DIY eGPU experiences

I'm wondering if this combination will work?
System: Toshiba a205-s5804
Adapter: PE4L-EC2C
Video card: Zotac (Nvidia Ion) PCIE x1
Newegg.com - ZOTAC ION-GPU-A-E ION Graphics Processor 512MB DDR3 PCI Express x1 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card

With the low power requirements of this card (18 watts) would it even need an external power source? I'm also curious if audio over HDMI will work? The card supports it but I'm not sure if connecting it via the adapters would cause any problems... If this will work, it seems like a nice low-cost way to turn my unused Toshiba into a competent mild gaming/HTPC rig.

Thanks,
Tony

 

Using bcdedit to limit RAM will not work. 32-bit PCI config space is available above the TOLUD value. TOLUD is set by the bios and locked. With 4GB+ RAM installed, TOLUD is set to 3.5GB on Dell systems, mostly used by onboard devices with only 32MB remaing available. TOLUD cannot be changed after bios boot.

So there are three solutions to get a external video card working with your system (i) remove a 2GB module and install a 1GB module. The bios will then set TOLUD as 3GB, with 512MB free in 32-bit PCI config space (ii) ask Dell to set a lower 3.25GB or 3GB TOLUD value in the bios (iii) ask Dell why 36-bit PCI allocation of your video card is not working, even though it works fine on an ICH9M/4500MHD Inspiron 1440 which also has TOLUD=3.5GB.

The video card needs 12V/18W to drive it. The expresscard slot povides 3.3V out only, so no it's not going to work. 12V/72W adapters that can be used with a PE4L can be bought for US$10-delivered off ebay.

It looks like x1.Opt does use a compressed link to get faster performance. I say that because the 3dmark06 SM3.0 value increased with faster CPUs even if using the same GTX460 video card.

While I saw x2 and x1.Opt deliver very similar performance in testing with a i5-430M, it may happen that x2 will give better performance with your lower-spec CPU. You'll need DIY VIDock Setup 1.x to create the x2 link.

I actually believe a HD6850@x2E, which your 6930 is capable of based on the 6930G port layout, would outperform a GTX460@x2.

Have you attached a LCD via a VGA or HDMI cable on the GTX465 video card?

 

HP 6930p T9500 w7 32bit ati 3450
DIY 0.7/ antiwhitelist/ PE4H/ NV 6800 > ATI 6850 > GTX460
hope to try a 5750 and a 8800 as well...


Hi, I still haven't found a way out. Good news is that I could get a GTX460 from a friend to try and let him try the 6850 for beta tests...
Bad news is that It's summoning the same error not being recognized in windows... nor in devices this time ( Unlike the ATI ) ; Just a VGA adapter with no resources... but in Setup 1.x after Startup.bat the adapter is shown to be working correctly...

I looked back in the posts for solutions:
Back to pg 163; Lazyboy had quiete the same unconvinient, and he managed to get on to it by compacting 36 bit vid-2 and forcing32 vid-1 > chainloading...
I could chainload after I did compact 32bit ignoring vid-1 than w7 was loaded straight. All other options always redirect to MBR.
... So booting after to w7 from mbr didn't work either. I post the DIAG.
If someone can tell me what kind of Setup I could do for bettering these "No Deal" outputs I could try... tnx..

I know there are other solution I haven't yet tried, as modifying the registry key in the INF file, but it's foggy enough for me to understand how it should be done for my sys.

I modified the startup.but in

Call Waitvid 60 10de:0e22
Call Pci
Call Grub4dos w7

I created the 10de0e22.bin file and it seem to work, as in Video status the card seem to have a VGA adapter now.

 

Are you using the latest BIOS for your laptop?

 

ExpressCard slot can not supply 18 watts. You will need an external power supply.

 

Thanks a lot nando for your advice. I will try to remove the RAM. Just short question about this:

Should it also work with only 2 GB? Than I am going try this first, or do I have to get a new 1 GB RAM necessarily?

After I than have 2 or 3 GB how to proceed with Setup 1.x? Are just these 3 Steps correct/enough:

- Configure -> PCI config space -> run compaction [ignore: none][method: bridge] -> This leads to a pci_written: yes
- Than: Apply config -> Using startup.bat
- Than: Reboot.

Or do I have to tuse this Chainloader and so ever?

And what I always asked myself, do I have to boot with inserted EC adapater, or do I plugin the adapter in Windows?

