DIY eGPU experiences

I have a Win7/64 i7 with 4GB ram and integrated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570. I can use PE4H with a HD 5750 with 2GB ram installed, but with 3GB or 4GB ram i get error 43. I've tried the Enzyme 1.4 beta, Catalyst 10.6, Catalyst 10.8, Catalyst 10.9 and standby without luck. Can someone help me with a PCI relocation script I can use with the bootdisk please?

 

Sandy Bridge Preview: i5-430M 2.26 HD5750@x2 vs GTX470@x2

The Sandy Bridge platform, scheduled for release in Q1 2011, will bring with it pci-e 2.0 ports providing 4GBps bandwidth after overhead. That is equivalent to x2 1.0.

A HP Pavilion DV4-2000 with 2xmPCIe slots designated as port1+port2 was used do x2 link testing of a HD5750 versus a GTX470 below. The system also has Intel HD + HD4550 switchable graphics, so Optimus was tested as well. Unfortunately the Optimus performance tweak only engaged on a x1 link, so x2.Opt is not possible. x2.Opt would be the equivalent of x1 2.0 that Sandy Bridge will offer.

System	RAM	GPU	3dmark		RE5		dmcv4.scene4		FFXIV		MafiaII	Ports	OS
			06	vant.g	dx9	dx10	dx9	dx10	high	low	1080p
i5-430M 2.26 HP Pav DV4-2000	4.0	GTX470@x2<STRIKE>.Opt</STRIKE>	9226	11183	102.2	97.5	104.6	116.4	2424	2607	49.3	HM55	Win7/64
		[email protected]	13205	12859 &	100.8	97.4	97.2	114.3	2410	2438	48.1	HM55
		GTX470@x1	5351	7715	70.2	69.9	61.0	75.3	2101	2252	29.0
		HD5750@x2	11540	6186	90.0	62.7	86.8	57.3	1917	2742	34.6	HM55
		HD5750@x1	10930	5194	73.0	43.5	66.7	40.9	1804	2685	28.8	HM55
T6600-2.2 Inspiron_1440	4.0	[email protected]	10264	10972	58.4	61.8	90.0	96.5	2242	2252	32.1	ICH9M	Win7/32

& = 820/1900 overclock giving ~GTX480 performance
x2<STRIKE>.Opt</STRIKE> = x2 link, Intel HD graphics, Optimus driver, but Optimus performance tweak does not engage. Only engages for a x1 link

Observations

* the Optimus performance tweak only engages upon detecting a x1 link. A x2 link reverts to non-Optimus performance levels, probably because NVidia assumes if it's not x1, then it's x8 (SLI) or x16. Means I cannot do a full preview of x1 2.0 Optimus preformance levels until it's tested on a Sandy Bridge platform that can do x1 pci-e 2.0 link speeds. Let's hope NVidia still release the x1 tweak with the driver set for that platform.

* I tried to trick the driver after being initialised in x1.Opt mode, changing the link to be a x2 link. System froze. If enable/disable the GTX470, then the Optimus driver will once again re-check the link width and only enable the Optimus tweak if it's x1.

* synthetic benchmarks of x1 1.0 Optimus comparison systems sees them outperform x2 1.0 non-Optimus. Real life gaming results do however see better results with x2 1.0. 3dmark06's scene1: Return to Proxycon pans smoother with a x1 1.0 Optimus setup than a x2 1.0 non-Optimus setup. Other benchmarks place x1.Opt to be within a whisker of x2 non-Optimus performance levels.

* I suspect the x1.Opt tweak is setting up a end-to-end compressed link across the bottleneck x1 link given it sees increased performance with faster CPUs (see first page for comparative performance).

* x1E/x2E tweak gives no performance increase over x1/x2 on a series 5 chipsets. So I got crippled x1/x2 performance with the HD5750 which was 15-30% slower than it would be with the tweak on an older system. We see JameBond007's [email protected]+HD5770@x2E here significantly outperform my i5-430M 2.26+(crippled)HD5750@x2 results above.

Conclusion

NVidia. Why did you have to lock down the Optimus performance tweak to x1 only?? The x2.Opt setup would fly otherwise. More comments about this in the NVidia Optimus works for Fermi desktop GPUS - more performance + Internal LCD setup!! post.

 

In few days I'm going to buy GTS 450, hopefully with Optimus. I'm wondering about an improvement in performance against 5750.

