Hello people, I wanted to share my successful egpu implementation (please read it to the end, as it appeared to be not so successful in the end) . Also I will write some comments to help for those people who are having difficulties to understand what is needed and why, as I had the same difficulties. Hardware I use/have: - Laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad T420 with i5-2520M CPU, 4 GB of RAM, and Internal Intel HD3000 graphics. - Graphics card: Nvidia Geforce GTX480 - PSU - 500 W (Be quiet! Straight Power E9-500W) egpu set: PE4L V2.1b (the main card where graphics card is plugged) ExpressCard (actually arrives in one piece connected with PE4L and EC2C cable) EC2C +60cm Flat HDMI (meaning the cable between PE4L and ExpressCard) SWEX GEN.2 (To fake the PSU) All of this was bought in ebay from Taiwan. It took me 2 or 3 days to arrive in the europe. Connecting all the stuff: My PSU already had 8 pin and 6 pin connectors, so I plugged them both to the GTX480 Floppy disc power connector plugged to the PE4L card SW settings on PE4L are these: SW1 - 2-3, SW2 - 1. Also what I was struggling to understand was why JP1 is needed on SWEX adapter and why J1 is needed on PE4L. The answer is - you can connect those both using the 2 pin power cable which arrives together with all the other stuff with PE4L. If you do so, your PE4L will not need turning the power on/of on your PSU - it will automaticlally turn on once ExpressCard is plugged in your laptop. Software preparation: BIOS I have updated to the newest currently available version 1.46 Downloaded the newest NVIDIA drivers for my GTX480 from nvidia.com. Starting all it up: While I had all package ready, I was having the difficulties the card to be recognized. I was trying to plug the Express card while computer was already on, was trying to plug the ExpressCard while laptop was on sleep/hibernate modes, also I was trying to shut down the computer and plug the ExpressCard and turn the computer on. But all of these didn't work. But the later on for some reason it started to work after the steps below: 1) BIOS sttings: in Config> power - PCI Express Power management - Disabled - Express Card Speed - Automatic In Security>I/O Port access -ExpressCard slot - Enabled 2) Make sure your PSU is plugged into the GTX480 power pins and Floppy disc power connector plugged to the PE4L card 3) Shut down the laptop 4) Plug the Express card in the laptop. You should see Leds on your PE4L giving a red color on LED D4, orange color on LED D3 and green color on LED D1 5) Turn on the PSU (not the laptop, but the PSU which is connected to your PE4L) - video card fans start spinning. 6) Wait a few seconds (It might be unnecessary, but It didn't work for me while I was doing everything faster. I assume video card needs few seconds to be ready). 7) Turn on your laptop. LED D4 should turn of the red light. 8) Once computer starts, it should recognize your graphics card. Windows are installing some Nvidia audio and graphics card drivers and ask to restart the computer. I didn't restart. 9) Install the NVIDia drivers and restart the computer. And it works!!! No error 12, TOLUD or other errors (I've read somewhere, that T420 has no issues with newest BIOS versions), not setup 1.x needed. Just as mentioned - some difficulties while trying the card to be recognized on the beginning and all the rest was as a standard plug and play device installation. It shows x1 2 gen, so it seems installation is succesfull and ready for the full performance. I have tested it with my f1 2013 and it floats with the highes possible graphics settings. It is so amazing, as without this egpu setup I only could run f1 2013 with the lowest settings which made the game look like the oldschool DOS based game, and still it was not playable if I was playing more than one car in the track!!! UPDATE - After 3 days of good and intensive gaming, my T420 has crashed!!! It was so dead, that even bios couldn't be loaded, it was just giving 1-3-3-1 beeps. I'm only glad that warranty was still valid and it was repaired for free. But now I'm afraid to use this egpu set up... Also I think it is important to mention, that laptop didn't crash while it was on. I stopped gaming, removed the card by "safely remove hardware" and made a shut down for the laptop. Later on I decided to clarify myself whether the egpu setup needs to be powered on while ExpressCard is already plugged into the laptop or not, as I was not sure which of these options was making BIOS to recognize my egpu. So I tried it first to plugin egpu already powered on and once I saw that it was not recognized (my Viedo card is making some strange high frequency sound until it is recognized by BIOS), I turned the egpu and laptop off. And then I plugged the egpu into the ExpressCard slot, powered the egpu, and once I turned on the laptop I found it making this 1-3-3-1 beep, which meant death. Tech Inferno Fan - could you put your comment what could cause my laptops motherboard to crash? Could it be related to the voltage differences. If yes - is there a chance to avoid/control it? Could it be something related to the fact, that I turn my PE4L only when ExpressCard is already plugged into my laptop? If someone needs some additional information, please let me know, I will update this post. Cheers!!!