 

Just for my future reference, does this work for MSI GX740? My version is the one with i5-450m. I think 5870M is good enough for the next 1 year max so I just want to know if my lappy is capable of doing this.

 

I would like to thank everyone in this thread for contributing to this technology. I benefited from my DIY ViDock setup all this last semester while I was at school.

Now that I'm back home and have some extra money laying around, I'm going to build my desktop back up (sold the Mobo, RAM, and CPU before I left and went with a DIY ViDock). If anyone here would like to buy it, sent me a PM and we'll make a deal. I have all the parts in this picture.



Part of the sticker on the Express Card adapter started to peel off, as you can see.

P.S. I don't know if it's appropriate to post this here, but this is where someone who's interested in trying one will most easily find it. If this is not appropriate, please let me know and I will remove this post.

 

I'm using a DIY Vidock made of one PE4H and MSI R6870 video card (Using expresscard port). The notebook is an MSI CR630: Athlon II P320, 4GB of RAM, Win7 x64 Enterprise. So far everything seems OK. Right now I'm trying to optimize port usage with DIY Vidock Setup.

This is how my setup looks like.

I left you some pic's (pcie 2.0 x1).


I'm having some issues with DIY vidock setup. I think it's not installing right. I can see a message during installation about manually copying some files (i dont know which ones). Also bootmenu item is correctly created but i recieved a message about c:\DIYVidock\grldr when trying to boot (the file actually exist in the directory).

 

On my taskbar the icon for "safely remove hardware" shows a weird option: Remove Acer Dynavivid graphic's Dock.

Is Acer selling DIY Vidock's? Is this normal?

 

Acer launches DynaVivid graphics dock for the Acer Ferrari One

 

Hi there,
just received my PE4H-EC2C. I will also get a GTX460 and a 430W Corsair CX PSU. Software-wise i wanted to go the Optimus route on my Lenovo X200 (x64 Windows 7). I was wondering what the latest version of opimus-capable Nvidia drivers are and if there is a INF (by nautis, maybe) already predonefor public download somewhere? Or do i need to do the modding myself (should not be such a big hassle, but the qestion abouzt teh version to use still stands).

Regards,

Paul

EDIT: After reading nautis' last post i will also PM him directly for the 265 drivers.

EDIT2: Lol, i seem to be too stupid to find the PM facility, is that restricted for new users?

EDIT3: Sorry for all the edits, but may i even use the generic desktop nvidia drivers or do these not come with automaitc optimus functionality?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sit...-send-private-messages-create-signatures.html

 

Okay, sorry, did not know that, thanks for clearing it up!

 

Hi there,
i assembled my config mentioned above, and the basics work. Sadly, i cant start any d3d applications due to errors like D3DERR_NOTAVAILABLE on 3dmark06. dxdiag shows that direct3d is not supported. I tried both the latest nvidia standard gpu drivers (265.99) and nautis' 258.96 with the optimus INF tweak.
Did any of you have similar problems? My modus operandi is to start win7 with the graphics detached, then standby, attach pccard, resume, and after approx. 30sec the nvidia gpu gets detected. If i try to boot with the expresscard connected, i get black screens on POST (seems to hang).

Regards,

Paul

EDIT: I also tried safely removing and reattaching the expresscard with running windows, and it works, but still no 3D!

 

Try to run a dx11 benchmark like heaven. If it runs in dx11 then your directx is FUBAR.

 

Okay, will try tomorrow when im back with the setup. One thing that made me wonder though was that when using the Intel IGP, Direct3D and Stuff work. I also tried disabling all monitors connected to the IGP, leaving only one 22in screen on the GTX (DVI). Still, no avail.
Also, i modded my own inf of the aforementioned 265.99 drivers which also installed successfully, but still the same problem. Also, i did not find any optimus options in the desktop context menu or the nvidia control centre, which made me wonder if optimus was not working too (and maybe related to the 3D problems).
One more thing i realized was that only with the older drivers the nvidia 3d logo inside the control panel worked, not with the 265.99 (original and modded). Theres just a blank white space there. Still, even with the logo 3d working, i could not get any 3D to work.

Will post back tomorrow on D3D11 results...

 

This is a long thread and if my issue has been answered before, I would appreciate being pointed to it:

I just got the DEG16X and am trying to connect it to my Sony VPC-Z11. My first issue is that the computer cannot POST while the DIY unit is plugged in. Is there a way around this?

