victorluan

Setup 1.x doesn't permanently disable the dGPU, it only disables it for that "session" in that the dGPU will only be disabled until you reboot/shut down. Then on next boot the dGPU will turn back on.

In this case, please try the following, to see if you can get the eGPU to be detected:

- turn off everything: laptop, eGPU, even eGPU's power supply (physical switch on PSU)

- turn on eGPU's power supply, make sure that you get the LEDs showing on the PE4L board

- turn on eGPU assembly (using SWEX board)

- wait about 1 minute (to make sure that the eGPU assembly is fully powered on)

- turn on laptop

- boot up into Setup 1.x in menu mode

- wait another 1 minute after booting up into Setup 1.x menu mode

- hit F5 to refresh the device list

Does Setup 1.x detect the eGPU after waiting? For me, it normally takes about 10-15 seconds from turning on the eGPU to when Setup 1.x detects my eGPU. Sometimes it takes a bit longer, but this is normal for me.

If Setup 1.x still does not detect your eGPU, it might be that the PM060a adapter is not properly seated?

Hello,

I went to my friend's recently, tested it on both a laptop and a desktop. We concluded it's the problem of the PE4L board.

I've tried your suggestions, but Setup 1.x couldn't detect my eGPU at all.

Then I tested my eGPU setup on my friend's laptop. The laptop started up normally, but got blue screen every time when logging into Win 7. Then we tested the GPU on the desktop, everything was just fine with it. Thinking it's the problem of the PE4L board, we plugged in a Radeon HD6850 (connected to an external LCD meanwhile). The laptop started up with screen on, but eLCD's screen off and the laptop stuck when loading Win 7. Finally, we changed the original 420W PSU to a 750W PSU. The PSU wouldn't even power up (might because of a protection scheme).

Therefore we believed it's the problem of PE4L board.

After I ran Setup 1.x (I use USB disk to launch it), it said eGPU is not detected, and said sth about setting 7/15s video card delay time... And if I click turn dGPU off, after reboot, the dGPU is still shown in device manager. So I manually disabled and uninstalled dGPU in device manager, shut down, turned on eGPU, and last turned on laptop, black screen as usual. I wonder what issue would make the laptop black screen/no screen on even before passing BIOS? Besides, I'd surely check my eGPU on a desktop soon.

That the LEDs are not all green when you power on the laptop indicates that something is amiss. Just to make sure that you have the proper wiring:

- Have you got the 6-pin PCI-e power cable (or both, if the card requires) plugged into the GTX 660?

- Have you got the 4-pin floppy power cable plugged into the PE4L board?

- Have you got anything else you can use to keep the PM060a cable flat? Tape may not work because the mPCI-e port may be forcing the PM060a card to try to stand up, and so the pins might not be making full contact

- Have you tried both the GPU and PSU in a separate desktop system to make sure that neither are faulty to begin with?

I have my 2 6-pin PCI-E cables connected to the GTX 660Ti (actually 1 should be enough); I believe everything else is well connected. I tried fixing the PM060A cable in its position by pressing it myself, which didn't help... A weird thing is after I changed to another 4-pin floppy power cable, my laptop would start up normally even if my eGPU was on at first place (or maybe that's just coincidence). Still, my laptop just didn't detect the eGPU. Probably I'll have my PSU and GPU tested on desktop in a few days although I don't really think there's any thing wrong with the power.

I also found D1 and D3 refer to 'power' and 'detect' respectively. So is my power supplied sufficient (D1 green) and PCI-E x1 detection false (D3 orange)? If so, does it mean my PSU works just fine?

Thanks!

What version of Windows are you using?

Please try the following, just to see if Windows can detect the eGPU:

1) With your XPS 15 completely turned off, plug in the PMxxxa mPCI-e adapter into the WWAN/TVTuner slot, make sure you use the screws to keep it in place

2) turn on the eGPU assembly, make sure that it's on for at least 30 seconds; doesn't have to really be 30s, but just make absolutely sure that the GPU itself is on

At this stage, what are the colours of the LEDs on the PE4L board? Are they all green? Or still the same colours as you explained in your step #5?

