Tech Inferno Fan

The 2 TB2 ports are running off the same bus, connected at x4 2.0 (16Gbps). Ufortunately this means their combined throughput is limited to 16Gbps.

The HWInfo output may not be reliable. The best way to check is put the eGPU under load to take the link out of power management where it runs at Gen1 speed. eg: go to NVidia Control Panel -> Adjust image so the NVidia logo spins. Simultaneously run GPU-Z and inspect the "Bus Interface" field. It will say x1 2.0 (Gen2) if the port has been correctly switched to Gen2. It will say x1 1.1 (Gen1) if still running at the lower speed.

Good find there. Can use "DDU" software to disable Win10's automatic driver installation. Then you can install and keep your linked older 341.11 driver.

Yes. It has a 24-pin connector which you slot the 20 pin connector into the keyed holes.

Attach an external LCD to your GTX970, set your desktop to be on your external LCD and start your game on there. It will use the eGPU then.

It's explained already in the title. @deathwingbg used the 4540s' wifi mPCIe slot for the eGPU implementation. If you need concurrent wifi with eGPU then consider getting a USB wifi dongle.

Suggest get better quality PE4C V3.0 instead of the EXP GDC Beast, which numerous DIY eGPU users have reported quality problems with with Gen2 signalling and instability.

Yes, since the drivers are completely separate.

Click the 'supported products' tab when viewing the GT330M driver. The laptopvideotogo website did some mods to incorporate mobile and desktop drivers. Worth having a look. You might find an older GTX5xx or GTX6xx can be paired with a GT330M using a unified driver.

This is because your GT330M + GTX750Ti has no unified driver for both devices. Means you choose a driver for one or the other with whichever being excluded being the one that has an error 43 against it. The most recent GT330M is a 'legacy' 341.92: http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/94790/en-us

Try the following startup.bat instead. Here I've commented out the vidinit and I/O port allocation and changed your port to Gen1 link speed. Ensure you change the 'insert_eGPU_port_here' text with your eGPU hosting port number shown in the STATUS window. If still problematic then pls email me . call speedup lbacache call iport dGPU off call vidwait 60 if NOT '%eGPU%'=='' goto found_eGPU call wait_e 60 "No eGPU detected" goto end :found_eGPU :: call vidinit -d %eGPU% call iport gen1 insert_eGPU_port_here call pci :: setpci -s 4:0.0 BASE_ADDRESS_5=2001 :: setpci -s 0:1c.2 1c.b=20 1d.b=20 :end call chainload mbr

Bill, I notice two related things: 1. You are not disabling your NVidia dGPU in your startup.bat. Do this by going to Setup 1.30 -> Video cards->dGPU [off] then hit F3. 2. You may have NVidia mobile/Quadro + desktop/Geoforce drivers installed. This usually results in one of them not functioning properly. Proceed to remove ALL NVidia drivers, use "DDU" to clear the registry of NVidia entries and disable auto driver install, then load the latest NVidia desktop driver for your eGPU.

There is also some variation in video cards as well as the mPCIe/expresscard implementation on some notebooks. They can all add mismatching of impedance that adds reflections (noise). One other thing that was mentioned by a user as causing Gen2 failure - disable PCIe link power management in your power profile. That's the default against the 'high performance' profile. The lack of clock info suggests to me an initialization problem. Rather than hotplugging, use the delay switches on the eGPU adapter to bypass BIOS detection AND ensure the PSU is on before the eGPU. Adapters like the EXP GDC or PE4C V3.0 try to power on only after detecting a 3.3V signal at the mPCIe/EC slot, causing a race condition. Better to bypass that by enabling it on. For ATX PSUs jumper the green and black wire on the ATX connector to do that.

Answered a few posts up: https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/1636-diy-egpu-experiences-version-20/&do=findComment&comment=134140

You need a proper Gen2 capable eGPU adapter like a PE4C V3.0 or PE4L 2.1b, both with soldered cables. EXP GDC fails Gen2, hence your BSOD and poweroff.

A+++ for precision, ingenuity and a great looking and functioning solution. Loving the mesh and the ingenious Dell DA-2 power port location.

The future? There will be Oculink and TB4/TB5. FYI: HP DV6/7 gaming notebooks connect their dGPUs at x4 3.0 link speed. The Alienware graphics amplifier that attaches to their gaming series notebooks too connects their eGPU at x4 3.0. If it's good enough for them . . . x4 3.0 is 25% the bandwidth of x16 3.0. If a game were to require the full x16 3.0 bandwidth then yes, performance would suffer. Thankfully none as yet do as can be seen at the following comparison. Use the x8 2.0 results as a marker for TB3 [x8 2.0 is same bandwidth as x4 3.0] http://postimg.org/image/lo5wkykzp/full/

Nice work. Out of curiousity, can you enable the PCI Express Power Management to enabled again and then set your Windows power profile to "High Performance"? That sets an option "PCI Express -> Link state power management" to disabled, which should effectively achieve the same result. Pls test if you have a chance and advise.

Pls work through https://forum.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/8947-mpcie-egpu-troubleshooting-steps/ including jumpering the PSU to be always on and also test isolating pin 22 of the mPCIe adapter to bypass the BIOS detection black screen on boot.

Yes, try "Generation 1" and confirm it's actually switching to Gen1 by watching the output of GPU-Z while the eGPU is under load. I say that because there have been a few Lenovo BIOS that have no switched properly to Gen1 requiring Setup 1.30 to do it properly. Load the GPU by going to the NVidia control panel -> Adjust image where the NVidia logo starts spinning. If GPU-Z reports x1 1.1 that's Gen1. If it reports x1 2.0 that's Gen2.

Other than overheating, the issue may be due to running the eGPU at Gen2 PCIe speed. EXP GDC has been found to glitch when doing that, whereas PE4C V3.0 (with it's soldered cable) does not. So can test for this as being the problem by downgrading your expresscard slot to Gen1 using either a BIOS option or Setup 1.30 and test further.

Per https://forum.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/8747-mpcie-egpu-troubleshooting-steps/#post149873 did you try to jumper the PSU to be always on rather than the EXP GDC powering it on upon detecting 3.3V? It's possible to jumper the Dell DA-2 (as explained in the Dell DA-2 thread) but easier with an ATX PSU if you have one handy. Even if just for testing purposes.

@Flinch, thank you for sharing your implementation. You are one of the first to use a 120W AC adapter to power a GTX750Ti. Something that has been discussed but not practically implemented. So then your details are quite important. Would you mind taking photos of all your gear and say uploading them to http://imgur.com as a album? The album can be embedded on here for easy perusal. If you have a chance, would you mind running 3dmark11 and 3dmark13 as well and linking the results? That enabling me to add you to the appropriate spot on the leaderboard.

Have always done. Done via the AKiTiO DC jack barrel port. Only time this has been avoided is by when a PCIe riser extension with 12V input was plugged into the AKiTiO PCIe slot. This is NOT recommended as it leads to Gen2 signal degradation that has resulted in an unstable implementation.

Pls work through https://forum.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/8747-mpcie-egpu-troubleshooting-steps/