 

will DIY ViDock Work on these computer?


if not what are the best laptop under a grand that is candidates for DIY Vidock

• gives the best performance and compatibility for DIY ViDock
• has good screen, build quality, good keyboard, good speakers
• dont feel too hot to touch, quiet
• light and portable
• has good battery life
• NOT a fingerprint magnet, smudges everywhere NO NO

 

Does anyone know why I can't 32-bit allocate my 5870 on my M1330? Nando said I had to use 32 bits, but I can't get alloc_valid = yes like that.

EDIT: I read up on error 12 and solution, and I'm trying to do PCI reallocation, but... I have no idea what to do. Free spaces? Moving parts around?

 

After another 30 minutes of dissecting, I think I finally understand how to reallocate from Dx to Fx. I feel kind of stupid now, seems so.. easy? [we'll see if I eat my words after I attempt]

 

Argh. Do you HAVE to use USB bootdisk or can you use the one made on the OS menu? I can't even find the snapshot.bpd on my computer after I take it.

 

119.9fps in dmc4 nando! Made me overvolt my 460 to get 860 core, and with that and 12% cpu/pci-e OC I still couldn't beat you Maybe if I ran the test a dozen times I could, but that's a bit annoying since 12% OC crashes the system half of the time. grats though on getting top in dmc4.

I tried messing around with a mini HDMI cable I cut to try to get my x2 OC up to my x1 OC, but it seems that I just can't make good enough connections. I only got the cut cable to run x2 mode once, and I couldn't OC on it at all. When trying to make it better I ended up making it worse. (the tiny wires snap all the time, making me have to get other wire to bridge connections, so I'd have more slow solder connections) If I knew what the 4 exact wires were for the pci-e signals, I might be able to make it work if I could just focus on those. So far I have only ruled out 7 or the 19 wires. I wish I anticipated this and just bought the very short HWtools cables I don't want to have to pay that shipping again just to get short cables. On a side note, it looks like trying to hijack signals for x4 going to chips on the motherboard would be very difficult to get working since the connections have to be extremely good.

Another possibility might be to overvolt the pci-e. A lot of desktop motherboards have the option for it.

 

I was only able to get the snapshot to work when I didn't load grub. So, yes, I had to use the usb stick since it didn't auto-load grub like (I think) it's designed to do.

 

Well, after hours of testing and configuring, I'm still unable to get it to work. I have used the following scripts to a NEAR success. In the loader it all checks out ok. I have 256 free after running my reallocation script. However, when I load into Win7, my root pci express port gets the Error 12. I am sure it's something silly, anyone out there have any ideas? I'll attach my script, the old screen shot and the database for ease.

Code:

@echo off
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: Testing script for HP DV7 3300 - NOT FULLY FUNCTIONAL
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


echo [ dv733Xpr.bat ] Performing PCI Reallocation..


setpci -s 0:0.0 02.w=F132
setpci -s 0:03.0 02.w=F138
setpci -s 0:03.0 20.w=F200
setpci -s 0:03.0 22.w=F300
setpci -s 0:03.0 26.w=F1F1


setpci -s 1:0.0 10.l=F2000000
setpci -s 1:0.0 1C.l=F000000C
setpci -s 1:0.1 10.l=F3000000

setpci -s 0:1C.07 20.w=F710
setpci -s 0:1C.07 22.w=F800
setpci -s 0:1C.07 24.w=F611
setpci -s 0:1C.07 26.w=F701

setpci -s 2:0.0 10.l=FA100004

setpci -s 03:0.0 18.l=F410400C
setpci -s 03:0.0 20.l=F410000C

setpci -s 04:0.0 10.l=F8100000
setpci -s 04:0.0 14.l=F8100D00
setpci -s 04:0.0 20.l=F8100C80
setpci -s 04:0.0 24.l=F8100C00

setpci -s 04:0.3 10.l=F8100900

setpci -s 04:0.4 10.l=F8100800

setpci -s 04:0.2 10.l=F8100A00
setpci -s 04:0.1 10.l=F8100B00

setpci -s 0:1B.0 10.l=FB100004

setpci -s 0:1C.0 20.w=FA10
setpci -s 0:1C.0 24.w=FB00
setpci -s 0:1C.0 26.w=F311

setpci -s 0:1C.4 20.w=F810
setpci -s 0:1C.4 22.w=F900
setpci -s 0:1C.4 24.w=F511
setpci -s 0:1C.4 26.w=F601


setpci -s 0:1C.1 20.w=F910
setpci -s 0:1C.1 22.w=FA00
setpci -s 0:1C.1 24.w=F411
setpci -s 0:1C.1 26.w=F501

setpci -s 0:1D.0 10.l=FB105800

setpci -s 0:1F.2 24.l=FB105000
setpci -s 0:1F.3 10.l=FB106004

setpci -s 0:1A.0 10.l=FB105C00


:: Hm...

