Tech Inferno Fan

Got a reply to my question about a replacement for a TH05 and when. It's similar to what Kloper received. Seems the Thunderbolt group want enclosures before they can certify the product. While I'd like to help BPlus, I will not be volunteering my TH05 back. It's got deluxe parking on my desk

The PE4H V3.2 page mentions in the specifications area a PE4H-PMxxxA V3.2 for mPCIe but doesn't give a BUY link for it. So I'd suggest contact BPlus via email and ask to manually order one until they update their page.

When you say the LCD turns off, does this also see the HD4000 missing from your device manager listing as you showed before? If so then that would indicate the DSDT table is switching off the iGPU and enabling the eGPU as the primary device. In which case doing a bootcamped MBR install may be pointless as would probably give the same result. If you're going to try to modify the DSDT table then be warned, Win8 no longer allows registry overrides. You'd need to use a mechanism such as I describe in the DSDT override procedure to do a pre-boot in-memory DSDT substitution. Maybe rEFId has a mechanism to do that? Win7 does allow registry DSDT overrides.

I'm getting not much back from Masaharu @ BPlus about the reason for the recall... To which I've asked further and haven't yet received a reply as yet . . . I'd be guestimating Intel putting the hammer down to protect other premium vendor's such as OWC, Magma, Sonnet in getting a decent return for their Thunderbolt investment. BPlus' TH05 gave 89% of their performance for less than a third of the price. Relative to these other products, the TH05 was an astonishingly good deal.

Did rEFIt/rEFInd show the HD4000 as active when you boot in EFI mode? If it's all black screen then no go.. the HD4000 is dead in the water. If the HD4000 does show, then my assertions may be incorrect and it could be the Apple DSDT (ACPI) disabling the iGPU when Win8 boots up with the eGPU active. If it's all black screens then can do the following test using BIOS mode instead. It's not necessary just yet to do a BIOS (bootcamp) reinstall of Windows. We can use Setup 1.1x to determine if the HD4000 appears and is functional or not. So do a USB install of Setup 1.1x, then go ahead and boot it by holding the Option key and select it. That will use BIOS mode. IMPORTANT!! Ensure you follow the instructions for BIOS mode here to get the eGPU detected prior to booting Setup 1.1x. It's trickier than EFI mode. Fingers crossed, the HD4000 will appear. I'd expect it to since how else could you see the Setup 1.1x screens? If the HD4000 does appear then you would look at doing a BIOS install of Win7 or Win8 along with Setup 1.1x to get it all running. A benefit there is you could go back to Win7 if are not so keen on Win8.

A mSATA drive will not work in a wifi pci-e slot. Reason being mSATA has SATA as pins 23, 25, 31, 33 whereas wifi has those as pci-e. The ODD will have a SATA interface. If you happen to have e-sata then it may be feasible to wire it internally and attach the mSATA SSD in empty space. The only mPCIe factor SSD using pci-e lines, so has an onboard SATA controller, that I know of is the SuperTalent Corestore MV. It could only be used a data drive since your bios very likely doesn't support booting from a pci-e device.

Great work. Could you please do a full set of benchmarks for inclusion on the first DIY eGPU experiences post? Don't have a Vostro 3560 entry as yet. For your switchable graphics issue I can suggest the following test: 1. Install the stock Intel and AMD mobile drivers. 2. Does booting up see it use the AMD driver? Does disabling the AMD dGPU in Device Manager see it auto-switch to using the Intel iGPU? That is the behaviour I observed when I tested a HP DV4-2000 with switchable Intel HD+HD4550 graphics. If so, a script can be written that detects AC<->DC mode switching and uses devcon to enable/disable the AMD dGPU, giving you switchable capability with stock drivers. Setup 1.1x can then give you iGPU+eGPU access by disable the dGPU. If (2) works, then you would be able to get the HD6870 working by adding an INF entry into the mobility drivers or getting a modded set that combines mobilty+desktop drives such as DNA-drivers.

