshooting page is outdated. Always use latest version. Consider the driver version in this page is the minimum/lowest version you can use.

 

I had a quick look, I couldnt see any Intel based graphics, nor is it mentioned on the spec sheet: http://www.docs.sony.com/release/specs/VPCF12RGXB_mksp.pdf

 

Sadly, I ran into ANOTHER problem. The black screen crash.
I did the bypass but it STILL crashes. Once the fan started whooshing like crazy but my screen had already gone dark.
I am using a 700 Watt power supply (+12V = 21Amp) and have it hooked directly to the PE4H and the GPU.

Now my computer bluescreens along with the the blackscreen...

 

i7-740QM doesn't have iGPU. So, you're notebook only have dGPU. Anyway, did you try the method in previous reply?

 

Yeah, I still get code 12 doing those methods

 

Update! I started the computer with the egpu attached, windows starts loading, and then it just freezes. It's like something is starting up and crashes the egpu.. Maybe the nvidia control center? I have disabled the gt310m

 

Hi guys,

To follow up, I returned my PE4L to HWTools, and before I even sent that back I ordered a PE4H (PE4L was a little unstable for my tastes) from HIT, and it arrived yesterday. Turns out the hunch was right, I had a bad PE4L. I connect everything with it powered off, sleep, then power it on and reload and I'm good to go with my 6850. I'll let you guys know the benchmark stats as soon as I have some time to run them! Thanks so much for all your help everyone!

 

can anyone tell me if my old laptop can use a egpu setup, my laptop is a 2011 model Acer Aspire 7551-7442 Acer Aspire 7551-7422 Overview & Specs - Laptops - CNET Reviews, i have 8gb of ddr3 memory installed in it right now, i dont think the graphics are switchable, its using the ati mobility radeon hd 4250, and it has an open mini pci-e slot on the bottom next to the wifi card, can anyone tell me if this system can be used, and if so what kit should i get for it for best results ? i have a spare 500watt PSU and a radeon hd 5870. a little more detailed spec sheet of this laptop can be found here Acer Support: Acer Aspire 7551 Notebook Series Specifications , thanks in advance guys, i hope i can get this to work

 

I couldnt disable the dGPU.. and I don;t see any eGPU option here... what should i do?

 

Have to try it again, since I was not asking for SLI/crossfire operation, but only for non-sli operation of a dual-gpu board (6990/590 7990, 690 and the like) as a GPU external to a notebook. If anyone tried it (successfully), I would really appreciate letting me know.

Thanks
Tom

 

those cards work using sli/crossfire drivers. there is no difference in the way they operate to a crossfire/sli setup and they are preferred over dual card setups because they save some power, some space and an extra pci-express slot. you can see this in the fact that both gpus in a dual gpu card have their own dedicated memory which can't be accessed by the other gpu.

 

Can anyone tell me how I can disable my dGPU? Are there any in depth guide for this installation? I now got the software and everything plugged, but there are no selection on eGPU etc.