Tech Inferno Fan

15" MBP/MBPr has the issue with the dGPU, rather than the iGPU, being the primary bootup video device. That means the NVidia Optimus features like rendering the image to the internal LCD won't work. Those features only engage if the iGPU is the primary bootup video device. How to do that is something you'd probably need to investigate in the Apple forums. I hope it doesn't require placing a kill switch on the GT650M (dGPU) chip itself. GTX650 is fine too. You want a system with a Intel HD iGPU as the primary bootup video device, then you need a Fermi (GTX460/GTX560Ti, etc) or Keplar (GTX650, GTX660, etc) NVidia eGPU, and a PE4L-EC060A 2.1b or PE4L-PM060A 2.1b. That combination will get you x1.2Opt performance.

Macbook Setup 1.1x keyboard compatibility testing Shelltoe, this is great feedback which has been noted. Two other issues that we could address remotely is the keyboard response from the MBP to engage screen capture and a DOS editor that works. Can do that if you: 1. Download test-MBP-1.exe 2. Run test-MBP-1.exe from within windows. Extract the contents to your v:\ drive (DIY eGPU Setup 1.105 image) or your USB drive containing Setup 1.105. There it will create a \test directory. 3. Boot Setup 1.105, select command prompt option. 4. Navigate to the c:\test directory (c:, cd \test). Then you'll have three things to play with: scancode, fedit\edit and setedit\bin\setedit. Running the first will return scancodes for key combinations. Eg: hitting ALT+ on my keyboard returns 0D (13 decimal). Hitting ALT+DEL returns 53 (83 decimal). From the returned keycode you can then edit \bin\capture.bat and change all occurences of the string "83" (ALT+DEL) to, for example, "13" (ALT+) so as to enable a screen capture using that hotkey. The fedit\edit and setedit\bin\setedit are editors you can try to see if the keyboard responds OK. setedit looks good but is pretty big, so was hoping to find a smaller DOS edit replacement that is compatible with Macbooks. Maybe you can scout around and try a few different editors to see which works?

Refer to First Steps -> 2. Which video card do you recommend for best performance on my system?, Pre-purchase FAQ -> 5. (Performance) What affects the performance of a eGPU? and Pre-purchase FAQ -> 13. What do I need to run the fastest x1.2Opt link shown in the implementations? Short answer: your system is x1.2Opt capable. Just get a NVidia GTX460-336, GTX560Ti or GTX660 to gain x1.2Opt performance. x1.2Opt is your x1 2.0 link but the driver and card uses pci-e compression to accelerate performance anywhere from 20%-333%.

15" MBPs with GT650M doesn't have it's iGPU as the activate bootup video device. Means no Optimus features (eg: Internal LCD mode) unless Apple disclose how to switch the iGPU as the active video device. I can see that your last compaction was a 36-bit one that ignored the dGPU. Unless the DSDT override is in place, you should be doing a 32-bit compaction ensuring the dGPU is not ignored. Though it's not going to be successful. I'm already aware compaction fails on the MBP/MBA and even disk writes of Setup 1.1x don't work correctly. For the first, please switch off the system, do a clean boot with the eGPU attached and do a !Save diags->Compact fails, upload the results saved in \diag somewhere and link here for analysis. This info will be passed to the compact developer.

Main point now is confirming if your expresscard slot works. Are there any settings in the bios that disable the expresscard slot? I'd suggest set SW1 to position 1 (no delay), power on the eGPU, then hotplug it into the expresscard slot. Is the eGPU detected in Setup 1.1x or does a Device Manager scan show the a new device? If no success then I'd be testing a e-sata or USB 3.0 (pcie) expresscard to further test if the expresscard slot works.

pretty much answered at DIY eGPU experiences - Page 556 though not confirmed. If you can go a x2E configuration [port1+2] then would suggest getting an ATiAMD card. If can only do x2 using [port3+4] then consider if you prefer DX9 performance bias (ATiAMD) or DX10/DX11 (NVidia). NVidia a better choice if looking later to mate to an iGPU-equipped notebook (x1.Opt, x1.2Opt or Thunderbolt) such that can get Optimus internal LCD mode.