 

Lost my dmc4 crown, so I went and took the vantage one:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

CPU and PCI-E are at 11% OC. Only overvolted the GPU just to break 11k.

 

Hey Khenglish, can you explain how you got the fan speed to be 100%, mine only goes up to 70% (Zotac GTX 460 Synergy 756MB).

 

Mine's a Gigabyte 1GB. Both nvidia system tools and msi afterburner can set to 100% for me. Honestly though, 100% is way too loud to have on outside a case for extended periods of time. I usually run 70%.

 

Alright, I finally installed Win7 to get past error 12. However, it's plagued with bugs. Every time I turn on DIY Vidock, all my other devices (Usb, mouse, wifi) all stop working. The vidock boot menu detects the 5870, but I don't think Windows does. Sometimes after I turn it on I get a BSoD saying "Bugcode USB Error"

HELP PLEASE!
Thanks

 

It's unnecessary to do 32-bit allocation. Just install the Optimus driver which has support for your 36-bit PCI allocation of both your G320M and GTX460, standby, attach GTX460, resume. Likely PNPs and away you go. If not, just boot DIY ViDock Setup 1.x and do 36-bit PCI allocation only on the GTX460, power off the GTX460, chainload Win7, standby, attach GTX460, resume. You'd be up and running in < 10mins.

Flaunt disabled unneeded devices like the fingerprint scanner and USB ones on his M1330 to get rid of this problem.

Yes.. 119.9 is a pretty decent result. Oh and the OCed 3dmarkvantage results were >12k and >13k with x2 1.0 x1 1.0-Optimus. Optimus on compatible systems sees seriously turbocharges 3dmark/3dmarkvantage results. I'd wondering if x2 1.0 Optimus would give a OCed 15k result?

You can find the mini HDMI pinout on hwtools website. Just look at a schematic of a PMN3, EC2C, PE4L or PE4H.

Your E4300's 4500MHD will unlock Optimus to full capability. GTS450 benchmarks at ~30% slower than a GTX460, but it's 105W TDP means can be made small and portable with a 12V/120W AC adapter. It's US$70 cheaper than the base 768MB GTX460 as well. Will be good to get some GTS450 benchmarks to see how it does on x1 1.0 Optimus.

 

I love having experts around. I'm gonna try those solutions shortly.

 

Hello! So I am trying to discover whether I can use DIY ViDock or not, or more if it's a good idea, and how to go about doing that. I guess first some basic specs are:
Dell Inspiron N5010 laptop
Win7 64 bit
Intel Core i3 CPU, 2.27ghz
4 GB DDR3 RAM
283 GB hard drive
Intel HD Graphics

Please let me know!

Oh and I forgot to say that my main goal is to play starcraft 2 better than all low settings...

 

Alright so now, the computer recognizes the 5870, but it still won't switch to it. Under the ATI icon in the bottom right toolbar, I can right click it and it shows 3 options for a 5870. However, when I actually click "external monitor" nothing happens. The 5870 shows up @ devices + printers on the very bottom under "Unspecified". Help anyone?

 

Mechanism 1-
I already had optimus installed so I was able to test this in a few seconds. Standby / Attach does make the GTX460 appear in device manager with no problem. However, USB is no longer functional and it says "there is no driver for this device.".
I was able to get the standby trick to work twice (I'm sure by luck) and both GPUs were fully functional. (although an MS miniport was broken)

Mechanism 2-
Every attempt to do a 36 compaction resulted in express port 8 having error code 12. (I tried many variations of 36 bit compaction) [I can almost say every compaction I've tried ends in express port 8 being an error 12]

Fiddling 1-
I read somewhere in here about someone else having USB issues after the standby, so I decided to disable one of my express ports (5) before chainloading. This seemed to work 30% of the time. (disable the port, load win7, standby, poweron, resume) But this result was the same as the few luck tries in Mechanism 1. That is: USB breaks and a virtual miniport no longer functions, but both GPUs are live.

It seems as if the windows reallocation is hit/miss for my setup. Since I've seen it functional more than a few times, I'm sure there must be some configuration I can do to make it consistent.

Any ideas?

