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The pics will help solve the mystery of the PE4C 1.2

While you may not be able to get the eGPU to work, it should at least appear as a device in device manager. If it doesn't appear in device manager then for whatever reason the eGPU isn't appearing on the PCIe bus. A faulty expresscard slot may be one reason. Worth also hotplugging the powered eGPU to see if you get detection as well as sleep, hotplug eGPU, resume.

Hey sorry for the late response but life pulled me away from my eGpu project for a while. I hope your still around and willing to help, and sorry if you feel I left you hangin. Last we left off I had gotten the eGpu with the PE4C 1.2 setup to work with a toshiba laptop, but was unable to get anything whatsoever on my 2008 macbook pro. I was able to fiddle with it for a short time tonight and I've got an update:

I've been able to get the macbook pro to detect the card and install the drivers by using msconfig to check the "base video" option under Boot options Tab. Now the sytem detects both my dedicated gpu (8600m GT) AND the eGPU (gtx 260) but under device manager properties it says: "This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use...).

I've included some pics of the progress I've made tonight:

ps:

I still have not gotten around to taking off the plate on the PE4C to show you the underside but promise I'll get to that within the next couple nights. Any suggestions as to how I can get this card the resources it needs? So far I think i've got the oldest Macbook pro Egpu setup attempt here with my 2008 MBP 15".

Again thanks for your help so far and I hope your still around! It would be nice if we could get this working on a pre-unibody macbook pro!

I have nothing from BPlus explaining what that second connector is. So yes, wouldn't mind you taking photos with the bottom plate off which may give some silkscreen board text as clues.

As for your Macbook situation, I'd anticipate that even MacOSX would pick up the video card if it all was working correctly. As mentioned, Windows is a bit easier (for me) to troubleshoot with. You could even download and install Linux onto a USB stick, boot it up and type 'lspci -tv -n' and look for a NVidia devices (10DE:xxxx).

We do have examples of older core2duo Macbook eGPU implementations at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2109-diy-egpu-experiences-%5Bversion-2-0%5D.html#macbook so they can host an eGPU.

I will take the bottom plate off and post those pics later today after work. Could you recommend any sources for a bootable copy of linux? I have the usb flash drive and would do that. As far as my macbook goes, I have the hard drive partitioned and have both windows and mac osx installations and so far still haven't gotten it to work in either OS.

Thanks for the pic. Still not clear what that second connector does, though logic would suggest it's likely to support a x2 link.

I've emailed BPlus requesting more info. In the meantime, any chance you could remove the bottom legged plate and take photos of the rear of the circuitboard? It may have some silkscreened writing to indicate what the connectors are for.

Thanks!

Hello again!

First of all, thank you so much for the help so far and even emailing Bplus for more info!

Second of all, I've got an update for you:

Before you had replied I decided to take another windows laptop I had laying around (Toshiba Satellite A500, 2gb ram, basic intel integrated graphics, windows 7 pro 64bit, core i5) and hook up the PE4C to it. I still got nothing at first. Then your reply came in requesting to see the close up and long story short, after looking at some pics online I noticed that all of the pics showed the cable hooked up to the other connector. I shut everything down, switched to the other connector, turned the delay switch on to the middle setting (9.8 sec) and voila! it worked first boot! My external display fired up just in time for me to see the "successfully installed nvidia geforce gtx 260". I was able to play world of warcraft at a smooth 60fps. I've attached some screen shots of it working. (does this mean that one slot is 2x and the other is for 1x cards or something?)

I've since re-connected my macbook pro back up to the PE4C in hopes that it would now work with my windows bootcamp install just as easily but unfortunately it did not work. I'm not sure whether its the logic boards "bios" preventing it or perhaps it's the fact that even with the maximum delay timer set on the PE4C, the card fires up before windows starts to load. I noticed with the Toshiba that using the middle delay setting on the PE4C created perfect timing. I hit the power button, the lights on the PE4C came on red/green, it would pass post, windows would start to load, then the card would fire up and the lights would go from red/green to all green.

Could it be that apple didn't include a driver for the express card 34 after a certain point and therefore it's not even activated in my windows bootcamp installation? I have a feeling if i had leopard or something and bootcamped windows xp or vista this might be working. I'm not sure though, any suggestions? Anyway, below are the pics of the setup working on the Toshiba I had kickin around:

It also let me use both displays but I chose to turn off the laptops internal display and have only the external monitor on. PS: still want me to remove the bottom plate and snap pics of the underside of the PE4C v1.2? (I forgot to mention at the start of the thread that this is the PE4C v1.2 i'm working with here)

A windows installation would provide an easier platform to diagnose if the video card is detected and if there are errors. Consider too using Setup 1.30 for diagnosis purposes: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2123-diy-egpu-setup-1-30-a.html

As an aside, would you mind taking close up photos of the PE4C-EC3C board near where the EC cable connects to see if there is another connector near/next to it? I had a user claim there were two inputs; thereby making it x2 capable but with no schematics and no detailed pictures I was never able to verify the claims. Your pic will also show us the power arrangements possible with that board.

I have attached a close up picture and yes, there are two connectors. The other is right next to where I currently have it plugged in. Does which one I use matter? Also, I have no problem working within windows for this as I use my windows partition for gaming and the osx partition for everything else.

Hello everyone! Below is a pic of my attempted eGPU setup: I'm using a 15" macbook pro from 2008 (a1260), 4GB ram, 2.66ghz core 2 duo, on board 512MB Geforce 8600m GT. I'm attempting to use the Bplus PE4C-EC3C to use a PNY Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 XLR8 performance edition through my express card 34 slot. I'm using a cooler master 600w power supply. To the right of the pic is a 24" 1080P monitor hooked up to the eGPU via DVI.

I'm running both mac OS X Yosemite and Windows 7 Professional 64 bit (Bootcamped) and have had no luck so far getting this to work in either OS, but I know there's more to this than I'm aware of so I've joined the forums here looking for some help and/or education! From a connectivity stand point everything seems to be connected fine. I get the green light on the PE4C and on the express card adapter plugged into my laptop, but neither OS recognizes that there is anything plugged in. Also, the external GPU doesn't turn on when I hit the power button on my laptop like I've seen with other setups, i've had to turn it on manually each time. I've tried switching the delay switch to all 3 settings on the PE4C, and have also tried changing the power switch settings on the PE4C to "PWR", "AUTO", and "ON".

Is the fact that I'm trying to do this on an apple logic board make things different from some of the windows laptops i've seen? I've seen windows laptop setups which were practically plug and play. Should I verify somehow that OS X Yosemite and/or windows 7 are even recognizing the express card 34 slot and that I have functioning drivers? (i was thinking about going to get another express card 34 device just to see if the slot itself is being recognized by the system)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone!