DIY eGPU experiences

MikjoA - Any chance you have the 32 bit version of that INF file?

I'm trying to do an Optimus setup on my HP 2540p with a GTX 570. I just started out and somehow managed to get the whole setup working but got a measly 5366 on 3DMark06, which I'm attributing to the wrong drivers. I know another user Skiddy got 14114 on the same laptop here with his GTX 460, so that's my target

I see all the INF files in this thread are 64 bit...and the only 32 bit INF in this post does not list GTX 5xx series cards, only the 4xx series because they were not released back then. Any 32 bit Win7 users out there with a GTX 5xx card care to share their nvam.inf file?

 

I'll try make it tomorrow

 

Been trying to get my setup up and running for awhile, and first started out with the PE4H when it was released. I got a defective unit, and did not attempt again until recently, when I got a newer PE4L 1.5. Now the video card is recognized (8800GS), but I get an error 12 which states the system cannot allocate enough resources. If I take 1 stick of ram out (I have 2x2GB), everything works fine, but I'm on a 64-bit OS, so this should not be an issue. Tried this setup on a friend's laptop (which also has 2x2GB) and it worked great. Any ideas? I'm on a Pavilion DV7 by the way.

 

does anyone seen this?

a very interesting video testing the performance difference of Dual GPU using 16x 8x and 4x PCIE
<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vfXALgE7mVM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vfXALgE7mVM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width='640' height="390"></embed></object>

 

Can't wait, thanks!

 

try the setup 1.x worked for me on my laptop.

 

Virtually it will work with any laptop even ones that do not have hdmi port. Yes, it should work for you, but it takes time to setup and after you go through that major work then you will be happy. Do not have high expectation for the vidock to plug and play. If you are lucky it will work otherwise it will just take some time and ask this forum for some help you may need.

 

Anyone here have a fujitsu a series laptop know where to put the pm3n?

 

Hi there,

only a short post from me:

My setup: Notebook: Lenovo ThinkPad W500 (Intel GMA4500HD), T9400 Core2Duo 2.53GHz (FSB1066), 6GB RAM, Win 7 professional 64bit

PE4L (1.5) connected via Expresscard

EVGA GTX550 Ti (stock clocks and voltages @PCIe 1x)
nVidia 270.18 driver from 18.04.2011

results (3D Mark 2006 1.2):
internal LCD output (optimus working): 8.606 points
external display: about 11.000 points

internal Intel GMA4500HD: 1.100 points

That's a nice setup for a workhorse notebook (i.e. ThinkPad T400) with the capability to play games on the desk at home.

 

Hi Guys.

Due to upgrade I`d like to sell my system now.

Before I start selling it on ebay I gonna try to sell it here for someone. Perfect base for DIY Vidock project. Results on the first Page

The Laptop, Review HERE The PE4H and an 500w ATX PSU with SWEX Power on switchboard.

(The PSU works fine with Palit GTX 460 1gb on full load in massive gaming.)

The Laptop is 1,5 years old. I bought half year ago, before me was a unused stock in my company. Beautifull condition no scuffs, scratches. Screen is perfect. Still very strong battery lasts about 3,5-4 hours when browsing.

Asking price is £400 (OFFERS WELCOME) + posting fee. (The Laptos RRP still over £800 in new)

I`m located in the UK.

Anyone interested feel free to get touch on PM here.

Have a nice day guys.

 

Alright, what am I doing wrong?

I finally got all the parts today and assembled them. I'm getting nothing.
When using the sleep, plug it in, wake up method, it doesn't switch to the GT430 and I eventually get a locked screen with pretty rainbow colours

Booting with it in gives me nothing. It won't even show the BIOS.
When plugged in, Device Manager calls it a Standard VGA Controller or something like that and I get Error Code 10.

Here's what I've done:

Assembled the card/adapter
Booted the laptop
Put the laptop to sleep
Plugged in the PE4L
Woke up the laptop
Skipped obtaining drivers
Attempted to install 270.61 Verde drivers
Got told no compatible hardware can be found

Am I missing something? My system is a Dell Inspiron 1545 and I'm trying a x1.Opt link.

EDIT: I just got it working for a few minutes.
It showed up in Device Manager as Nvidia GT430. Then the screen did the rainbow thing again and the screen locked up.

 

thanks buddy

atleast u gave me littile a light of hope.

but problem is that which graphics card or which ViDock device is gonna suite with my laptop i dn know.

it would be great if anyone finds me or lemme know which one is the best for my laptop so that i can order the package without delay.

um asking all the notebook specialists that plz help me locate which is best for my laptop.

so far i can giv additional infos are lyk yes there are still two ports empty in my main board and may be those are PCI-e 2.0. But no internal graphics support lyk intel GMA 4500 or lyk so. Just hav dedicated graphics support by ATI HD4330 512 vram.

very much interested to upgrade it to above ATI 57** or 58** series.

giv me solution pals.

