DIY eGPU experiences

[Khenglish]

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.

[jsmp312]

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]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

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!

[Khenglish]

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]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

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.

[Khenglish]

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

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.

[jsmp312]

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.

[jsmp312]

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.

[senseisin]

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

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

[niffcreature]

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.

[senseisin]

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.

[niffcreature]

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)