 

Does the PE3A work for DIY Vidock??
PE3A ( PCI-Express or USB 3.0 to ExpressCard Adapter )
it is new release and seems like supporting PCIe 2.0...

 

Nvidia working on external notebook graphics - Graphics - Fudzilla

I found this information, there sounds interesting:-D that they will be planning?

 

nando does the new PE4L 1.5 worth the extra 15 dollars? I've looked at the different specs but I'm curious what it means for me. For example the PERST delay avoids BIOS detection so it would make set up easier, but setup is still possible without it with the software you've been kind enough to provide us with.

 

The PE4L 1.5's PERST# circuit is on my PM3N 1.10. I've needed it for the CQ41 setup since it hangs if the video card is on during bios bootup but found it doesn't do what it's supposed. I've alerted hwtools. So it's definitely not worth paying $15 for it until it's fixed.

The PE4H 1.0 for US$65 is worth the $25 premium over PE4L 1.4 for it's second lane and better self-supporting stability. Just ensure you do the PE4H 1.0 fuse bypass.

Yes but your Inspiron 15R has no expresscard slot. So would need to go the less convenient mPCIe solution (PE4L-PM3N or PE4H-PM3N) using your wifi slot. The good news is the onboard Intel HD graphics means you'd get x1 1.0 Optimus with a NVidia Fermi card.

Recommend a portable US$230 GTS450 or a peformance $US280 GTX460 setup here for high bang-per-buck. Either of which will deliver much better SCII performance.

Maybe a pci-e 3.0 video card + Optimus + enclosure with a NVidia sticker? Would get you x4 1.0 equivalent bandwidth on SB bridge platform, internal LCD usage and Optimus performance tweaks.

 

Sweet thanks! Now i will begin the journey of finding how much this will cost! and unless I am misunderstanding what I read I would essentially have to always have the underside of my laptop open to plug in the graphics card? unless I get a mini hdmi cable yes?

 

Plans are always superceded by reality:

MSI Shows External Graphics Card w/ATI

AMD's ATI XGP external laptop graphics platform goes legit -- Engadget

neighter of them took off.


Optimus has a chance of working, however, especially since it uses the internal GPU's links, so you can game on your laptop's display, and not an external one.

 

I got a new PSU to replace the one I was using which had squealing/bulging/leaking capacitors. It also is more powerful so I went and maxed out msi afterburner to 1.087V. Not only was I able to get the gfx core higher, but I gained 2% pci-e clocks too, which seems a bit odd, but I'm not complaining. Now I can do 13% OC stable, and got a 3dmark06 (~9800) run in at 14%, but dmc4 crashed during the last scene.

Late now. Will post some scores tomorrow. Still trying to shorten up an HDMI cable to get up to the CPU max clocks. Tried soldering the wires back together, and soldering directly to the connector, but couldn't get good enough connections either way. Next try is gonna be shrink wrap the 4 wires together. All that seems to matter is how much metal on metal surface area you have. Trying to pass a 2.5ghz signal through solder doesn't seem to work whatsoever.

 

Anyone tried optimus + GTS450? how does it perform compare with the radeon 5770?

 

I have bought all the materials for said GTS450, however, I can't get any drivers but the 260.63 working, which doesn't seem to install the optimus. I believe that i need modified INF files for it to bypass the ID check on my hardware and such, but I don't know where to even begin with that.

Any help is appreciated, I am running with a spare monitor right now without optimus.

Cheers
-S

Edit: FYI the laptop in use is a Dell E6510, Core i7 620M Integrated graphics, 4gb of Memory. The video card is a Zotac GTS450, and I am using the PE4L with a 120W adapter.

 

Sorry Sunneh I will add the GTS450 to the 259.96 INF. I am also working on a new 260.63 INF like the other one.

 

Much Appreciated! You sir, just made my day!

 

sunneh I have updated the INFs in this zip file to include the GTS 450. I typed the version wrong above, as I am sure you know it is 258.69.

Download the drivers extract them and the infs, copy the inf in the zip for your version of windows to the drivers folder and install.