 

Being that throughput is the limiting factor would a 2GB card perform better (ie keep more info on the card)?

 

Hello, I need help please.

I ordered PE4L with express card and I want to use Nvidia Geforce 9800GT 512mb Akimbo with my laptop, also i got external ATX psu 400W.

My laptop recognizes the card and installs the drivers but it doesnt get the card power or so.... cant even turn on the windows 7 Aero theme.... and another problem im facing it doesnt recognize my external LCD-s only showing up on laptop screen. Also both leds are glowing on PE4L when i switch everything on.

Made myself already Vidock x1 Bootable USB too, but cant get a point what i can do there. I can see both cards there too. My 8400M G as vid_0 and 9800 GT as vid_2.

My system: Asus Z53S
Memory: 2Gb....2x1gb
OS: Windows 7 Ulitmate x32
Another note, I have to use DVI to VGA adapter for my screen.

Am I doing something wrong?
All suggestions are welcome
Sorry for bad English skills, hope you understand all I said

Best wishes

 

When you have plugged in the EC, does the external gpu give any errors in the device manager?

if not then the dvi-to-vga adapter might be the problem. I found in the nvidia forums this is a common problem. I turns out that certain monitors (especially older models) need to have drivers installed to work properly with the adapter. Hope this helps.

 

Once I had Code 43 error but it disappeared after restart no more errors with external gpu. Also if I switch the psu on the "Check Singnal Cable" windows disapears for 1-2 sec. then it pops up again

 

Now we're talking!

I received my HD5770 and am finally getting the expected results:

(NVS3100M --> GTS450 --> HD 5770)
Windows Performance Index 4.9 --> 5.9 --> 7.2*
RE5.var 23.3fps --> 62.5fps --> 81.9fps
3Dmark06 3295 --> 4879 --> 11748
SM2.0 score 1231 --> 1899 --> 5475
HDR/SM3.0 score 1184 --> 1816 --> 5252
CPU score 2733 --> 2738 --> 2762

* I'm listing graphics score only. With the HD5770, my bottleneck is actually the RAM at 5.9 Windows rating.

I'm gonna try some real games now... Portal 2 should arrive this week too

Btw my setup again so everything is at one place.
15" Lenovo T510, i5-520M @ 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, QM57, NVS3100M, Win7x64
PE4L + EC2C, Sapphire HD5770 1GB @x1, setup: yes

The card was immediately recognized by Windows and the installation as a VGA card was automatic, just as described. I then installed the current official Catalyst driver (11-4_vista64_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl.exe). I had the error 12 but thanks to the compaction from my previous GTS450 setup, the video card works when booting along Windows.

 

why is it that for some games, they bring the bsod after load. For instance, Portal 1 game shuts down my computer completely after it tries to load the first level? Some in the forum also mentioned that CoD: Modern Warfare 2 causes BSOD after loading. Will this be a common issue or do we need to compile a list of working games with vidock and games that will not work with vidock?

 

Hmm, the instructions aren't super clear, mind elaborating for me? Much appreciated.

 

Well since you have an ati graphics card already. Buy that 5700 or 5800series. I am running on 5850 and it was mind boggling for me to install this vidock, because I am not a comp. savvy person.

 

Well I will do the best that I can to clear some of the things, but keep in mind that I am not a comp. wiz.

After you download the setup 1.x look in the folders and if you find diyvidock.mount.bat , mount that, I believe then go to setup-disk-image.bat and that should open a command prompt and make sure you run it as adminstrator. Then you hit a random key and hopefully after it is done copying or w/e it does restart your computer. Hopefully you will see a boot screen that says win.7 and diy vidock. hit diy vidock and it will show 3 choices. Hit the second choice like menu based. Then from there it will take you to a screen where you need to have your diy vidock on before it takes you to the main part of where you can configure the computer.

When you have successfully see a menu on the side that says devcon file: no or yes, etc. on the right side. the left side says ports, chainload, and etc. hit f1 or on the bottom of the screen it will have help and then hit f1 i think where it will have little pop up info. when you hit chainload or w/e it will show a little information what it does and try to figure the rest out. Hope this helps a little.
One thing if you go to ports do not enable all ports because if there are unoccupied ports it will not work right.

I hope there is a tutorial on this setup 1.x for us non computer wiz people. The information is vague and would like to suggest a tutorial on setup 1.x if someone does not mind.

Sorry for the whole life story.

 

Improving Setup 1.x help content to cater for all skill levels can only be done if those other skills levels, eg: non-techie users, are willing to contribute content based on their use of the software. A requested was made here for contributions. None have been received so far..

