DIY eGPU experiences

Appears the E6500 matches E6400 layout where expresscard port4=expresscard slot. If you swap your wifi card into the second mPCIe slot and it's port1, then could do a x2E mPCIe+mPCIe ATI setup. If it's port3 then could do a x2 EC+mPCIe setup. That is if you don't mind running cabling to the mPCIe slots with underside covers removed. ALternatively, could do the x1E tweak to get 15-30% more performance from your ATI card if using only the x1 mPCIe port1 or port3.

Yes, HD4870 will be better than nvs160M. I personally would have done a HD5670 or HD5750 ATI setup just because it will be faster AND consume a stack less power than the HD4870. Could even run off a 12V/80W adapter. Lower power bills means it would probably be cheaper in the long run too.

NVidia 3D vision system requirements are here. Your single GTX470 running on a x1 pci-e link meets those requirements.

 

I might have to purchase the DIY ViDock and test it out and if it works well enough for me, I might part out my desktop.

 

Thank you nando. In the processes I realized I should have gone for nvidia or hd5750, but I hope hd4870 will be ok. Also I am hoping for implementing usb 3 technology in the future. Anyway I have a feeling I'll stay with this card for the next 2 years.
I'll just say that Nvidia 160 Nvs was a dissapointment, I remember playing Devil may Cry 4 in my laptop and then Street fighter 4 and then I was wondering why Capcom has made their new games in slow motion ( 10 fps at most!).
I am waiting for all the parts and then I will post:
a) if my build works
b) if I can get it to work with only the laptop screen
c) if I can get it 1xE
d) perhaps if I can get it 2x

 

If you can swap the mPCIe wifi into the second slot and identify the port it's using, then can advise how many PM3Ns you'd require to do x1E, x2 or x2E. If you have a purchased a PE4H-EC2C then can only do crippled x1 1.0 Intel link using expresscard port4.

 

Yes for starters I have the EC2C option. I will post news when I have finally set up the system and ask for further help. Thanx again.

 

The only problem with already having hybrid graphics is that your system might not have enough resources to run a 3rd graphics card. You can check with the DIY Vidock setup utility. If you do not have enough resources, removing the ATI card if you can would likely solve the problem.

You would only need to use an ATI card if you ran Vista. Win7 and XP will be fine with an Nvidia card.

Also your system seems capable of running an x2 link with the optimus driver assuming that your wireless card could be moved to another slot. No one has yet done and thus you would have the highest PCI-E bandwidth of anyone who has used a DIY ViDock.

 

@nando4:

Whats with all the 80 watt adapters??

I had assumed from this thread that was the max consumption of cards like the 5750.
However a little research reveals that they apparently max out above 200 watts???

What is the discrepancy I'm missing here?

 

I just received the components and built my Vidock to sum up I currently have:
HIT's ExpressCard External Graphics x16 (express card adapter version)
Asus ati hd4870
Antec EA500psu

I currently don't have an external monitor and I today I am running on Vista 32 bit. (Upgrading to 7 over the weekend).
However I wanted to see if my e6500 notebook would respond to the new device. It doesn't. So I have a few questions:
a) For someon that has the HIT devicem should the expresscard adapter cable be connected to pciex1 ( or 2 ,3,4 ?). It appears that the green lights are only when connected to pciex1
b)Does diy vidock require any installation for windows to see a device?
c) I've read that vidock won't work with Vista, but should I be worried that they don't even see a device?

Thanks in advance and I apologize for the naive character of the questions.

 

HD5750's use < 86W of power. There's even the Go-Green edition by Powercolor that maxes out at 72W. Check techpowerup's power consumption ratings for the HD5750's they test.

Overall I wouldn't recommend a 12V/80W DIY ViDock as the adapters are pretty pricey on ebay. Though based on your other recent NBR responses, it seems you may have some other grafting ideas in mind.

Instead of a 12V/80W adaper, consider the similarly priced DA-2 220W Dell adapter on ebay. This tells us a 6-pin pci-e plug connects straight into it's 8-pin connector, so you can get 150W with just another molex gender changer/splitter. If a 8pin pci-e plug goes in and can adapt 3 female molex adapters off it, then could get the full 220W out it. 150W means can do a HD6850 or GTS450 and *some* GTX460 models. 220W means can easily do a GTX460 implementation.

