Zak9909

Hi Konpei-island. What helped me was: Boot into DIY Setup Go to Chainload menu, select 'Prompt' to get the grub prompt (It was important for me to do it from DIY Setup, because my partition numbers changed between actual boot and getting into Setup 1.x - you can see why at the bottom of menu.lst) Share the results of the following three commands: ls (hd[tab] find /Windows find /bootmgr I needed to comment out the if statements in menu.win, and then used: find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /Windows chainloader (whichever partition the "find /bootmgr" command returned)/bootmgr

At last, it works (again?). The sequence I'm following now: Initialising the eGPU, Compacting PCI with 32-bitA method (iGPU and eGPU - not "All": that breaks the mSATA drive) Initialising the eGPU again (mostly for superstition - I haven't done proper checks to see whether it's the first, second, or both initialisations that are needed - just that at least one seems to be) Chainloading with the menu.win above (probably not required for most. It's like that to cope with the /bootmgr partition being on a different disk from the Windows partition) All is good. I had some BSODs until I ditched the $10 eBay special 80W PSU. Now with the PSU from my old desktop powering things it's rock solid. Last thing I need to do is read up on automating all that through startup.bat. Thanks again Tech Inferno Fan for your efforts.

Hi Tech Inferno Fan, good question. The answer was no, I couldn't, but with an edited menu.win I can Chainload now. Details are below. I'm still unable to do a PCI compression and then chainload (after compression, grub can only see hd0 and rd and i get a lot of Disk Read errors). After booting into DIY Setup and choosing Chainloader->Prompt: (hd1, 0) /bootmgr STORAGE, Partition 0 (System partition) -- (On the 2.5" SATA disk) (hd1, 1) /z - E: (Storage) -- (On the 2.5" SATA disk) (hd2, 0) /Windows - C: -- (On the mSATA mPCIe disk, PCI device #1 "Ricoh", I think) The menu.win file I'm using: I commented out the if statements in the menu.win file, and used the following lines (because the Windows drive is on a separate disk to /bootmgr) find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /Windows chainloader (hd1,0)/bootmgr boot For completeness, and people googling similar messages, my results which led up to that change are recorded in the Spoiler below: Chainload from MBR (Setup 1.1x boot menu item 4, or Chainload mbr within DIY Setup 1.10b5) -> Generates error message: "Windows Boot Manager" blah "Status: 0xc000000e" "Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible" Chainload win7 -> As for Chainload from MBR Chainload xp -> Drops me at Grup prompt: ls ([tab] reveals hd0 and rd hd0 is my storage drive - The same one listed above as hd1 (so it has the /bootmgr and Storage partitions on it) I guess rd is a ramdisk? Entering quit gives me the message: ERROR! Chainloading failed. Please 'edit \config\menu.mbr', with settings suitable for your system. (etc) Press any key to continue . . . Pressing a key gets: Bad command or filename - "more". Load error: no DPMI - Get csdpmi*b.zip Googling the last message gets a lot of hits for grub/DPMI errors, which seem to revolve around a need to install a DPMI thing - which I suspect is not my actual problem. Pressing another key returns me to Setup 1.10b5 and the grub prompt has all the original drive mappings (E: as hd1, C: as hd2) Chainload linux -> Generates message: Bad command or filename - "gawk". Bad command or filename - "more". Load error: no DPMI - Get csdpmi*b.zip Pressing another key returns me to Setup 1.10b5 and the grub prompt has all the original drive mappings (E: as hd1, C: as hd2) Chainload uefi -> Generates a screen (where the *'s are actually musical note characters): ABCE * * * * * * * * WELCOME TO EFI WORLD!* Googling got me nowhere on that one. I've tried editing the user editable section of menu.win: Original: find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /bootmgr chainloader /bootmgr #OR chainload bootmgr off a specific partition, eg:hd0,1 #chainloader (hd0,1)/bootmgr First attempt (comment out chainloader /bootmgr line and select partition (hd1,0): find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /bootmgr #chainloader /bootmgr #OR chainload bootmgr off a specific partition, eg:hd0,1 chainloader (hd1,0)/bootmgr Got me this screen: Windows Boot Manager Windows failed to start. A recent hardware ....etc File: \Boot\BCD Status: 0xc0000001 Info: An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data. Second attempt (comment out find --set-root line): #find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /bootmgr #chainloader /bootmgr #OR chainload bootmgr off a specific partition, eg:hd0,1 chainloader (hd1,0)/bootmgr Gave me the above error. Third attempt: find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /bootmgr chainloader /bootmgr #OR chainload bootmgr off a specific partition, eg:hd0,1 chainloader (hd0,0)/bootmgr Gave me the Windows Boot manager menu, the selecting Windows gave me the message: "Windows Boot Manager" blah "Status: 0xc000000e" "Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible" Hi samiam, it does look like the mSATA SSD disk doesn't help. Hopefully one of us will get things working well enough that the other can just copy their setup.

