cdahmedeh

I've had a similar issue to you, not sure how to deal with it. I got a PE4C 2.1 and a GTX 660. I successfully used DIY eGPU setup to perform PCI compaction and get the required 256MB of PCI address space, and installed the drivers. The first time, the eGPU worked after a few restarts and fiddling around, and then I plugged in a second monitor, and the eGPU shut down. Now, the eGPU will never start, but it is still detected by DIY eGPU setup. The drivers are able to detect the card, and I don't get the Error 12 in Device Manager, it even says "the driver is working normally" but nothing shows up, not even after trying to redetect displays. I noticed that sometimes, when trying to install the driver through the NVidia installer, the installer just hangs, it looks like the driver is never able to start. Same issue after cleaning up with DDU, and even a clean install of Windows. I suspect the cable is too long and causing these issues. I'll ask BPlus support for a shorter cable.

Hello everyone, I'm considering upgrading my graphics solution on my Lenovo ThinkPad T430 (IGP+GPU with Optimus) laptop because I want some of my games to run smoother. My laptop usually sits in the docking station when playing, so I don't mind having to use external displays. I sometimes game when undocked, but I can run at lower resolution. Ideally, I would like to be able to use an eGPU when connected to a large screen, and would like to keep my dGPU functional when undocked for the casual game. Also, I don't want to restart my PC to switch between GPUs. I'm not sure where to start, I read several guides pinned in this forum section, and this is what I understand so far: I must first purchase an adapter that will allow me to connect an eGPU to my laptop. I want to have a Plug and Play solution, so I must use either Thunderbolt or ExpressCard. I have a Intel Series-7 Chipset, but no Thunderbolt port. I can't use the Optimus x1.Opt solution because the ports connected on the docking station are hard-wired to the dGPU and bypass the iGPU completely. The exceptions are the main LVDS display and the VGA port, which are unused when docked. That means the best link speed I can get is PCIe 2.0 x1 using the EC slot. Next, I must pick the adapter that I would like to use. It would be nice for an enclosure to be included, it would look cleaner and I'm not good at building cases. A USB slot would be great so I can plug in a keyboard/mouse and use it as an alternative docking solution. The PE4H v2.4 is one solution. I must also purchase an ATX power supply, an ATX power switch, a PCIe ribbon cable, a PCIe PSU cable and finally the ExpressCard connector. The PE4H v3.2 looks interesting because it optionally comes with an enclosure, an AC Adapter and ExpressCard connections. However, I'm not sure if it is compatible. Both have a USB 2.0 connector that I can use to connect a keyboard and mouse for docking setup. [*]I should pick a graphics card. I'm not sure what to pick but I know I must take the following into consideration. Should be an Nvidia Card because my dGPU is Nvidia, and I would like to use it. Having AMD and Nvidia drivers on the same machine probably cause issues. Some of my games are old and make use of DirectX 9. The GTX 660 and GTX 750 look like good candidate cards to me. [*]Next step is dealing with drivers. I have no idea what to do here, but my guess that I'll have trouble with the following: My dGPU requires an Quadro NVS driver while the eGPU will require a GeForce driver. I would like to keep my Optimus setup working when the eGPU is unplugged. [*]In an ideal world, I should be able to plug my eGPU in and it would work right away but: I have more than 3GB of RAM, so I might need to use the DSDT Override fix because of a potential error related to running out of address space for PCIe resource allocation. I don't need to use the eGPU Setup v1.x program because I can't enable faster link speeds (x2, x4, etc.) and because I want to keep my dGPU working. Is there anything else I need to take into consideration? Did I miss any other options or got some wrong? And does anyone else have a similar setup working? In Summary: I don't mind using external displays for the eGPU. I want to keep the dGPU when the eGPU is unplugged. I don't want to restart the computer to switch between configurations. I want to keep Optimus enabled to save power when unplugged. I have an ExpressCard slot, but no Thunderbolt port. My dGPU and eGPU will require different drivers even if they are both Nvidia. (Quadro NVS vs GeForce) I have 16GB of RAM. My laptop specifications: CPU: Intel Core i5-3380m @ 2.90 GHz RAM: 16GB DDR3 in Dual-Channel Configuration. iGPU: Intel HD 4000 dGPU: Nvidia NVS 5400M via Optimus. Thanks and good day!

EDIT/REMOVED: Wrong forum topic.