The DA-2 + molex/pci-e adapters = cheap, fanless, portable setup. Hoping someone does a practical write up of how to do it.

 

vista should detect 4850, check your power/connections
the problem with vista is that it will work if your onboard and external cards are both ati or both nvidia

not sure if serious....

my 5750 uses ~55W b/c it's not 100% utilized

 

Thanx key001.I have an Nvidia internal card and an ati external gpu so they are no the same.
However I have tried pluging in the express card adapter in the slot and the notebook doesn't see any device.
The lights on my HIT's card (PE2h if I am not misteken) are both green.
I've connected the HIT card through pci1xe to the express card adapter. ( 1 green light in Pe2h, 1 red light in the ati gpu)
The Psu is connected to the Pe2h and the card is fed by 2 pci-e cables.
By turning on the psu I get a second light on the card and Pe2h.
However the notebook doesn't see anything.
Any help would be much appreciated, I've been fighting for 5 hours with no result.

 

O finally it worked!
This is the sequence:
Windows logged in
Insert exppress card to slot
Turn on psu
(Full power on the card)
Remove express card
Insert express card again.
Drivers detected!

 

So I managed Vista to see the external gpu. It is indeed connected on port4. I am getting error 12 for allocation resources.
I have an Ati external card and an Nvidia internal so as stated before this will not work with Vista.
However, I would like to know if error 12 is the reason for which the setup doesn't work for Vista or not. The reason is that win 7 are incompatible with some of my software and given that I can only do a clean install, I would like to be as sure as possiblle before continuing with the upgrade.
To sum up my question: for vista, Nvidia+Ati setup new drivers for both, which should be the problem that requires to switch to win 7?
is it error 12?
thanks

 

Thanks for your help, Khenglish. I will start buying the components to make a DIY ViDock and try to troubleshoot as I hit each hurdle.

If anyone knows of a user that has tried to couple a DIY ViDock with a laptop that has a hybrid card, please kindly let me know as I would love to talk to him/her. Thanks!

 

I PM'ed one of the guys (ryboto) who split his plug into a 6-pin PCI-E connector + a 4-pin ATX connector... Hopefully he can join us and offer some help

 

error 12 means that resources can't be allocated for the videocard. you need to use the tools from diy vidock bootdisk to do reallocation to get rid of error 12.
or you could try this:
uninstall both ati and nvidia drivers, then disable your onboard video in device manager, then install __winXP__ drivers for 4870. but then only directx9 will be available. don't remember if this trick works with vista and you still might have error 12.... also you could try removing 1 ram stick

 

Thanx key.
I finally managed to install the diyx1 setup in windows 7 ( I changed Os).
Windows 7 create the error 12 for Ati radeon hd4870 if i turn off the card after logging in to widnows -or-
create error 12 for pci bus port 4 chiposet if I boot the system with the card powered on.

I have created the usb Dos boot disk ( flash drive) and I want to change the settings so that I can get over the error 12. Can someone guide me through the changes? I would appreciate it very much cause I have no idea on what to change..
System : e6500 +4gb ram
internal video: nividia nvs160m
external: ati hd4870 connected through Pe4h-e2c through port 4

Thanks in advance and thanx to everyone who has helped so far.

 

*Updated the previous post

 

I just tested MafiaII on the T6600-2.2 GTX470 x1.Opt Win7/32 setup. I got 32.1FPS at 1080p in the benchmark test. Running around Little Italy saw no FPS drops. Lots of textures in Dead Rising (DR) will see FPS drop over the restricted x1 link. Need more bandwidth by a x2 link, a 2GB video card, or more efficient texture handling by DX10/DX11 to see improved performance. If DR is a DX9 game then it may very well mean a ATI card will perform better.

Try disabling your GTX460 HDMI audio and set Power Management in NVidia Control Panel to Maximum Performance. If no go, then your GTX460 might need the 260.xx Optimus driver modded to correctly support your GTX460's GF104 core. Could have a go or ask Nautis to help out.

I used MSI Afterburner to overclock the GTX470 to 820/1900 giving approx GTX480 performance levels. Games don't seem to register much of an improvement, but 3dmarkvantage.gpu gains b/w 2000-3000 points.