Indeed, the HD4000 isn't showing in the devcon resources output when the eGPU is connected. This indicates to me that the Apple EFI framework is disabling the HD4000. I'm wondering if they are using the same firmware as the 15" MBPr with the dGPU and doing the same thing it does? Only thing I can suggest is boot Setup 1.1x on a USB stick boot it. There it will use the BIOS boot method as described. Then see if *both* the iGPU and eGPU show up in the Status panel. I noticed that the firmware behaves differently for EFI and BIOS methods so fingers crossed, this will work for you. If can't get the iGPU active with the eGPU connected, then a 13" MBPr just like the 15" MBP/MBPr has no active iGPU when the eGPU is connected. The raminifaction being it isn't x2.2 + Optimus capable to gain accelerated performance and internal LCD mode for NVidia Fermi/Keplar cards nor can it use LucidLogix Virtu to gain internal LCD mode for AMD cards.

Lucid Logix' Virtu MVP 2.0 available next month for $30 At last, AMD Sandy/Ivy Bridge iGPU + AMD eGPU users will be able to buy Lucid Logix Virtu MVP to gain an internal LCD mode for little extra $$. See Lucid Virtu MVP 2.0 Coming Soon and Will Be Sold Directly to Consumers | PC Perspective Given HD7xxx is mostly faster than the equivalent NVidia GTX6xxx card as demonstrated, the HD8xxx series released in the next couple of months will extend that lead further. Yes a mPCI-e based DIY eGPU is possible. The PE4L/PE4H + PM3N has a USB port BUT it will only work if your particular mPCIe port has the USB pins wired. Typically that would make it a WWAN+PCIe port. Dell often does that. HP hardly ever, not sure about PackardBell. A505-S6005 specs tell us it's a Series-5 1st-gen i3 system with HD graphics. It has an expresscard slot. A PE4L-EC060A 2.1b being a good budget eGPU adapter for you that gives pci-e 2.0 capability should you upgrade to a Sandy/Ivy Bridge notebook down the track. A NVidia GTX4xxx/5xxx/6xxx card giving NVidia Optimus features and performance. A s/h GTX560/GTX560Ti a sweet spot for low cost and high performance. The Lenovo V570 has no expresscard slot. The only option for eGPU connectivity is via an accessible mPCIe slot with pci-e pins connected. Some systems have only 1 (wifi), others have more. You'd need to check. If you have more than one then recommend swapping the wifi card into it and seeing if it appears in Device manager to confirm the pci-e pins are connected. Some WWAN mPCIe ports just have USB pins connected.

Tried a wiki way back with no response in developing it so discussion (then) continued on NBR and the wiki just stagnated and disappeared. A second round (late 2011/early 2012) did build better documentation by identifying important areas needing work with individual owners then contributing, eg: SimoxTav:videos/icons and kizwan:troubleshooting guide. Those were linked with icons on the first page. Perhaps a wiki with an integrated forum could blend the best of both worlds? For the time being, iIf you feel there is missing doco then feel free to contibute and I can link it on the first page. Same goes for modifying the first post content.. users are welcome to suggest changes and I can rework it. That's the model that came to be the default. I act as a secretary to link/summarize important info and findings as they are posted. My immediate concern is why the TH05 has been recalled and whether it will be replaced with an equivalent in the near future. If not, that's a pretty big step backwards for affordable Thunderbolt eGPUs. I'm emailing BPlus to find the driver for that recall.

Copy a newer mkpcidmp.bat to v:\devcon (your Setup 1.1x disk image),run that version and post your pcidmpw.txt results. Load the latest Intel HD4000 Win8 driver, ensure it works, then reload the NVidia driver selecting the clean install option. Unless the Retina display is causing some conflicts it should all work for you then. If not, try setting a lower resolution like 1366x768 on your internal LCD.

Compare x1.1Opt vs x1.2Opt results at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2109-diy-egpu-experiences-%5Bversion-2-0%5D-20.html#post30509 and http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2158-diy-egpu-guide-sony-vaio-vpc-z2-svz13.html#post27918 . The doubling of bandwidth b/w pci-e 1.x and pci-e 2.x adds a considerable amount of extra real-game FPS. There's supposedly a modded bios that can switch the dGPU off on your L502x so with the PE4L 2.1b it may not even need to boot via Setup 1.1x. The PE4H 2.4 woud require booting via Setup 1.1x to downgrade the mPCIe port link from pci-e 2.x to pci-e 1.1x speed. The extra performance and easier installation are reason why I'd recommend offloading/returning the unopened pci-e 1.x capable PE4H-2.4 and getting a pci-e 2.0 capable PE4L 2.1b instead.