TIA

EDIT: Oh, and my 2nd issue is that the express card slot broke and won't hold the card in any longer! Help on the way.

 

Hello Nando and others, getting back to you and other helpers regarding diy vidock on the hp 2540p:

- I have ordered the PE4L+EC2C
- I have bought a Nvidia GTS 450 (PNY) as I understand that it is Optimus-capable as well and it does not require a "desktop" PSU, contrary to the GTX460 and above. Plus the benchmarks reported here by DocuSync seem to indicate that the performance gap between a vidock 450 and a vidock 460 is lower than the price gap.

I'm not sure about what else I need to buy in terms of cables, psu etc? Considering that I do not intend to use an external display for now (either internal display or DVI projector only)
Do I need 2 laptop PSUs (one for the PE4L, one for the Video Card)? Is one enough? Do I need to mod some cables myself?

Thanks for your support!

FYI: this is what the PNY comes with: parts shipped with PNY GTS 450

 

Hello,

I am trying to get my vidock up and running and have been running into Error 12 issues. My machine is a Lenovo T61 with an NVIDIA NVS 140M GPU. I bought the vidock and an ATI Radeon HD5670 card to improve my graphics. I am running Win7 64 with 4GB of RAM. So far I have tried:

Removing 2 Gigs of RAM (This still gave me an error 12)
Uninstalling both video card drivers and having win7 re-install them.
Creating a 1.x boot disk (I don't know how to get into the menu based options once I load into my USB stick).

I have a dual boot machine with UBUNTU so ideally I would like to just add the image to my GRUB and not have to use the USB, but before I can get there I need to fix my allocation issues. Any help would be appreciated. If the answers to my questions are on this forum you may point me in the proper direction...

Cheers,
-Eric

 

Can try the 6/15second PCI Reset delay switch on a PE4H 2.4 to get around the boot problem. Otherwise just have to switch off your DIY ViDock during bios boot.

Great. A 2540P implementation Only need one PSU to drive the PE4L+video card. It can be an ATX one or can split power from your PE4L if using a compact 12V/120V or 12V/150W AC adapter. The splitting will require some extra interconnect cables. See examples here.

Install DIY ViDock Setup 1.x so that it works correctly (giving you a bootup menu) then perform PCI compaction. Once confirmed working, convert the resultant \config\pci.bat to grub2 setpci syntax so no longer need to boot the Setup 1.x image.

I had a few goes trying to get the Setup 1.x image booting with grub2+memdisk rather than via ntldr/bootmgr without success. If you figure out a way please post.

Drivers required for mobility HD3470+HD6850 implementation

Working offline with a 6930P and a 5920G owner, both with onboard HD3470 and external HD6850 saw both having the HD6850 appear without errors in Device Manager but "no resources allocated". So the HD6850 wasn't working at all.

The fix? Installing killersneak's latest DNA (modded) ATI Catalyst from DoNotArgue.com - no arguments needed corrected the problem so the HD6850 appeared with resources allocated to it. The driver has been modded to support both cards.

 

I have a Lenovo T61 too, get mine yesterday. Mine has an integrated video card (Intel GMA X3100) so I search on the web if exists any option to improve graphics of my Lenovo.

As I can see DIY ViDock seems that I were searching. I want to use the laptop as a HTPC and casual gaming in my LCD TV so having a graphic card with HDMI and real hardware decoding would be awesome for me. X3100 can with 1080p but is too load on the dual processor.

My ideal solution would be a custom box with an ATX power supply, an ATI 5670 f.e. and a 2TB HDD storage, all this atached to my laptop with the less possible cords. The problem is that my T61 doesnt have an expresscard port, only PCMCIA and I dont know if I can attach a ViDock using mPCIe ports. I would apreciate if you can tell me how you have configured your ViDock and if its possible in my Lenovo T61.

Everest reported this about the PCIe 1.0 ports

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I have no idea how to acces to this mPCIe ports and if a can do a 1x1.0, 2x1.0 or even a 4x1.0 mPCIe ViDock configuration changing the wifi adapter to port 5. Any answer would be apreciatted, thanks.

 

deleted...

 

Two solutions you could consider for your T61:

1. (recommended) Swap the PCMCIA slot with expresscard slot as discussed: forum.thinkpads.com • View topic - T61 with PCMCIA/SmartCard to PCMCIA/ExpressCard possible?. Quite a unique option - I wish my 2510P could do the same.