Maybe a Pci E Power Adapter (4Pin Molex To 6Pin Pci-e) 6" can be used? We see that it uses ALL 6 power pins of the 8-pin DA-2 so would give a full 220W out. Would need to fan out the male molex end to 3 other connectors (eg: 6-pin pcie, 6-pin pci-e and floppy molex) to get it connected to a PE4L/PE4H.

Hope ryboto can chime in.

Only way Vista can do a NVidia+ATI setup is if you use the XP drivers for *both* cards. You'll lose Aero and DX10. Better solution is to upgrade to Win7 to get both working with native drivers with full dx10+aero support.

 

I dunno. I saw some review, I was just looking for the numbers and obviously dont know crap about desktop cards.

Wow, yeah thats a nice looking adapter.
It does sound a little complicated to me with all the little adapters and different pins involved... I would sooner just strip it down to the wires and do some soldering, it would seem simpler to me.

I just skimmed over it though... your right, I have some other ideas in mind...
Actually i have a very similar adapter
On the subject of simpler, it only has 1 output plug conductor. However it is 19.5v...

Wait so, what are the different voltages that graphics cards require?
Is it not all 12v?
Or is the 8 pin connector just several different rails of 12v that are limited to different amperage? That would be really nasty.

I do have 220w total though, and about 150w available so I'll probably go for the 6850...

I just read up on the voltage stuff, i'm not convinced its anything other than 12v i'll probably be building a small 20-12v adapter...

 

Ok an update on my steps with Diyx1 setup
Step 1 chainload succes
Step 2 pci cards ok, pci bus left unchanged (everything x1)
Step 3 orginally everything is yes*, doing compact brdiges-->yes (succes?)
chainloading ok
When I return to the dos boot menu psi bus allocation is no.
Compact 36 bit only works ( not 32 bit), but with all combinations tried pci allocation remains no.

I don't know what to do here. Please nando help me with the diyx1 setup.
Os:windows 7 32 bit
notebook: e6500 4 gb ram ( 3.5 only recognized in win 7)
internal card:nvidia nvs 160m
external:ati hd 4870

 

1) below is preferred, but (2) may be more convenient for you. You'll need to test both.

1. bootup Setup 1.x with the HD4870 switched off, then power it on in Setup 1.x. Then do a 36-bit PCI compaction on the HD4870. That will get you pci_alloc_valid=yes.

2. if can boot past bios with the HD4870 on, then do a 36-bit compaction on the HD4870, ensuring a solution is found. Ignore the warning about pci allocation not valid, then chainload. That indicates some other pci-e devices were not allocated by bios, nor setup. Likely will have some errors against those unallocated devices in Device Manager, or Win7 may try to allocate them on startup.

 

Thanx nando very much.
Tried 1) to start with psi allocation was yes* 36-bit PCI compactionly (only to video 2 and I did not enforce 32 bit for anything) its does change to pci_alloc_valid=yes, I did nothing else, chainloaded, Chainload worked and I was in win7, however error 12 was still there
Tried 2) to start with pci allocation was no. 36-bit PCI compaction did not change it to yes ( gave a mistake)

Anything else I could try? I appreciate your help.

 

I don't know if the following is useful information:
If I uninstall both video cards and restart win 7 , they only detect ati hd4870 and not nvidia ( so far no problem)
Then hd4870 seems to be working fine with no error 12 ( however the catalyst program gives me a notification that the card is not working properly)

However the probels is now transfered to:
mobile intel series 4 series chipset pci express Root port-2A41
which has an error 12
I hope this is useful information

 

I've been reading this massive thread but it's so big that it's hard to keep up so please forgive me if I'm asking something that's been answered before.

I got an ASUS G1S, yes with one of the faulty 8600m GT, and this thread has thrilled me because it seems that my laptop is not a complete waste of space after all and I could potentially fix it with this.

So here are my questions:

1)As you may know, the GeForce 8600m GT GPU's are defective and have the really bad habit of going out, leaving you with nothing but a completely black screen (as if your computer was still turned off) but the rest of the computer still works fine (you can even hear the Windows login sounds and all). Could I bypass my faulty GPU with this solution and get my computer working again?

2) If the above answer is yes, since I have PCI-e 1.0 x1 ports 3 & 4 empty (according to Everest) this means I could get a x2 link, right?

3) In order to have my laptop screen display the image from the new card then I'd have to use a LCD Controller board for DIY a laptop —a desktop monitor, correct? I'm comfortable messing with it since I'm used to repair laptops all the time but do I have to butcher the LCD case or are the cables long enough for me to just "leave it hanging"?