Can you please quote the email you received, word-for-word? Wondering what's going on. I found the TH05 worked perfectly as described, delivering 88% of the performance of the Sonnet Echo Express/Magma box at less than 1/3 of their price. An absolute bargain. It would be a terrible shame if BPlus are to discontinue the TH05. Guess Sonnet/Magma/OWC don't have to worry about returns where users purchase a TH05, get near their performance and pocket a stack of change.

I found a T61 schematic that tells us what's what: port1=WWAN port2=wifi port3=bay device? port4=expresscard port5=dock port6=lan The bay device appears to be some sort of legacy 32-pin connector. Maybe something to do with the ultrabay? Don't see any mention of a third mPCIe slot on the schematic. Wonder what it is?

You can check the the bcd entry for DIY eGPU Setup 1.x per the instructions. Appears you are using NTFS partitions, which grub.exe works on OK. grub.exe should exist on your Win7 boot volume's \ and \eGPU directory to allow boot into the disk image as well as the image's \config directory to allow chainloading out of. Only reason I can think of booting the disk image failing on a NTFS partition is if it's compressed or using bitlocker, something grub.exe can't deal with. Lastly, if you find no go booting the disk image then I'd suggest do a USB installation per the Setup 1.1x instructions.

If a *whitelist compatible* wifi card isn't detected on port3 then an eGPU won't work using that port. First thing is to get the wifi card registered. Check if there are any bios settings to enable that port. If that fails then you still have the option of getting a port1+2 x2 configuration going and acquire a USB wifi stick. One other idea is to try a HD7xxx as it may give the best performance on your system as discussed.

Boot with wifi card in port3 and lane2 of your eGPU connected to port4, confirm the wifi card is detected. This will bypass any mPCIe whitelisting that Lenovo may have implemented. Switch port3 into x2 mode then power on the eGPU and *carefully* hotplug the PM3N end into port3. Hit F5 to list how the eGPU is detected. It should show [email protected] [eGPU]@x2.1 if all goes well. In which case you can then proceed to avoid such hotplugging by using the Setup 1.1x anti-whitelisting features.

Looks to me like you have a bootcamped system using BIOS mode to boot Win8. I could only get the eGPU working there by booting via Setup 1.1x with a pci.bat as described here. To get a native EFI system requires starting with a non-bootcamped system, then shrinking the MacOS partition, booting Win8 setup in EFI mode and allowing it to create a new Win8 partition as described by oripash here. I found the Thunderbolt device will only appear in Device Manager if the eGPU is powered and detected on bootup. Otherwise the 0:1.0 (x16 root port) disables the link to the Thunderbolt bridge so no Thunderbolt devices appear.

Try hotplugging your eGPU in Setup 1.1x, hit F5 and confirm it's detected then do a Video cards->Initialize then Apply config.chainload MBR. That process avoids all PCI compaction and so depends on how well Win7 does the PCI allocation. I found it would automatically add the eGPU into the newly created "Large Memory" space. If not, then follow the directions to manually create a pci.bat at the bottom of the DSDT override page. Pretty much all Sandy/Ivy Bridge notebooks will come with a mPCIe slot for wifi. The more important question is how accessible is that mPCIe slot? Ultrabooks tend to be difficult to access that slot. Some other notebooks have a little cover over the wifi slot that can easily be removed. Still, I'd advise seeking an expresscard-equipped notebook for easiest access. The budget ones being Sandy Bridge Lenovo E420/E520, Dell Vostro 3450/3550/3750, HP Probook 4330s/4430s/4530s/4730s/6360b/6460b/6560b. All the premium business range have expresscard slots too: Lenovo X220/X230/T420/T430/T520/T530, Dell Latitude E6220/E6230/E63230/E6330/E6420/E6430/E6520/E6530, HP Elitebook 2560P/2570P/8460P/8470P/8560P/8570P. I previously purchased a 12.5" HP 2560P due it's small size, great build quality, dual 2.5" drive capability, socketted/upgradable CPU, 3/6/9-cell battery options and low ebay price. It offers great mobility on the road and high performance when eGPU docked. Certainly available within your pricepoint. A 2570P is the Ivy Bridge version which improves things yet again by offering RAID-0 across the two available drives for very fast storage. Only issue is you won't be able to get a new one for < $600. Only thing I know about the X230T is the most recent bios versions will dynamically change TOLUD to accomodate an eGPU if they detect it on bootup. So you may have been powering on the eGPU before the system to get it to work successfully?