Further update: So I think I've narrowed it down some more. My C:\ is on an mPCIe mSATA drive. I think that when I do a PCI compaction, the mSATA drive is getting clobbered and I'm losing access to it. Setup 1.10b5 shows me three PCIe devices: 1) Ricoh, 2) Intel, and 3) Nvidia. The Ricoh is almost certainly the mSATA drive. How can I preserve it's PCI address (or whatever I need to preserve) when doing compaction?

Update: This might be worth a separate thread? I think I either need help with grub to make Setup 1.10b5 work for me, or some guidance to prevent the Code 12 error before boot? I had to re-install Windows 7 for an unrelated reason, and now I can't for the life of me get the eGPU working again. The hardware is identical to the previous setup. If I boot without the eGPU plugged in, TOLUD is 0xDFA00000 and nothing works. If I boot with it plugged in, TOLUD is 0xCFA00000 but I still get a Code 12 error. I have tried the trick where I disable the Quadro 2000, sleep the machine, power cycle the eGPU and wake the machine. If I do that, the Code 12 goes away and Device Manager reports the Quadro 2000 as working correctly, but: the fan doesn't slow; NVidia Control Panel reports that I'm not using a display attached to an NVidia card, NView doesn't load, and Window display manager only shows the Intel 4000 HD. I'm trying to use Setup 1.10b5 to do PCI compaction but I think my partition table is too messed up for grub to follow. According to Windows Disk Management: Disk 0 - first partition: 100MB Unallocated -- This was my System Reserved partition, but it got changed after restoring from a System image. I don't know why. Disk 0 - second partition: (C: ) 238.38 GB NTFS -- this is my Windows partition Disk 1 - first partition: SYSTEM RESERVED - 100MB NTFS -- This is my new System Reserved partition. Disk 1 - second partition: 58.0 GB Unallocated -- Keeping this empty for linux later. Disk 1 - third partition: STORAGE (E: ) - 407 GB NTFS -- A boring storage partition. I installed Setup 1.10b5 and the latest update. On rebooting, selecting DIY Setup from the menu would always fail with an error "Operating System Not Found". Changing the following line in menu.lst root (hd0) -- changed to -- root (hd0,0) Allowed me to boot into setup 1.10b5. From there, though, I'm unable to Chainload into Windows or edit or use startup.bat. If I attempt (whether or not I've successfully done a PCI Compaction) to edit or boot using startup.bat I get a blank screen with the following message: Error reading from drive C: DOS area: sector not found (A)bort, (I)gnore, ®etry, (F)ail? No matter whether I choose abort, ignore, retry, or fail, I just get a repeat of the message. Only way out is to Ctrl+Alt+Del reboot. If I do a PCI compaction and then select Chainload MBR, I get dumped at a Grub prompt. ls gives "Error 21: Selected disk does not exist". find /bin, find /Windows, and find /storage (files I know exist on the Setup disk image, C:, and E: respectively) all give "Error 15: File not found". ls (hd[tab] gives me nothing. quit gives: ERROR! Chainloading failed. Please 'edit \config\menu.mbr', with settings suitable for your system. and then I get stuck in Error Reading... Abort, Ignore, Retry, Fail hell again. So, any ideas? I really don't know where to go from here. Googling the error messages has sent me to some Linux pages which haven't helped yet.