4) I see that most of your testing is done with relatively high performance card, would this system work with a less powerful card?

Thanks for any help you guys can provide

 

Are you sure that your system does in fact boot with the faulty internal card? (ex. do you hear the windows startup tune) My system will immediately use the external card even in the bios prompts if no internal card is present.

Yes it sounds like you could use an x2 link, however, you can only use the full bandwidth from it if you use an Nvidia 4xx card.

I'm not exactly sure what your are saying about using the internal laptop screen. An external screen connected to the external card will work with no other steps involved. To use the internal monitor, since the internal card is broken you would not be able to use any of the framebuffer copying methods, and would have to connect the external card to the monitor's LVDS line. This cable is connected to your laptop's system board, and it is probably extends around 3 or 4 inches outside the LCD assembly. There are many adapters that exist to do this (Google "DVI to LVDS adapter"). I believe the LVDS connectors are standardized, but I am not sure so you should probably check and see if yours matches.

Lower performance graphics cards work just fine. Just try to stick to the Geforce 4xx line.

One suggestion I have for you to verify compatibility is to remove your 8600m GT and disconnect the LVDS line and see if the system still boots. If the system still boots, you know that bios compatibility will not be an issue and that with the old card removed that you definitely will have enough system resources. You also probably want to find out where your mpci-e slots are that correspond to ports 3 and 4 if you haven't already.

Update:
I looked into this more and LVDS seems to be somewhat of a general term, and does not necessarily have to have anything to do with computer monitors. I looked at the LVDS connectors for the laptops I have, and none of them match, although all but one of them is old and maybe all modern laptops do in fact have a common connector type.

I found this link:
http://www.hackourlives.com/can-i-turn-a-laptop-lcd-to-an-desktop-monitor/
Apparently the cheap way to do this is you disconnect your LVDS cable from the LCD end and not the motherboard end, and connect their custom cable to the converter board. This would require cutting a hole in the back of the LCD enclosure. If you follow the ebay link in the article I linked, you will see many solutions which seem to range from 25 to 35 dollars.

The best offer seems to be this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Compatible-R-RM5451-LCD-Controller-Board-Kit-DVI-/270658532961?pt=COMP_EN_Networking_Components&hash=item3f04817661
It offers a max resolution up to 1920x1200, and only costs $40 including shipping. Honestly for what you get I find these prices to be amazing. Yay china and its cheap labor.

 

Mostly what he said ^
And...

yes, you should make SURE it actually starts up with the blank screen. Many laptops turn on with lights and then continuously restart
[quote
2) If the above answer is yes, since I have PCI-e 1.0 x1 ports 3 & 4 empty (according to Everest) this means I could get a x2 link, right?
[/quote]
yep, pretty sure.

Yes, you can use hardware converters for the video signal conversion. They are totally compatible with your LCD I'm sure, as it is a pretty standard LCD.

I've talked to the company who makes those converter boards a little bit, and I was the one who suggested them in this thread.
They are a good company...
However, they customize the boards for you. This is generally a good thing, but keep in mind that they have to be custom programmed to work. So if you were to get a new LCD, you might have some issues.

As you can see the cables are not all over the place... I think one small hole drilled would suffice rather than "butchering it". You may want to ask them for a longer cable, unless you're going to build the board into your laptop instead of the VIDOCK.
Another cool thing to mention is that if you do this, you wont have to use their external power supply or backlight inverter because your laptops should still work.
The converter board will still need power, but you can get that from whatever you are powering the graphics card with.
This converter board is cheaper and will work but only has VGA. It is smaller though.
Compatible R.RM3451 LCD Controller Board(easily DIY) - eBay (item 280573859875 end time Nov-09-10 18:33:44 PST)

It doesn't matter how powerful the graphics card is as much as how new it is. Come to think of it now... You may actually want one of the LVDS converter companies 12v 4a psus to power the entire vidock. 12x4=48w which is enough for some lower power or newer more efficient graphics cards.

Good luck with your project! I have something somewhat similar planned, and i dont think anyone has done this to save a laptop with broken onboard graphics so it will be interesting!