2. a PE4L-PM3N or PE4H-PM3N (mPCIe) solution using your wifi card's mPCIe slot.

 

HP ELITEBOOK 6930p W7 32bit 2gbram [email protected] Discrete HD3450
DIY + PE4H/EC2 + HD 6850 Sapphire + PSU 500W

DIY at 1x 32 Bit compaction selective on vid-2

Hotplugged powered ON : reckognized; no sleep mode.
Switched display to extended desktop with display switcher ( still nothing )
Updated drivers with the beta One to HD 6xxx... switch successfull at 1x16!
Next restart Needed to switch off be4 load into W7, sleep, switch on, ev. just fine.

Running at 1x Bandwith
3d06 scored 10906

Re5 Max settings 1280x960 DX9 FIXED/VARIABLE 28.2 FPS_C/44.4 FPS_B
Re5 Max settings 1280x960 DX10 FIXED/VARIABLE 26 FPS_C/38.8 FPS_B


DNA FIX DEFINITELY ROCKS!!

 

Just a thought. This would be more technically complex but, has anyone researched the inner workings of Optimus? It is clear from submitted data that compression across the PCI-E link has a positive correlation with CPU power. Nvidia libraries are closed source, however a talented person might decompile a few of those and change compression/throughput settings with some success.

 

Thanks Nando. I had seen the pictures, but the PSU you used on the pictures appeared to have been modded (see the middle section of the cable). I guess I got the picture wrong!

Now my question is: would a 20V/120W PSU work? Does it have to be 12V? 12V/120W or 12V/150W do not seem to be very widespread in Europe. I have not seen one, actually.

 

I went with the PE4H solution. Still working on getting my 1.x image to work but as soon as I can re-allocate my memory I will post benchmarks.

Cheers,
-E

 

Nando, I got the DIY ViDock up and running. What do you suggest I use to perform benchmarks?

 

As per the postings on the first page:

DX9 performance: 3dmark06, RE5 1280x800 DX9
DX10 performance: 3dmarkvantage, dmcv4 1280x800 DX10

If you are using a PE4L, then only a 12V power supply can be used. PE4H has a 15-20V voltage regulator but wouldn't advise trying to jumper it in the same way as the PE4L for > 75W. The PE4H's bridge rectifier already gets hot supplying just 75W slot power.

A talented person, "hacker", could start by enabling the x1.Opt tweak for systems with primary video cards other than 4500MHD or Intel HD. Folks with a GTS4xx or GTX4xx would certainly appreciate the 20-333% performance improvement that enabling the x1.Opt tweak would offer.

 

So I spent the whole night reading this thread. Amazing job, nando4, hat off. I'm very interested in trying this DIY Vidock as I've been very frustrating with my almost 3-year old laptop when it comes to gaming. My laptop has the problematic little Nvidia 8400M GS card that loves to run hot ( 3 motherboard replacements already, good thing I got the 3 year warranty). I'm not a big gamer, more like a casual/weekend type. I'm on the go a lot so a desktop system is out of the question. A DIY Vidock add on seems to be the best option for me now.

My system: (very similar to Flaunt's)
Dell M1330 T8100
Nvidia 8400M GS
4GB RAM
Windows 7 64 bit

My preferences:
-Mobility (most important!, so no ATX PSU, I'm only considering Portable implementations)
-The ability to play Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 on 1080p Max settings on a 40'' HDTV
PES 2011 RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Windows XP SP3, Vista SP2, 7
Intel Core2 Duo 2.0GHz or equivalent processor
2GB RAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible video card. 512MB Pixel Shader 3.0 - NVIDIA GeForce 7900 or AMD ATI Radeon HD2600
-Use full 4gb of Ram

From reading other people's experience with M1330 systems, I believe that my express card slot is port#4, hence no x1E with ATI cards and no Optimus with the onboard 8400GS. I also dont want to do the x2 using the 2 mini PCIe slots, so PCIe x1 1.0 via express card slot is the only option I'm thinking of.
Some questions:

1) I'm leaning toward a portable PE4L + GTS 450 road. Is there any recommendation for a specific type/brand?
2) Is the 12V/120W PSU is good enough? Or should I go with the 150W just in case?
3) It seems the HD5750 is better than GTS450/GTX460 on DX9 and since the only game I play is on DX9 (for now), should I consider ATI cards ?
4) Do I need to do that memory reallocation thing (I don't really understand it) ?