EDIT:
--

Universal Optimus Retrofit Drivers for DIY ViDock
Driver Version	OS Version	Download Link(s)	INF Link(s)
258.96 (8.17.12.5896)	Windows 7	64bit Driver	32bit & 64bit INFs (updated 9/23/2010)
		32bit Driver
Important Information
After clicking the driver download link, DO NOT download the INF at LaptopVideo2Go, instead download the INFs linked here. The INF zip file (linked above) contains both 32bit and 64bit INFs make sure you copy only the one that matches your OS over before installing. The INF should contain all GPUs known up to the date posted/updated. TO INSTALL: 1.) Download the drivers specific to your Operating System. (Click the appropriate link above under "Download Link(s)" then click the red Download Driver link at LaptopVideo2Go) 2.) Download the "32bit & 64bit INFs" zip file. (Click the link above under "INF Link(s)") 3.) Run drivers self extracting exe that you downloaded and extract the drivers to a location of your choice. 4.) Unzip the INFs can copy the one that matches your Operating System to the same location that you extracted the drivers. (Make sure to copy it to the area that has the drivers and inf file already in it.) 5.) Run setup.exe to install.

--

Expect an updated 260.63 full driver package soon.

 

I noticed that there is no NVUopti.inf in the install folder, do I need to rename it to NV_DISP.INF? or something equivalent?

 

unfortunately I just tried it and the 258 package doesn't work for the GTS250, there is an issue with the nvidia control panel installing. I believe that the only solution is to modify the 260 as that is when the official support for the GTS450 began.

 

As soon as I get my notebook to boot again (ooh..sh..oops) I will post up a 260.63 INF.

 

EDIT:

Well, it looks like the vidock doesn't work on my M1330. Tried and exhausted every possibility, but to no avail. Although the 5870 is detected, it is listed as "unspecified" and cannot be selected in the catalyst control centre.

 

just as a suggestion as i had a similar problem. What is your internal card. Is it a dedicated one like mxm. If that is the case you could physically try to disable the card by blocking the PRSNT#1 for the MXM card. this way you laptop will boot directly from the external card. This was what i did for my laptop when i had a 9800m gts as my internal card.

 

Ruhtraeel, I have an m1330 and it worked with a gtx460. In fact, mine was largely plug and play. Also, some ppl had problems with the hdmi cords and others with the card itself. My recommendation would be to go for the gtx460.

 

I heard about your GTX 460 case. These are my laptop's specs:

Laptop=

Dell XPS M1330
4 GB RAM
2.00 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo T5750
Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS
Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit

Vidock=

PE4H 2.0
EC2C
Radeon 5870
480W Casegears PSU



Me and nando have both tried every single possible solution, but no matter what, even though the machine recognizes that the 5870 is there, it refuses to let me switch to the 5870. Even under the ATI icon on the bottom right toolbar, if I right click it, shows 2 8400M GS's (the laptop and my monitor), and then 3 Radeon 5800's. The "extended desktop" is greyed out for both the 8400M GS's, but when I try to click on one under one of the 3 5800's, nothing happens.

Oh and for the Vidock setup, I use 36 bit compaction with either the 8400M GS or no card forced to 32-bit. I cannot do 32-bit allocation.

Flaunt, what are your system specs? OS? Drivers?

 

I Have:

Dell XPS M1330
4 GB RAM
2.4 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo T8300
Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS
Windows 7 professional 64 bit

Vidock=

PE4L
EC2C
MSI GTX 460 (OCed to 875core/1750shader/4100 Memory)
Corsair CW 400W PSU

I did not need to use Vidock software at all -
My steps included - plugging in the graphics card while my computer is off. Also while the computer is off, I turn on both the PSU and the graphics card, then I start up the computer. On the first boot up, I installed the latest NVIDIA drivers (258.96 for desktop, and 258.96 for laptop - on accident I tried only installing the 258.96 laptop version that would not recognize the card). After reboot, the sound and USB ports stopped working, but the card would work once I went to my control panel and enable the external screen. To fix the USB ports and sound, I simply disabled random hardware that I never use. For instance, I disabled the computer SD/MMS.MSpro card reader, I disable the finger print scanner, and I disable the Wired LAN card as I use wireless exclusively. I also when in and disabled the HDMI sound controller that comes with the NVIDIA card. After disabling and restarting, the USB ports worked again. But the sound still would not. I realized that all I had to do was disable and re-enable my sound card in the hardware manager to turn it back on.

This is how mine works now. In order for my card to work, the GFX card must be ON BEFORE I turn on the computer - mine would never work If I went to standby and then plugged it in. ALSO if I do go to standby and turn the card off, I need to turn it back on before resuming or my comp will blue screen right off the bat. On every restart, I just restart like normal or shutdown and turn back on like normal AS LONG AS THE CARD is ON before the computer comes back on (EVEN BEFORE BIOS LOADS). Finally, when a restart or shutdown just finished I just need to re-enable my own sound card, and everything works again!