 

Ryboto here! So, the DA-2 is really just a single 12v source, with 3 wires carrying the current. You don't technically need to use all 6 pins, 3 are a shared 12v, meaning you could technically use just one of them to get all 220W. Ideally, you might just want to solder a lower gauge wire to the PCB of the DA-2, one that can handle all the current without worry of a voltage drop. this thread at spcr - SPCR &bull; View topic - Antec NSK1300 with PW-200-V DC-DC and Akasa Evo-120 is where I originally got most of my info for hacking my DA-2.

What I would do is this- cut the crappy connector off of the DA-2. Short the trigger wire to ground, and then solder your connections to the 6 wires you need to use. you'll have 3 ground, 3 12v, which was enough for me to power a PicoPSU, 6-pin PCIE plug, and 4-pin ATX power plug.

I'm kinda joining this without much knowledge of what you guys want to do with this brick, so I'll read a little and edit this if need be, plus I'll help further if anyone has any questions. I don't claim to be an expert!

 

Thank you for joining up.

The DA-2 output would ideally be adapted to have 1x4-pin floppy molex and 2x 6-pin pci-e connectors on it. Then it could be plugged straight into a PE4H or PE4L (75W) and a video card with up to 2 pci-e connectors (150W).

Can you post pics of your handywork? Your pci-e connector will give an idea of what work is required.

 

Just wanted to say that your speculations are correct. LVDS does apply to many things... when talking about LCDs it is often paired with "pins".

You forget, laptops have been around for a few decades now, so there is more than just modern and old
" modern" laptops use LED backlit screens which have a lot of different non standard 40pin LVDS, not to mention BLU (backlight units).
Older 4:3 laptops as well as many 12 inch screens use some 20pin LVDS.
But I'd say the majority of laptops that exist right now use a very common standardized 30pin connector. This includes virtually all ultrabrite, whatever size or resolution, CCFL backlit generally 16:10 widescreens.

Whats funny about this is that many of the 30 pin connectors only have about 15 wires anyway and its exactly the same as some of the 20 pin screens Its because more wires are only required for higher resolution, they just leave the connector the same.

 

I never actually went straight from the DA-2 to a PCIE connector, I went from the DA-2 to a 4-pin molex, and plugged a 4-pin molex-to-6pin PCIE adapter into that to power a video card. Here's the first thing I did, which allows you to use the DA-2 without modification:


Ugly, I know. Basically, the last 8 pins off of a 24-pin MB connector fit the DA-2 connector, so I hacked one up, and soldered to it. The issue here is that the pins are small, and have a huge resistance with so much current going through them. So, If you go this route, you should be mindful of that.

From this, just solder the leads to the connectors you need. PCIE plugs are just 12v and ground, but the floppy connector has a 5v line, so I'm not sure how you'd get that without an inline resistor or something.

Here's the other route I went-



I noticed huge voltage drops(~.5v) with the previous setup, so I went more direct. I cut the DA-2's cable, and took the 3 12v, and 3 ground, and used two screw-type terminals. I shorted the trigger wire to one of the grounds, and tied the two terminals together, then screwed in the leads to the connectors I needed to power. I taped the whole thing up, and saw a voltage drop of less than 0.1v from the solder point at the brick, to the PCIE power connector.




This is a picture of the leads, and where they went. I was using the DA-2 to power a PicoPSU 120, a 4-pin ATX power connector, and 2 4-pin molex connectors that connected to two 4-to-6pin PCIE power adapters for my HD5850. I would have cut my adapters and secured them directly to the screw terminals, but I didn't have long enough leads, and didn't feel like buying new ones.

Unfortunately, I don't have better pictures, but I hope these help a little.

 

First of all, thanks for the answers provided so far, I really appreciate it

Yes, I'm absolutely positive the system boots all the way to the Windows shell and will remain stable for as long as I leave it on. I know this because the only way I have to force my GPU to boot is to stress test the CPU, causing it to overheat and since both the CPU and the GPU use the same heat sink pipeline it will make the GPU heat up as well. To do this I use a service known as LogMeIn, which allows me to connect remotely to the laptop and, asides from not detecting the presence of the 8600m GT, the computer runs perfectly. LogMeIn installs a mirror driver and that's why I can get a picture even with the faulty GPU.

The repair of my GPU is theoretically possible but it would involve "reballing" the GPU dye and there is no guarantee it won't fail again in the future, added that to the fact that it's an expensive procedure... This system at least gives me the ability to upgrade the GPU and the option of ending up using the graphic card for a future desktop, once I can afford building a new system from the ground up.