3) turn on the laptop, and boot into Windows regularly

4) Open Device Manager, right click on "Display adapters" and select "Scan for new hardware"

Does the eGPU show up? You should at least see it in the list of display adapters, but it should give you an error like "Error Code 12" or anything else indicating that Windows sees it, but can't use it.

I tried the steps you suggested. Still not working... Here's what I've done by order:

1. Laptop off; D1(green), D3(orange)&D4(red) on; eGPU fan low rpm.

2. Laptop on; D4 off; eGPU fan low rpm; no screen on, no HDD activity.

3. SW1 (on ATX power switch) 1-2 -> 2-3; D1&D3 on; no screen on, no HDD activity.

4. Restart laptop (eGPU off), laptop -> normal.

5. Laptop on; SW1 2-3 -> 1-2; eGPU fan max rpm; scan in device manager -> still no detection.

6. SW1 1-2 -> 2-3; laptop -> off; SW1 2-3 -> 1-2; D1, D3&D4 on, eGPU fan max rpm.

7. Laptop on; laptop -> normal; no detection...

I think the laptop detects sth anyhow since every time I turn on eGPU before laptop, the screen is not on. It doesn't even pass the BIOS because there's no HDD activity further on. The colours of D1, D3 and D4 are green, orange and red.

Thanks for your reply!

I'm using Win8 64-bit Pro.

I bought PE4L PM060A, which seems to merge the mPCI-E adapter and PCI-E cable into one. Because it's too short, I can't reach the screw point... Hence I used tape to fix it (I'm pretty confident it's in its position).

By the way, I've seen this on the website: Dupont 2PIN Cable. What's this for? I didn't receive such...

I'll try the steps you said soon.

I'm having exactly the same problem here. My system cannot see the eGPU no matter what I do.

With L502x off, if I switch eGPU on (4-pin flopppy cable + 6-pin pcie cable connected): both eGPU and PSU fans are on, eGPU fan on max.

SW2 on 1-2, D1 is green and D4 is red. Switch on laptop > D4 goes off, eGPU fan stays on max.

SW2 on 1-2, D1 is green, D3 is yellow and D4 is red. Switch on laptop > D4 goes off, eGPU fan stays on max.

With eGPU off, laptop on > sleep, switch on eGPU, fan and leds same as above > resume: leds same as above but eGPU fan goes to medium.

Same behavior on Windows and Linux. In linux, lspci doesn't show anything. I've tried: susped > power on eGPU > resume; hotplug mpcie adapter etc. Nothing.

PE4L v. 2.1b from HIT, GTX 650, Seasonic G-360. Graphic card and PSU have been tested with a i7 desktop, they both work fine so it's not that. Could anyone with a working eGPU on L502x + PE4L post some details on their setup (SW* settings etc) ?

Thanks !

I may have quite similar problems as you do.

My specifications:

XPS L502X (Sandy Bridge HM67)

PE4L v2.1b PM3N

GTX 660 Ti

420w modular PSU with 2x6pin PCI-E port

These are my setup descriptions:

1. In no way could Windows device manager or eGPU Setup 1.x detects the GTX 660 Ti.

2. When I turn on my PSU, the GTX 660 Ti would run consequently but the fun of it is in very low rpm.

3. And if I turn on my laptop later, the screen is black screen, before the Dell logo is shown.

4. The eGPU fan is either in max rpm or min rpm.

5. Usually, D1 (green) and D3 (orange) light up; D4 (red), D3 and D1 light up sometimes.

Update:

Whenever I shut down my laptop, the fan of the eGPU tunes from max rpm to min rpm.

I changed mPCI-E port from WWAN to the one for WLAN, still no detection of eGPU. I guess that's either my eGPU's or PE4L's problem.

Does anyone have suggestions?

Thanks in advance!