Let's figure out how to make a DIY eGPU (previously DIY ViDock)

[Max_Headroom]

how does that work on a normal motherboard though? surely theres an "on" signal from teh motherboard?

Correct. The "on" signal is to draw PS_ON low, which is what the motherboard does for you when you press the button to start the computer. When the computer is shutting down, the motherboard raises the signal high and the PSU goes off.

[Eye0fHoruS]

Ok I gave the express card and wires a wiggle and now the 8800 gts card is picked up in device manager through the express card slot.

Initially the connection felt very weak and the card was picked up and then not.
I switched the ends of the cable round from the express card to the PCI adapter and now it stays well connected without changing.

I try installing drivers but it either doesnt work or I get blue screen of death.

I disabled and uninstalled the onboard graphics card and the drivers but this isnt making a difference.

Please help, look forwards to your reply.

[key001]

Are you installing forceware or microsoft drivers and what version? If nothing else works try to install XP driver for 8800, this way you probably won't need a driver for your onboard card

[Pyro515]

I actually got this to work for a split second. It wouldn't work from hibernating. All I did to make it work was boot up Win 7, and then plug in the express card when it was fully booted and then the drivers installed and I was able to get the video to display on my 2 external monitors.

Aidanvii, I'm not sure if I have the latest chipset drivers or not, I'm going to check that tonight.

Unfortunately I had some weird PSU issues when trying this out. Everything loaded up but then I was getting wierd noises from the PSU and then it crapped out on me. I have a different PSU (more powerful) that I am going to try tonight. I'm running an Intel GMA 4500 HD internally and trying to run an ATI 2600 for testing purposes. Once I get that running I'm going to look into a better card.

I'll keep you guys posted if I get it up and running.

[Shewtemup]

I apologize if this is in the incorrect thread, or the question has been answered already. 100+ pages is a lot to read through.

I have a HP dv2000 running win7, and an nvidia 9800gtx. I ordered the PE4H to test it all out, but I'm not exactly sure what I need to do with my BIOS to get it up and running. I'm not exactly a genius with computers, but I know enough to get myself in trouble. Would anybody be able to give me more or less specific instructions on how to set this up?

Let me know if I need to move this post to another thread.

[User Retired 2]

I apologize if this is in the incorrect thread, or the question has been answered already. 150+ pages is a lot to read through.

I have a HP dv2000 running win7, and an nvidia 9800gtx. I ordered the PE4H to test it all out, but I'm not exactly sure what I need to do with my BIOS to get it up and running. I'm not exactly a genius with computers, but I know enough to get myself in trouble. Would anybody be able to give me more or less specific instructions on how to set this up?

The experiences thread was designed to save the 150+pgs reading. There is an example of a DV2000 running a HD4670 there. Points being:

1. You can't boot with the PE4H attached as the bios then uses the external video card as the primary, causing XP/Linux/Win7 to fail boot. It needs to be hotplugged after bootup.

2. Need a DIY ViDock USB bootdisk with PCI config scripts to resolve error 12: cannot allocate resources. Try running the example dv2000pr.bat, followed by dv2000.bat. Likely *may* work for you with minimal changes since it was created for a DV2000.

3. Once booted into Win7, suspend, attach PE4H, resume.

[Pyro515]

Well I got it working for a couple of minutes then it just crapped out again. At one point I had 2 external monitors running on the 2600 and my internal LCD monitor running on the laptop ( it was quite cool seeing all three working!). Then after a couple of minutes the video card resets itself and I loose everything (all screens go black). I know the computer is still running because I had a video playing and the sound was still working.

Also, something weird. When I plug in the Express card, I loose my WIFI connection. Has anybody else experienced this?

Nando,
Currently one of my monitors is using an HDMI cable, I am going to try to switch that to a DVI connection to get rid of the audio and see if that helps. I'm also going to try a different video card.

If anybody else has any other suggestions on to why it will only work for a couple of minutes please let me know.

Thanks for the help,

Mike

[publicallyunknown]

In case anyone cares, there is a MSI 9500 gt 512mb on new egg for $30.

I figured some people would be interested in using this card instead of a more expensive card b/c if this one blows up you're only out 30 bucks, and its a 9500gt so the performance won't be that crappy (not like anyone can notice with a pci-e 1x bus). http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127469

[key001]

In case anyone cares, there is a MSI 9500 gt 512mb on new egg for $30.

I figured some people would be interested in using this card instead of a more expensive card b/c if this one blows up you're only out 30 bucks, and its a 9500gt so the performance won't be that crappy (not like anyone can notice with a pci-e 1x bus). http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127469

i doubt it'll work decently at x1
it's twice as slow as 240 gt http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3709&p=12 in all the tests and based on the 240 x1 results, 9500 will get like 1700 3dmark06

[Malumake]

Hey Nando,

Your comment on the bit flip for PCIE 2.0 intrigued me more than getting the external card to display on the laptop so I started digging. Using the datasheet you found earlier I tracked down, what I think, to be the responsible bit. Go to page 48 and look at NB_PCIE_LINK_CAP. Both link speed and link width are there.

Now I just need to figure out how to "flip" it.