Because the 8600m GT is soldered into the motherboard it cannot be removed. I assume you could take it out with some method or another but it's not something you could do without highly advanced tools.

I'm very happy to know about customization of the boards, it gives me hope of getting my laptop working again. My main concern is that I travel between the US and Europe every few months so I need to be able to pack everything up and take it with me. I don't need to use the computer while travelling but I want to be able to use it once I get there and set everything on a desk comfortably.

I'll keep you guys posted on this project and how things go

Thanks for your answers guys!

 

My problems continue. Ihaven't get rid of error 12 with any combination I tried in Diy x1setup. Moreover I recently changed to win 7 64 and my boot disk ( created a new unfortunately) is not giving the menu. It only boots the windows 98 command prompt.
Can someone help me with that?
Also since I have tried all combinations I don't think it's possible for me to make this configuration work by chance.
Does anyone know if HIt technical support help with these issues?
b) Does anyone have a Latitude 6400/6500 working configuration with 4gb of ram?
c) Is it possible that changing the card to Nvidia will solve the error 12 issues?

Current configuration: e6500 4gb ram win 7 64 bit
internal gpu:nvidia nvs 160m ( discrete?)
external ati radeon 4870 1gb

Thanx to anyone that helped so far but any recommendation to this point would be helpful, I am in the verge of returning everything I bought to get rid of error 12.

 

hi everyone i got a question I have a toshiba satellite with windows 7 64 bit with a gma4500m i will purchase a gtx460

could i install the optimus driver for been able to have the picture in my internal internal screen.( not put my portable on external lcd display)

Because i read its a gma4500mhd and mine is a gma4500m so will i be fine ?

I'm little scare to not be able to have a internal picture and pass by a external monitor....
thanks in advance for your answer...

 

I think I've found a better solution to people just looking to fix dead integrated GPU.
Might also end up working well to use internal LCD with VIDOCK... and maybe a few other things...
MPX-SDVOX - Mini-PCI Express 24-bit LVDS Module from BVM Limited

 

...and a little something for anyone with a REALLY old laptop (one that doesn't even have expresscard or pci-e for vidock anyway)
IBM xSeries 225 ATI Rage XL mini-PCI Video Card 71P8487 - eBay (item 370451056620 end time Nov-28-10 09:22:39 PST)

 

Hi Panzer. I have a similar laptop HP HDX X16T-1000 CTO. Internally NVidia 9600M GT but looking to either DIY or ViDock 4+ it. What card did you have internally? Also, by your pic, did you have to disable the on board graphics to get the Radeon to work? I'm looking for a slightly more powerful xfx radeon hd 5870. I'm also running windows 7 x64 with 4gb of memory. What are my chances that I can get something like this up and running in 15 minutes? (I honestly don't want to have to devote weeks to get it working)

 

Hi everyone!

I know it's been asked 3942837427863 times, but it's 207 pages, I can't read them through

I'm planning to buy PE4H + EC2C ExpressCard to PCI-E Adapter Ver 2.0a + a PSU + heatsinks + fan for the PE4H + GTX460

My notebook is a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pi 3560 and I have a secondary monitor
(C2D 2.2GHz, 3GB ram, x64 W7)

Question :

Will it be rock solid? Any driver issues with x64 w7?

What PCI-e speed will I get with the PE4H through express card slot? 1x? 2x? 16x? (I'd like to make at least x2 work. Is there a link how can I do that?)

Is there warranty on the PE4H (if it burns for example)?

Thanks in advance

 

Another question :

If I'm buying an HD5770, will I be able to do x1E tweak without any hardware modding on my notebook? I have to do only software tweaks?

(my chipset is ICH9M)

 

Hi everybody,

Just got the PE4L today. I've got a GTX 460 with 430W PSU. I connected up the adapter into my laptop's expresscard slot, but nothing happened when I did. I tried rebooting, turning on the PE4L before the laptop, with no change. I know that the laptop is connecting to the PE4L because there's a LED lamp that turns on when I do. Also the fan on the GTX460 only turns when the adaptor is in the laptop (is this normal?).

I know someone has probably already had the same issue, but I can't read through hundreds of pages of posts.

I tried installing the Setup 1.0e4 but I couldn't manage to mount the image - it came up with error, both with two different image disk programs. Am I supposed to continue on this track? What is going on here?