If I ever want to take my laptop with me without the card - I simply shutdown - turn it off. Then unplug the card - the turn it back on - and everything is back to normal again!

Let me know how else I can help you man.

 

Alright, I tried rebooting and not using the diy vidock setup menu. It now gives me error 12 (not enough resources) for the 8400M GS, but the 5870 is apparently working fine. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. However, instead of saying "the control centre cannot identify your graphics driver; please enable your ati graphics card in the displays manager", it says "no ati driver has been detected, or the driver has malfunctioned". I am now stuck on one screen without any gfx card at all.


EDIT:
Now I'm wondering, how did you enable your external screen without your 8400m gs? Or did you not get error 12?

 

try installing new ATI drivers now; disable all unused hardware that I mentioned above.

 

Well, my mouse and stuff works on bootup, but I'll try anyways. I already did disable like everything before though, to no avail. I guess I'll try it again.

And reinstalling the driver doesn't do anything, it still gives me the same error message that it can't find an ati driver or it malfunctioned.




EDIT:

THIS IS SO ANNOYING. It's like EVERYTHING recognizes the card EXCEPT FOR THE CATALSYT CONTROL CENTRE. It refuses to install the driver at the right place, so the GFX card stays as "unspecified". It may be because it only recognizes whatever the internal GFX card is, but not the external.

 

Are you sure you are using desktop drivers and not laptop drivers? I made that mistake with mine

 

Yes, I am almost 100% sure. I even used ATI's driver finding website, but still, it refuses to detect it.

 

hi i have lenovo thinkpad t400 with:
PE4H 2.0a with EC2C Expresscard adapter 16x
MSI Cyclone 460gtx graphics card
Corsair CMPSU-400CX 400-Watt CX Series 80 Plus Certified Power Supply
HDMI mini (C) to HDMI (A) regular 10 ft cable

ok, so the problem is, i try to put the ec2c into the expresscard slot on my t400 and it doesnt fit.
slot is bottom right corner of laptop and i dont know how to put the card in?

please help! trying to play FFXIV!!!!!
any suggestions on what i need to complete this set up or how to insert ec2c into my lenovo thinkpad t400 would help! thank you

 

Your laptop has a 54 width expresscard slot, and the ec2c is a 34 width card. Even though it doesn't look like it fits, it really does. Just slide the ec2c in on the left side of the expresscard slot.

Also, I have my doubts about a 10 foot long HDMI cable working since it's so long. I suggest first trying the short 1ft cable that came with the pe4h first to make sure everything words before you try the longer cable.

 

Dear notebook enthusiasts,
I have a HP HDX9050ef system and I have bought a PE4H v1.0a+EC2C card. To test it I used and old ATI X300 video adapter, but when everything is plugged and turned on nothing happens. I tryed powering without plugging the EC2C to boot, and then plug it in, I've tryed putting the system in stand by and the waking it up but with no success. The device manager does not show new hardware, and Everest shows the PCI-e ports as empty even though the card is pluged in, and if I connect a flash drive to the USB port of the PE4H it gets recognized by the system...
Does anyone has had the same problem, why the laptop does not even give signs of detecting any new hardware ? The lappy is with a Windows 7 64bit, it should not have problems with hot plugging, I tryed to bood with the Vidock's boot disk, but nothing changed.

Please any ideas ?

 

thank you so much! the card slid in the very left side and it pushed in all the way. and it works perfect on my HD samsung tv with the 10 foot HDMI cable. works perfect!! now i can play ffxiv with amazing graphics!!

 

WHY IS IT SO EASY FOR SOME PEOPLE?????

I have literally spent half a year trying to get all the parts and get it to work.

 

So far external videocards for notebooks consist in hacks and are not that easy to make them work. I am interested on this too but I think I will wait and push the trigger later when Nvidia releases polished and more user friendly external solutions. This may coincide with Intel Sandy Bridge and PCI-E 2.0 1x. Today bandwidth available for external devices such graphics cards is severely limited with 1.0 and you need to uninstall the wlan card of your notebook and such, not a clean solution for me. Also being able to reuse internal LCD without significant performance degradation is a must and technology that brings that without need for severe hacking is not present yet. I don't want to sound like I am discouraging use of DIYvidock and such , early adopters of these technologies are rather necessary so they pave the road for lazy people like me. I just don't want to deal with the inconsistencies and lack of maturity of current solutions .