No need to be concerned about MBR/EFI mode since you probably won't need Setup 1.1x at all since your bios allows disabling of the dGPU. Just power on your eGPU, then power on your notebook, load the latest NVidia desktop drivers and away you go.

DIY eGPU Setup 1.1x will not be able to chainload to your Windows (EFI) partition, nor should it be necessary. It would work if you bootcamped your MBA where it runs a MBR partitioning scheme. Besides, you've already had the NVidia control panel successfully run which indicates it worked without error 12 so pci-e allocation was fine. Only slightly dodgy part of your config is your PSU - it has only a 12V/18A (216W) first 12V rail. Usually that would be OK but you have a GX670OC version. Depending on how high of an OC MSI did with what overvoltage used, it may get near or beyond what your PSU can provide leading to black screens as you are seeing.

Expresscard eGPU configurations often support hotplugging. My testing with a MBP+Thunderbolt found it did not support hotplugging. Macbook benefit greatly from Win8's EFI install. There the Macbook can configure the Thunderbolt port + eGPU to resolve error12 issues. I can't comment for other systems.. it would depend on their EFI framework. If however you need a DSDT override due to a too high TOLUD then Win7 is more flexible since it allows a registry DSDT override. Win8 no longer allowing that so need a DSDT substitution in Setup 1.1x instead. A Lenovo W520's latest bios should have a dynamic TOLUD to accomodate an eGPU. Only issue will be disabling your NVidia dGPU to get the eGPU to function with x1.2Opt features and performance. Setup 1.1x can do that, best if you have a MBR installed Win7/8 rather than EFI.

Firstly, I see you've been busy on NBR. I'll ask that rather than continue discussion over there that you post a redirection to this area as shown here. To answer your questions: A. Does Setup 1.x support disabling dGPU for the newest ivy bridge/series 7 chipsets? I've read how series 5+ chipsets are locked? Yes. However, you need to install the patch available here to get Series-7 chipset support. B. Has anyone had success getting any type of eGPU to work in similar radeon dGPU + ivy bridge laptops? Yes. A 4530s user with a HD3000+HD6470M got it working. Only difference was a bios option to disable the dGPU. C. Would using an Nvidia card bypass the driver issue? Maybe. The AMD switchable graphics appears to use some custom iGPU driver. In which case using a NVidia card with Optimus may require you to revert to the stock Intel driver. D. Ultimately I am aiming for an internal LCD setup, would Nvidia Optimus perform better on an expresscard pcie x1 @ 2.0 vs AMD 6800 + lucid virtu? Can't speak for a HD6800 but a HD7870 mostly performed better than a GTX660. See details. Though it's not a fair comparison: a 106W TDP GTX660 vs a 175W HD7870 even though they are priced the same. The more costly 150W TDP GTX660Ti would narrow the gap. There's still the problem of getting a licensed version of LucidLogix Virtu to obtain internal LCD mode with a AMD card. Can try the hack I performed here. For internal LCD mode, the NVidia drivers are superior and come free.

Yes, you should completely erase your pci.bat and paste the example I've given here. That's because the compact tool doesn't correctly perform the allocation for Win7/8 to work across the multitude of bridges in a Apple Thunderbolt implementation.

Win8 enumerates the DSDT table from the in-memory version on every boot. It no longer allows a DSDT override. Need to do a in-memory DSDT substitution instead as covered in the DSDT override docs here confirmed by psychotoxic here.