I also used Everest to check the PCI slots on South Bridge. None of the slots had the graphics card and slot 3 showed up empty.

Then I attempted to install the drivers for GTX460. The install said that it couldn't recognise any hardware. So it seems the laptop is not recognising the graphics card at all.

Suggestions? Thanks for your contributions.

 

I don't know if you have done this or not, but if your system cannot boot with the graphics card already running and connected to the laptop, then you must do the following:

1. Start the laptop with the graphics card disconnected.
2. Sleep/Standby the system.
3. Turn on and connect the graphics card.
4. Resume the system.
5. Scan for new devices using the Device Manager.

The above really only applies to when the system will hang on startup with the laptop connected to a running graphics card, not your situation where the graphics card simply isn't detected even though it booted with it.

The fans not turning when not connected is abnormal. They should be spinning at 100% with no PCI-E connection. I am thinking that your real problem is that you do not have enough power. I first tried a PSU that was too weak, and when trying any 3D app the graphics card would fully power down and the fans would not spin at all. Yours may be even weaker to the extent that it can't even do 2D. A lot of cheap power supplies are terrible and output no where near their rated power, and cannot safely run anything even if they can put out enough power for it.

Things to check:
1. You didn't forget to connect the floppy connector did you?
2. Try another PSU even if it's rated at a lower wattage. Do not try your PSU in some other PC. You could destroy the PC if the PSU is in fact the issue.
3. Try supplementing your PSU if you have another power source that plugs into the 12-20V DC jack with the floppy molex disconnected. Many laptop power connectors can do this. Just run your laptop on battery mode for a bit to try it. If you have another desktop PSU you could also have one run one 6 pin connector, and one run the other 6 pin connector.

If you do rule out power as being the issue, I'm thinking that your graphics card is faulty.

 

I have the two floppy ends going into a molex-6 pin line and a separate PCI-E line. This is the right setup, no?
[IMG=http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/4606/img00231i.jpg][/IMG]

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I'm doubtful that the power supply is the problem since I tried to look for one that was very well reviewed: Corsair Builder 430W.

In response to your suggestions, I do not have another PSU to try it with. My graphics card doesn't have a 12-20V jack either. The graphics card is faulty? How could I check this?

Thanks for your help!

 

You must power the PE4L. It has a floppy molex connector and a 12V DC connector. You must use one of them.

 

Please go through the first post on the thread. You can use it to answer all of the questions you just asked.

But as a summary of the summary page, you must load Everest and see which ports are available. Also, you should run the DIY ViDock startup utility to see if you have enough system resources. We really can't help you with anything until you do those 2 steps.

The PE4H doesn't require any cooling. If you use the DC jack, the voltage regulator does get fairly warm so you could put a heatsink on that if you really want. I do not know if there is a warranty or not. The product is still considered to be in development so I don't think there is.

 

Okay, I just found out that the way I was paper-clipping the Mobo lead for the power supply was wrong, resulting in lower than normal voltage. With this fixed, the GPU fan is now working without the PCI connection.

I have powered the PE4L too. It now shows two LED lights when there used to be only one.

Now, how do I get the computer to recognise the graphics card? Still nothing.

 

Khenglish, just rebooted and the graphics card is recognised! Crossing fingers and see if it works. Meanwhile, I want to thank you for taking time to help me out. Much appreciated mate.

 

I'm not sure I understand what this is supposed to do but it would have to replace my WiFi card, which is something I'd rather avoid at this point.

Thank you for sharing your finds though

 

Did you know... this entire thread is based around using wifi slots?

That is ALMOST a graphics card. A very tiny one. Actually I'm not sure it is hard to tell... whats more definite is that it serializes LVDS video which is the native interface of laptop LCDs

Basically there are some very essential core components that could break on a laptop motherboard and that could bypass and replace them.

 

From what I understood there are two options, the mPCI card (WiFi) option and the express card option. I am under the impression that both work the same way, just on a different interface.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

They function in the same basic way... except that expresscard is worse and can seriously bottleneck performance.

Its mPCI-E remember, thats important. Plain mPCI is much older wifi slots, which i did find an entire graphics card for IBM xSeries 225 ATI Rage XL mini-PCI Video Card 71P8487 - eBay (item 370451056620 end time Nov-28-10 09:22:39 PST)