Lenovo X220 and X230 with latest bios will adjust TOLUD automatically for you. That makes them plug-n-play DIY eGPU systems, ie: don't need to install Setup 1.1x or do any DSDT overrides.

TOLUD=0xDFA00000 = 0xE000000 (rounded up) = 3.5GB. Means can't accomodate a eGPU in 32-bit PCI space. Then either need (1) a dynamic TOLUD. Systems like a Lenovo X220 will change TOLUD to be al lower value on bootup upon detecting a eGPU or (2) use a DSDT override to extend the root ACPI bridge out into 36-bit PCI space so a 36-bit PCI allocation of the eGPU is accepted by Win7. If it's a Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge system then you want a PE4L-EC060a (expresscard slot) or PE4L-PM060A (mPCIe slot). Either of those will get you pci-e 2.0 performance. Older PE4L 1.5 or PE4H 2.4 are only capable of delivering pci-e 1.x performance levels, or half the bandwidth. Recommend a NVidia Fermi or Keplar class eGPU for better x1.2Opt performance than an AMD one plus a transparent internal LCD mode courtesy of Optimus. Both those features dependent on an Intel HD iGPU being the primary bootup graphics device.

If all methods fail then it indicates there is insufficient 32-bit PCI space to accomodate your HD6870, which requires a contiguous 256MB block to allocate to. The solution is either: 1. Get a NVidia Fermi or Keplar (GTX460+) card which requires a 128MB+64MB+16MB PCI space, so is less problematic for allocation. It will also net you faster x1.2Opt performance. 2. If you did want to get your HD6870 to work then you'd need to use a DSDT override to extend the PCI allocation out into 36-bit PCI space.

PE4L-PM060A : 60cm mHDMI cable PE4L-PM100A : 100cm mHDMI cable PE4L-PM200A : 200cm mHDMI cable If there is no bios option to disable your GT540M, then yes, you will need DIY eGPU Setup 1.1x to disable the GT540M. Only then will the NVidia driver engage pci-e compression netting you x1.2Opt performance.

PE4H-PM3N 2.4 can do x1.1Opt only. You need PE4L-PM060A 2.1b to do x1.2Opt with your system. Suggest change your order. The doubling of bandwidth x1.2Opt offers over x1.1Opt definitely worth it.

If you have an accessible mPCIe or expresscard slot, then yes. grub4dos mounts the disk image as a disk. It looks like there is some problem with writing to those images when used on a Macbook. Probably it's a Mac bios emulation issue that needs to be studied. You can use compact manually at the command line (see compact commandline) and then do 'call ifs shell' to mount your NTFS partitions and copy across the resultant pci.bat, boot to Windows then copy pci.bat as v:\config . I've done some partial research there finding that compact doesn't solve the error 12 seen on Macbooks just yet. Likely the I/O port isn't being allocated properly. This problem has been highlighted to the compact author.

Your TOLUD=AFA00000, which we round up to B0000000 (2.75GB). There is plenty of 32-bit PCI space to host a eGPU.

The primary video card must remain enabled for an eGPU to work. In your case, there is no Intel HD graphics instead you have a G310M. You could use your wifi mPCIe slot for an eGPU. Overall your system is not a good one to attach an eGPU since you can only do x1 1.0 (no x1.Opt or x2). Means there will be very visible stuttering. Suggest instead getting a Lenovo E420, Dell Vostro 3450 or HP Probook 4430s. All those have an iGPU, are pci-e 2.0 capable, have an expresscard slot and are usually available in the s/h market for a low price. They are all x1.2Opt capable, much faster than what your G460+eGPU could deliver.

You are running in x4 mode. When I did x2 testing I found a HP DV2000 did maintain the link width after a resume. A Dell Inspiron 1440 (x1E) would reset the port back to x1. So the system's bios is resetting the ports. It may be technically possible to set the port to x4 in Windows. The way to do that would be using devcon to disable the port, then use setpci and a tool like r-w evverything to do PCI and memory writes. You'd be duplicating those done within Setup 1.x to set x4 mode. Once done, you'd enable the port again using devcon.