I'm in the US by the way.
Appreciate any response!

 

Your question is difficult to answer. Some DX9 games work better with the NVidia Fermis, others with the ATI cards. Consider ithildin's HD5750 versus GTX460 result1 and result2. Yes, 12V/150W would give you more headroom so could tap it to run HD5770=112W, HD6850=129W, GTS450=119W (src: techpowerup). Now the M1330's port layout is:

port1=WWAN
port2=wifi
port4=expresscard

If did go an ATI card then might be an idea to get an extra PM3N, so could do a x1E link by removing the wifi and use your WWAN mPCIe port if needed the extra 15-30% performance. You'll probably need to use Setup 1.x to overcome error 12 issues with 4GB installed or do a x1E link. It's quite easy to install.

Consider too that your T8100-2.1 can also run a 2.3Ghz dualIDA overclock with Throttlestop, or can be overclocked to 2.8/3.0Ghz using a 266Mhz FSLx PLL pinmod.

 

Thank you, nando4. I think I will go with the GTS450 for the overall better performance on x1.

 

One more question, nando4. As I see it, the PE4L only supports up to 80W adapter. If I'm to use the power splitting method as in the US$200 12V/120W GTS450-1GB DIY ViDock Portable setup, would the GTS450 get enough power?

 

I have tried with 600W OCZ 80plus ATX w/ Evga gt 240 GPU with two different laptops Dell M65 & Dell E6400. They both stoppped working about 8 min during the RE5 benchmark. I could smell a slight burning smell on the PE4Hs. Everything else is still working except the PE4H. Please help.

Thanks.

 

I'd like to know if anyone has gotten a ViDock3 to work with a GTS450 w/ optimus drivers.

I want to get one of these as a gift for a less tech-savvy friend, who wouldn't be able to cope with the DIY solution.

 

Nevermind.

 

After looking for a while for a solution to "add" a HDMI port to my laptop, I ran into this topic.

From the posts I've read (haven't gone through the entire topic) most people seem to use the solution in the startpost for gaming, but what about HTPC purposes? Use this solution to send 1080p video material through a PE4L-EC2C and then through the HDMI port of a graphicscard.

If I look at the bandwith of the expresscard interface, I think it won't work. To much data. But I've never seen a solution like this so could be wrong

As for hardware, I've got a Toshiba Satellite A100-683, PSAA9E-09V018DU with some upgrades.
The T2250 CPU has been replaced by a T7600, the 120GB/5400rpm HDD has been replaced by a 250GB/7200rpm drive and I upgraded the RAM to 4GB.
OS: Tripleboot XP, 7 and Kubuntu 10.04.
As for PCIe slots:

The 1st is empty (no clue where it's located), 2nd is a Gb NIC expresscard, 3rd is wireless (that I rarely use, too slow) mini PCIe card.

 

A US $10 (only ten) PCI-e x1 solution via notebook's mini slot (still requires a separate ATX PSU):
Ably-Tech Corp. == View Products

GH-EMLX1-G1C9
Product Brief:

PCI Express X1 to PCI Express Mini riser card with 9cm of flexible cable for Mini-ITX, Netbook or Notebook PC that need to use PCI Express add-on card.
Specifications:

* One PCI Express X1 slot.
* One PCI Express Mini gold finger.
* Flexible cable length: 9cm
* One FDD-type power connector.
* Left-side insertion.


Mini PCI Express Card to PCI Express X1 Socket - 9cm Cable

@nando4, Would this work as a much cheaper and possibly more reliable alternative to the PE4L?

 

That cable looks awful small, I'm not really seeing how you would place the graphic card on the slot without it being right underneath your laptop.

 

Hello; I own this laptop(a Sony F11). Could anybody help me configure the best DIY ViDock setup possible for my laptop?

Only requirements are the ability to use this monitor at its native resolutions of 1920 x 1200(is that possible?) and the ability to use FRAPS(I can currently use it, but not as well as I would like; would DIY ViDock raise compatibility issues with FRAPS?).

Why doesn't anybody use the 500 series video cards? Thank you!

 

Laptop: Toshiba Satellite M305
Memory: 2-4GB
PE4H: ViDock 4+ @ PNY Nvidia GTX 460
IGC: Mobile Intel Series 4 (45GM) Chipset
Devcon: Attatched
Setpci -> 32-bit compaciton, bus compaction & 36-bit compaction does not change anything. They simply cause windows to also hang.