If you would like to improve Setup 1.0f's help content then here's your chance. A review of setup.txt (Setup overeview) in the link being the first place to start.

 

Has anyone heard of nvidia synergy? The desktop optimus equivalent? It doesn't seem as locked down as optimus. I bet we could mod I for vidock to use with non intel igps. Here is anandtech link.
NVIDIA Synergy to Bring Optimus to Desktops - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

 

I've found it extremely difficult to even intentionally hit my video memory max of 1GB. The majority of games will ignore that you have extra vram, and will purge textures and other data that it does not deem necessary to have loaded at that time. The only game I have seen that does not do this and will fill vram with extra data is Crysis.

So in short, having 2GB of memory will not provide any extra benefit over having 2GB with a normal desktop in the vast majority of situations.

 

I just got my 5850 today and my laptop does not even detect it. My specs are below and I have an power supply along with the DC adapter connected. I put the laptop to Sleep. Plug in the card into my expresscard and turn on the power supply and then I resume. The lights on the PERL light up and the fan on the graphics card turns on but nothing changes on my laptop.

The power supply is a 400 watt so I know it has enough juice. Also, I tested the graphics card on a desktop so the graphics card work. Is the PERL busted?

Any thoughts

 

I forgot. but I try this when laptop is in integrated(Intel) option. I disabled the switchable option so when I want to switch between integrated and dedicated I have to go into BIOS during boot to select either.

 

Community announcement: PM3N v1.2 is now available from HWTools. This fixes some problems when trying to set-up an x2/x4 setup.

 

update:
I know the expresscard slot works in my laptop because I have an expresscard esata card to connect an external hard drive and it works fine. Also, I used the usb port on the PERL card and it sees a USB drive I plugged in.

Help please!

 

Here is a look under the hood

I can't for the life of me work out what ports these are? I guess 2,3,4? I have no idea where the wi-fi port is

 

Am I out of luck then since I dont have a free PCI-E slot?

 

I have M1530 too, wifi-port is also known as WLAN (wireless lan), PCI #2.

 

You didn't check properly, you need to select Southbridge and not northbridge.

 

gotcha, thanks!

 

Still having problems with M1530 + HD4870. Previous post here.

I got both cards detected and running, but they are prone to bsod.

20-60sec after connecting vidock: BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER or atikmdag.sys bsod.

If I'm trying to boot with vidock connected it gets to loading windows -animation and bsods with SYSTEM SERVICE EXCEPTION (caused by atikmdag.sys).

This is quite annoying. I did a clean win7 64bit install and after that I installed newest drivers for both cards (nvidia 8600M GT and ati hd4870). Both drivers are wddm 1.1 compatible, but ati drivers seem to cause problems any help?

 

Hi everyone.

I was told to visit this page as I have some problems with my DIY V-dock.

I'm on a HP pavilion dv7-3130eo and I bought the PE4H-EC2C version 2.4 from harmonicinversion.com

I followed the instructions as I found here How to make an external laptop graphics adaptor | News | TechRadar UK

but I have a problem when hotswapping it.

I had windows fully booted, had power to the card and inserted the card in my laptop. Windows recognised the device and installed some drivers but as I'm trying to hotswap it now windows freezes? If I reboot with the card installed it stalls and leaves me with black screen.

What am I doing wrong? Anyone has experience with this laptop and can help me out?

Kind regards, Lurifax

 

Are you saying that the card used to be detected and work, but no longer does? Please clarify.

How are you trying to hotswap? I read through the article you linked and they don't really know what they're talking about. The easiest and most consistent way to hotswap is to have the card fully connected but off on boot, and when you sleep windows just flip the PSU switch to turn it on, then resume. Also if your BIOS can POST and proceed to loading windows, there is no reason at all to hotswap, just boot with it on.

It would also help to know what card/IGP you have internally and what you are trying to use externally. Some people have driver issues with an internal nvidia and external nvidia, particularly if they have to reallocate resources. It currently sounds like you are having a driver issue, but we need more information.

 

Havn't tried to boot with the card in place but without power. I'll try that when I get back.

Atm I'm testing the setup with a ASUS GeF GT220 G DI DDR2 PCI-E that I stole from my sons computer before spending cash on a more powerfull card. ;-) my internal gfx is a GeForce GT 230M.

No the card never worked. Windows just installed the drivers for the expresscard but i never got the external card to work.

Thanks alot for the help.

 

Hey all:

I guess I'm one of the relatively luckier users here of the DIY ViDock project. I managed to get mine to work relatively straightforward without too many difficulties. Not sure if I a doing an x1 or a x1.Opt setup (I have the Intel HD graphics on my notebook) but based on my 3DMark score it looks like the latter.

