DIY eGPU experiences

[Wolf_vx]

Since I live in Japan, from which manufacturer is it best to order PE4H?

[Fardavid]

I just ordered my new PE4L V2.1 from HWTOOLS, although I guess they will send it only on or about 20th.

[flekx]

Sold out... WTH

[azori]

So, I'm going to build DIY Vidock in this week with my friend.
Laptop specs are:

Acer Aspire 5755G
i7-2630QM @ 2.0ghz
8GB RAM
Intel HD3000 + dGPU NVidia GT540M 2GB with Optimus
Only mPCI-e slot (WLAN-slot)
OS: Win7 64bit

Components are:
PE4H 2.4 + PM3N
300W ATX
eGPU Zotac GTX 560 1GB

Above are my eGPU Setup specs. I tried today to get this working but there are some problems that I can't solve.

We noticed that the WiFi-mPCIe port is whitelisted because we got eGPU detected in Win7 by booting with wifi-card in, then standby, plugged PM3N (power ON), resume -> some drivers were installed.

Then we booted to Setup 1.x with eGPU ON -> system frozed instantly before seeing the bios-load. So we turned OFF the eGPU and booted to Setup 1.x without problems. There we did the anti-whitelisting procedure to port 2 /wifi-mPCIe-slot (booted in with wifi-card -> !save port 2 -> power OFF -> boot to Setup 1.x again -> enabled port 2 -> plugged the eGPU -> restore port 2 = eGPU GTX560 was detected in port 2.

Then we didn't know what to do. We tried to reboot the eGPU ON = system frozed. Then we tried to chainload win7 = black screen with beeping line. (When we chainloaded win7, there was some warning message which prefer to canced the chainloading but allowed to continue.) I think that our configurations wasn't saved at all? Not even the anti-whitelisting?

We also tried to install the Nvidia 295.xx beta drivers when the card was detected in Win7, but when we rebooted (we have to) the system frozed again so, the nvidia drivers weren't installed succesfully. We got the dGPU disabled permanently.

What we should do when we get the eGPU detected in Setup 1.x in wifi-slot?
Should we consider some compactions 32 / 36bit (shouldn't need because have already enough PCI-space (TOLUD 2.5GB) + and dGPU space = 512MB)?

Help needed!

[Khenglish]

Above are my eGPU Setup specs. I tried today to get this working but there are some problems that I can't solve.

We noticed that the WiFi-mPCIe port is whitelisted because we got eGPU detected in Win7 by booting with wifi-card in, then standby, plugged PM3N (power ON), resume -> some drivers were installed.

Then we booted to Setup 1.x with eGPU ON -> system frozed instantly before seeing the bios-load. So we turned OFF the eGPU and booted to Setup 1.x without problems. There we did the anti-whitelisting procedure to port 2 /wifi-mPCIe-slot (booted in with wifi-card -> !save port 2 -> power OFF -> boot to Setup 1.x again -> enabled port 2 -> plugged the eGPU -> restore port 2 = eGPU GTX560 was detected in port 2.

Then we didn't know what to do. We tried to reboot the eGPU ON = system frozed. Then we tried to chainload win7 = black screen with beeping line. (When we chainloaded win7, there was some warning message which prefer to canced the chainloading but allowed to continue.) I think that our configurations wasn't saved at all? Not even the anti-whitelisting?

We also tried to install the Nvidia 295.xx beta drivers when the card was detected in Win7, but when we rebooted (we have to) the system frozed again so, the nvidia drivers weren't installed succesfully. We got the dGPU disabled permanently.

What we should do when we get the eGPU detected in Setup 1.x in wifi-slot?
Should we consider some compactions 32 / 36bit (shouldn't need because have already enough PCI-space (TOLUD 2.5GB) + and dGPU space = 512MB)?

Help needed!

So it sounds like everything works fine as long as the BIOS does not see the 560 on startup. When a program wants to restart your computer. Choose full shut down instead, and turn the laptop back on and do the anti-whitelist procedure. Windows and programs won't be able to tell the difference between a restart and a shutdown and full boot.

You most certainly do not have to do compaction with a TOLUD of 2.5GB and 512MB free.

[impale953]

Came here due to the NBR Amazing Content Contest. I never thought eGPU is possible on laptop. This is quite awesome.

+rep.

[azori]

So it sounds like everything works fine as long as the BIOS does not see the 560 on startup. When a program wants to restart your computer. Choose full shut down instead, and turn the laptop back on and do the anti-whitelist procedure. Windows and programs won't be able to tell the difference between a restart and a shutdown and full boot.

You most certainly do not have to do compaction with a TOLUD of 2.5GB and 512MB free.

Yeah, but I can't "save" the anti-whitelist to port 2. When tried to chainload win7 -> black screen with beeping line and nothing happens. So then have to do force shutdown. We got the eGPU detected and NVidia drivers installed (swapping the wifi card with eGPU and booting) but now Device Manager shows that GTX 560 has code 12? How this is possible, is there some bug in Setup 1.x when we disabled the dGPU GT540M?

[Tobias Rieper]

Hi everybody,
I just want to ask if there is any company selling PE4H-EC2C in Europe, EU in particular..
Thanks for reply, Ondřej

[mafbloggerdanny]

Hi guys I am hoping you have some ideas for me. I have had my EGPU working for about 3 months now, and so far I have had 0 reliability problems until lately.

I'm using a PE4H with an MSI R6570 that requires no extra power connectors (so 45w right?) for power I've been using this Targus universal 90 Watt. It says on the unit that it 19.5V

The problem I've been having is that, and it only started this week, is that under heavy load (gaming) I get a BSOD and I have to hold my power button on my laptop until it resets.

I am already using the voltage bypass jumper

I've been reading about other people's BOSD problems and power problems but I thought I had enough power since this gpu does not say it needs more than what the pciex provides, and 90w seemed like plenty to me.

I also thought it could possibly be what some people described as too long of a mini-hdmi cable? they sent me the long flat one and it's worked fine until recently. I do have it looped once, could that be causing a problem?

I do notice that the little black box on the PE4h that says [RS507L A95] does get pretty hot before the egpu gives out, but I never noticed if the unit was getting that hot BEFORE i started having problems.

So what do you guys think I have a power problem? cable problem? something else?

[Fardavid]

Hi everybody,
I just want to ask if there is any company selling PE4H-EC2C in Europe, EU in particular..
Thanks for reply, Ondřej

Hi!
Check www.HWtools.net ??????????. There is one partner of them in Portugal, but their website is in Portugese only. I ordered it from Taiwan 2 years ago, no problem, and I just ordered the new one today. I hope I'll get it.