Code 12 on windows when I plug it in during windows normal operation.

When I take out 2GB ram, it still hangs and gives me code 12. (but I have 1 GB Allocation space...)

When I use DIY Setup, All I can get in windows is *hang*. It doesn't boot up.

does PCI Allocation even work on my computer? If not, then I'm stuck with excellent graphics in ubuntu. (Where WINE isn't compatible with most of my games and stuff)
Not sure how to do IGP relocation.

PCIe #1: NVidia (ExpressCard slot)
PCIe #4: Wifi (PCIe Mini Slot)
PCIe #5: Intel (IGP)

 

Anyone out there able to play Battlefield Bad Company 2 on the Optimus Drivers? It seems Punkbuster decides that I'm running two video drivers and considers it hacking and kicks me every game.

 

yah i know im not smart enough to hock something like this together. i get lost in just the first paragraph.

 

See Optimus issues with Punkbuster - NVIDIA Forums - Page 14 . Optimus systems have been widely affected by this problem and it seems the next Optimus drivers in the coming week(s) will provide a fix.

Booting to Win7 after hotplugging an NVidia card will give the results as you describe - either a hang or BSOD.

The solution is to 'configure' the NVidia card prior to chainloading using Video Cards->PCI Config.Save/Load OR switched off the NVidia card prior to chainloading to Win7, followed by a standby, attach, resume.

Since you don't have Intel HD graphics you can't engage the x1.Opt tweak, in which case it's not possible to get better performance than your current GT330M, even with a GTX5xx.

A HD5400 or better will give you EyeFinity/multi monitor capability.

If wanting GTX5xx performance then consider selling up and purchasing a better DIY ViDock base system. Consider too waiting to see if the Sandy Bridge platform gives us pci-e 2.0/3.0 expresscard slots with 2x/4x more bandwidth.

See Getting Started section on first post for a parts and software breakdown to get this to work. It's pretty easy. Perhaps a colleague with a little technical skills could help?

 

check out the alienware m11x section - have modded 265.xx quattro drivers that seem to get around the punkbuster issues, and work on GeForce cards.

Though users have been reporting fewer issues as of late on the 260.99 drivers with PB, so maybe PB is finally being updated...

 

When I do a standby/attatch/resume in WinXP 64-bit, I still get a Code 12, and it still uses IGC.

Please ellaborate on PCI Config Save/Load...

 

Toshiba Satellite M305 (4GB ram), ViDock 4+, Nvidia GTX 460
I've done EVERYthing I can.

Whenever I try to do a PCI allocation for windows XP or Windows Vista, It hangs on load (Bridge, 32-bit, 36-bit). standby->attach->start doesn't do anything. (Code 12) Removed 2GB Ram. (even during the above steps)

I've tried to take out memory (Code 12), used magma FULL FEATURE (still code 12), added some tweaks that supposedly should've made it work.

I guess toshiba may be the worst system. Would 1.Opt help me?

PCIe 1@x1 10de:0e22 NVidia 470
PCIe 5@x1 11ab:4355 Sound
PCIe 6@x1 8086:4232 Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Integrated graphics (45GM)

my devcon.txt, startup.bat and pci.bat are posted below...
Diag.txt is also posted. Although, if you want to find the original conflict, look at DIAG_uncahnged.txt. This contains info when I haven't used PCI compilation.

It would be great if a startup allocation table was possible, but I'm not sure... Since it keeps on hanging on me...

 

try plugging in the graphics while your computer is on. I'm on Win7 32bit 2.5gb ram i just plug in the graphics, the computer recognizes it, and it goes on to extend my display. i have a gts450 btw

on another note, anybody know how to remove the graphics card without causing a crash? haha. i tried

1) laptop on remove: laptop freezes and needs a hard reboot
2) standby -> remove -> resume: the screen stays black and the whole laptop restarts
3) hibernate -> remove -> resume: resume fails, computer crashes, restarts and asks me if i want to proceed with restore or delete restore data

also just something i thought was funny my gts450 gets windows experience index rating of 4.4 for gaming on a pe4l, but the card plugged into my desktop gets 7.1 HAHA. just thought the gigantic jump was funny. How does WEI calculate the numbers anyways. 4.4 is only .5 higher than my laptops integrated but for example RE5 runs at about 2-5 fps on minimum settings on my laptops integrated, but 30-50 fps on max everything at a slightly higher resolution using my gts450 :O Windows really needs to redo that index