You can hit F2 to disable disk writes, where it will run completely off ramdisk. I've had another MBA/MBP user report disk write issues with Setup 1.1x. Haven't had access to a MBA/MBP to investigate what's going on. You should disable your dGPU only if you have an iGPU listed. Reason being, Win7 will only allow the eGPU to work as long as the primary video card is active. My understanding is that the Radeon/NVidia equipped MBPs do not have the iGPU active in any OS other than MacOS. You can also use 'call iGPU [on off]' or 'call dGPU [on off]' at the command prompt to enable/disable the iGPU/dGPU followed by 'call grub4dos mbr' to chainload to the bootloader.

Chainloading works prior to you doing any other activities. Regardless of if you use 'chainload win7' or 'chainload 'mbr' it will show the Win7 bootup menu where you select Win7 or DIY eGPU Setup 1.x. Only workarounds there are: 1. Use a USB install of Setup 1.x so the Setup 1.x won't be a menuitem. 2. Decrease the default timeout of the bootmgr menuitem from 30s to 5s so you don't need to select anything from the menu. Do that with 'bcdedit /set {bootmgr} timeout 5' As for the reboot problem, below I give details of your startup.bat. I'd suggest edit out the 'call pci' and 'call speedup lbacache' to see if the system chainloads OK. Add them back in one at a time to confirm which is the problem. The probably culprit is 'call pci' in which case try a more simplified PCI compaction like 32-bitA iGPU+eGPU. The resultant pci.bat may can be editted to a more simplified form. call speedup lbacache - to speed up end-to-end-runtime processing of your startup.bat call iport g2 1 - force G2 link on my port (eGPU is port 1) call iport dGPU off - disable dGPU call vidwait 60 10de:1183 - confirms the NVidia GTX660Ti is on the pci-e bus. Prompts to attach it if not found. call vidinit -d 10de:1183 - sets the NVidia card to initialized state. call pci - runs the results of your last pci compaction call grub4dos win7 - chainload to win7

Your PE4H isn't Gen2 capable. You need a PE4L 2.1b for that. The display driver suddenly not working could be due to the card being factory overclocked beyond it's capability (yes, it happens!) or the power supply being incapable of providing enough power to drive it. I'd suggest use MSI AfterBurner to lower the clocks and see if it solves the problem. "Runs like crap" is correct. You have no x1.Opt capability due to no active iGPU so the GT425M will be faster. Time to look for a x1.2Opt capable notebook. Budget ones being a 14/15/17" Dell Vostro 3x50/3x60, 13/14/15/17" HP Probook 4x30s or 14/15" Lenovo E420/E520. Note: Ivy Bridge Probook 4x40s and Lenovo E430/E530 no longer have expresscard slots. Gen2 pci-e link speed gives a noticable improvement in bandwidth heavy games. Others that don't tax the pci-e link will show a small if any improvement over Gen1 speed. Adding 'call speedup lbacache' will reduce the end-to-end runtime of your startup.bat. Only optimizations after that are to evaluate if every line beneath that one is necessary in your startup.bat. A basic startup.bat will take < 1s to complete. Can test your startup.bat runtime within Setup 1.1x's menu-based interface using Apply config.Run startup.bat.

What happens is 'chainload Win7' searches for the first instance of /bootmgr on your partitions. In your case, it finds it on your Recovery partition first before your Win7 installation. So easiest solution is to use 'chainload MBR' instead which is how the system boots. Or, if you want to go the more painful route use Chainloader->grub4dos.Prompt to query your partitions to find where your Win7 resides on then use Chainloader->!Edit config to manually set the partition for 'chainload Win7' to use. NOTE: since your system lacks a iGPU, it's not going to get x1.Opt pci-e compression nor internal LCD mode. Not a good DIY eGPU candidate system.

I have sent you an email about this. If you get one more post up then I can PM you too. If you hit F3 after setting Gen2 link speed on your port it then it will be added to your startup.bat as 'call iport g2 [port number]'. The chainloading line will be the last item in your startup.bat and will appear either as 'call grub4dos mbr' (MBR) or 'call grub4dos win7' (bootmgr). Yes, you can manually edit your startup.bat within Win7. Just open v:\config\startup.bat. There is a bunch of comments there to help you along. When all finished you can boot via Setup 1.x and just select the "automated startup via startup.bat" to do everything for you. If there's a 'call speedup lbacache' at the very start of your startup.bat then it then it will add ~3secs to your normal Win7 bootup process to configure your ports/pcie configuration/etc. Easy.