I have a HP Elitebook 2540p, i7-640 LM 2.13Ghz processor, 32 bit Win7, 4gb RAM, EVGA Superclocked GTX 570 with 270.61 Verde drivers and a PE4L and a Corsair CX 600W PSU. Got a 3DMark score of 13742, could be higher (I know one user Skiddy with a score of 14114). Still thinking of ways to push up the score. Wish I could push this further because I know my (sadly expensive ) card is capable of more.

Notes about setup..Everything worked straight out of the box, pretty much. Initially before I had the 32bit nvam.inf file, my card was recognized only as a generic VGA adapter and gave me a 3DMark score of ~5300. Installing the 270.61 Verde drivers fixed that.

My setup only works if I hotplug it in the middle of a Windows session (no sleep/hibernate/power off etc. all of those will freeze my laptop). I plug it in, go to Device Manager, right click Display Adapters and rescan hardware and kaboom, laptop screen goes black and my external monitor comes to life.

If I can be of help to anyone, please let me know.

Big thanks to MikjoA who helped me with a 32 bit INF for the 270.61 Verde drivers. I am posting this file (on his behalf) here (rename it to .inf).

 

I think you misunderstood me about having the card off. Only have it off if you have to hotswap. The ideal situation is that you can have the card connected and powered why you computer is booting, just like a regular card. Also as I said before I think you have a driver issue. All having the card powered off really does is simplify hotplugging.

exe also had driver issues with 2 nvidia cards, and resolved the issue. Check out his post on page 347.

 

Is there anyone who experimented with the HM57 chipset?

I have a dell Inspiron n4030 with i3 330M processor, 4G RAM, ATI HD4330 512 vram graphics support. No internal graphics support.

I think HM57 has PCI e 2.0 x1 (5 ports. Not sure). In my case #2 And #3 ports are occupied with wifi adapter and card reader. and #4 is used by the express card though its not mentioned.

PCI-E 2.0 x1 port #1 Empty
PCI-E 2.0 x1 port #2 In Use @ x1 (Dell DW1501 Wireless-N WLAN Half-Mini Card Network Adapter)
PCI-E 2.0 x1 port #3 In Use @ x1 (Atheros AR8132 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller)
PCI-E 2.0 x1 port #5 Empty

Am i out of luck that i can't use Vidock? If i am not then what i use? I dont have any HDMI port. Still i have the ability to use? How??

 

It looks like you can move your wifi from port 2 to 5 so you can do an x2 link with ports 1 and 2.

 

As i am not that good with these handy things, just asking switching the wifer adapter from port 2 to 5 is quite easier? like simply open and set it in port 5.

One more thing setting up a vidock, does it disable my video card?? Like, cant the two card work side by side??

Can i use my internal LCD??

What should i order?? PM3N-EC2C or PE4H or PE4L? ( Just can't figure it out what's suitable)

As i have no HDMI port how would i connect it in??

 

hi

I was searching for an external pci-e slot device and I found this thread, but I'm not looking to plug a GC but a pci-e 1x capture card. It may be a dumb question but it should work right ?

 

I think so, maybe you just need PE4L rather than PE4H

 

Hi, I was peeking into this forum and saw that DIY Vidock might solve my problems. However, as I was looking through the first post I got quite confused and therefore perhaps someone could give me a bit guidance. I have a Vostro 3300 (HM57 & 1x34mm Expresscard; I also tried searching AIDA64 for available PCI-E ports but couldn't find the right place) - what items should I order and at which speed is my system capable of running the external graphics? Thanks beforehand!

 

When you look into AIDA64 in the Chipset, you have to check that you are looking into Southbridge and not Northbridge.
Then you will see the available PCI-e port.
I'd advice you to buy a PE4H 2.4 pack including the EC2C (expresscard adapter) and swex (and a long mini hdmi... because 30cm is so small ). You may probably need the EC2C if you want to make a X2 link.

 

Here's the pic.


Can a x2 link be made? (Vostro 3400 is under the "Systems not capable of a higher performance x2 1.0 pci-e link" list in the first post.)

 

I thought so, I planned on taking PE4L-EC2C.

thanks !

 

oh man... Could you please read the first post carefully ?
I won't answer all you want because some people made a lot of great work on post 1, the answers you are looking for are in...
There is a special explanation for Internal LCD stuff.
There you will also find what is best suitable for your laptop.

Now, DIY Vidock won't disable your primary graphic card. But they can't work together side by side. However you may need to use Setup 1.0X (Again read post 1) to disable yourinternal graphic card to make the DIY Vidock work properly. You will chose then at every reboot if you want to enable or not your internal graphic card.

If you have an Intel HD Graphics, or GMA 4500 X3100, you can use nvidia optimus feature with a fermi card to overboost performance.

You do not need an HDMI port to run the DIY Vidock.

 

In case of a lacking of a HDMI port with the laptop whats the solution to connect in the vidock?? please see my posts just earlier.