Your mPCIe slots are port2 and 4. Meaning you can't run a x2 link, as they need [port1+2] or [port3+4]. Your port1 is the wired LAN device. Furthermore, while the Series-5 chipset has pci-e 2.0 specced ports, the spec only extends to power management. The link speed is still pci-e 1.x's 2.5GT/s. In addition, you don't have an iGPU so couldn't run x1.Opt. Overall, a poor eGPU candidate system. You'd be better off upgrading to a Sandy/Ivy Bridge notebook with an iGPU so could get x1.2Opt performance with a NVidia Fermo/Keplar card.

To get pci-e 2.0 speed use Setup 1.1x's PCIe ports->Link speed.G2. You'll know if Optimus pci-e compression is enabled if your 3dmark06 score is > 10k. If it's < 10k then pci-e compression isn't enabled. It should be enabled as your E420 has an primary bootup iGPU as the video device. You have pci-e 2.0 working OK. Per above response, you can then confirm if Optimus pci-e compression is working by checking the 3dmark06 result. We'd expect it to be < 10k if pci-e compression is disabled or > 10k if pci-e compression works. When you look at your port listing in Setup 1.1x, does it say for example "[email protected] [Nvidia card]@x1.1" or does it say "[email protected] [NVidia card]@x1.1". If it's the latter then your bios has downgraded the expresscard slot to Gen1 (pci-e 1.x) speed. The way to fix this is use Setup 1.1's PCIe ports->Link speed.G2 to set your expresscard slot to Gen2 (pci-e 2.0). You G74SX hasn't got an iGPU you should not be disabling the dGPU as it's the only GPU in the system so the system. Disabling it would result in you booting up VGA mode only. Please remove that step and try again.

Most accessible would be a Sonnet Echo Express SE, hacked to allow external ATX power. Here's the budget options that I've found: BPlus TH05 (0W) (x2 2.0) for $180 OWC Helios (0W) (x4 2.0) for $380 . Sonnet Echo Express SE (60W) (x4 2.0) for $400

Not clear why you are seeing what you are seeing. I've seen reports of a X230 + latest bios working with a Fermi/Keplar. A GTS250 is an older card which will likely use a different pci-e allocation to these newer cards. You suggested troubleshooting steps are exactly what I'd try to: testing a NVidia Fermi or using Setup 1.1x. XP is only has DX9 capable. DX10/DX11 came with Vista/Win7, the latter with recent AMD/NVidia cards. Meaning the only DX9 benchmarks we have on the first page is RE5-1280x800-var and 3dmark06.

Error43 is tricky as it could be hardware problem or pci-e configuration issue. First thing I'd do is try the video card in a desktop system to confirm it's all working well. Then use a generous-specced ATX PSU to power the eGPU (no 5V/12V issues). If that all passes then can try a Video cards->PCI space.!Save dump if using the video card on a system and it works well. Then move the saved file in config to your system and use Video cards->PCI space.Load dump to see if that solves it. Also you have Video cards->!Show state to see if ATiFlash reports any issues with the video card. As mentioned, mPCIe implementations are tricker than expresscard so you may need to play with various permutations to nail it. Can't help with repairing the video cards. What I can suggest however is double-check your PE4L and XBOX360 PSU wiring using a digital multimeter. First thing I'd do is confirm the floppy molex output plug from the xbox360 PSU that goes into the PE4L has the right voltages across it. Ie: 12V, GND and 5V. Then do a continunity test between the the 12V and GND points from the pci-e plug and floppy molex so are using the same reference. If all checks out then one possibility remains, something I've seen before. Turns out I had a PE4L 2.1a whose internal wiring had somehow shorted out causing the eGPU to intermittently appear/disappear not to mention resetting my systemboard bios settings. I had the impression PE4L 2.1b had solved that problem by generous internal glueing down of the cable strands on the EC2C end but then again you are using a PE4L-PM3N 2.1b so may have endured more bending to fit it into the mPCIe slot. Worth investigating, especially if the XBOX360 PSU voltages all check out above.