Hey Tech Inferno Fan, thanks for the quick reply. Upsettingly, removing 8GB of RAM did the trick perfectly. Now I'm getting super-smooth performance from the whole system and it doesn't feel like my mouse is in a bucket of honey. I want the extra RAM in there because I'm doing some CAD work on fairly big files, and hit the 8GB limit sometimes. Is Setup 1.x going to let me use the whole lot somehow? I'll admit I have no idea how to drive that program. GPU-Z still flips between "PCI-E 2.0 x16 @ x1 2.0" and "PCI-E 1.1 x16 @ x1 1.1" and back again every minute or two. Any idea why? Anyway, the upshot is that if you're happy with 8GB RAM or less, the X230T is really easy to use an eGPU with. Thanks again, -Zak

Hi all, I've just put together a new eGPU setup and wanted to share my setup in case it helps anyone. I've only seen Redletter on here so far with an X230T and thought I'd add another to the record. And from the troubleshooting thread: Problem description 1. What's the problem? Exceptionally slow computer performance when eGPU's plugged in. 2. Have you consulted the Troubleshooting FAQ to resolve the issue? Yes. See below for things I've tried. 3. Have you consulted the Pre-Purchase FAQ --> Yes. Before I purchased, too. Looks ok to me. Lenovo X230T tablet: i7-3520M 16GB RAM Win 7 x64 - freshly installed from Win7 disc (not system restore) two days ago. Intel HD4000 iGPU BIOS ver 1.11 (24/08/2012) PCI-E 2.0 Expresscard slot Dynamic TOLUD: 0xDFA00000 or 0xCFA00000 (I need to double-check the lower value. It's high if nothing plugged into ExpressCard slot when booting from cold. It's low if the eGPU is plugged in and on when booting.) Nvidia Quadro 2000: Driver: 306.79-quadro-tesla-win8-win7-winvista-64bit-international-whql Hardware ID: NVIDIA_DEV.0DD8 Power Consumption: 62W Core: GF106GL eGPU adaptor: PE4L-EC060A (2.1b) PSU: Trying both a cheap'n'nasty eBay 100W 12VDC power supply and my old ATX PSU. Not too worried, given the 62W requirement of the Quadro. External Monitor: Dell U2711 What I've done to get where I am: Pre-setup: Check X230 BIOS > Power > ExpressCard: Automatic (not Generation 1 - from a post by an X220 owner, I haven't checked) On PE4L, set SW1 to 1-2 and SW2 to 2-3 Plug external monitor into eGPU First installation: Power on eGPU Plug ExpressCard into X230T Power on X230T Boot into Windows Let Windows automagically install basic drivers for the eGPU and four Audio devices Choose "Restart Later" when prompted to restart after installation Install current Quadro desktop drivers Reboot From everything OFF: Power on eGPU Plug ExpressCard into X230T Power on X230T Boot into Windows Appreciate video output on external monitor being rendered by eGPU. What's good: The display works NVidia Control Panel works and lets me choose preferred GPU What's no good: Booting with the eGPU is slooooow. Normal boot shows the "Starting Windows" screen for about 2 seconds after the 4 dots of infinite wisdom have resolved into the flag. When the eGPU is plugged in it takes 40-60 seconds. Once booted and logged in, Windows is slooooooooooowwwww: - The mouse lags everything by 0.5 to 4 seconds. - Things (like Notepad) take minutes to start. - The CPU usage is all over the place, but generally high. - WmiPrvSE.exe particularly takes up a lot of RAM, which I know can have problems with some network cards. Stopping the process doesn't help. - Disabling the Intel HD4000 helped a tiny bit. Enough to notice, but not enough to make a difference.GPU-Z is funny. When I start it, it says the eGPU PCI connection is PCI-E 1.0 16x 1.1 . If I change the selection in GPU-Z to the Intel HD and back again to the NVidia it suddenly changes to PCI-E 2.0 16x 1.2. Moving windows and switching programs has it flipping between the two all over the place. Which has me thoroughly confused. Other things I've messed with which didn't help or made things worse before I figured out the dynamic TOLUD thing: Setup 1.X: I tried that at about 2am and - admittedly I hadn't read any of the documentation, which was lazy and stupid of me - couldn't make heads nor tails of it. It's gone since I re-installed Windows. I'm still glad I bought it, since I believe the money went to the people who put all the time in that's got eGPUs working as they have. So it's money well spent. Messing with DSDT. Since I didn't realise about the Dynamic TOLUD playing with this was a bad idea. I ended up getting BSODs every time I got to the 4 dots. It's WHY I re-installed Windows. Using the Verde drivers for a GeForce card with a modified nvam.inf (modified following kizwan's from DIY eGPU experiences - Page 679). Failed to install. Using the Quadro for notebook drivers with a modified nvbl.inf (there's a really good chance I'm just no good at modifying the .inf files). In short: The eGPU setup works well enough to install the drivers and drive a display. It's unuseable because it makes the computer slower than you would believe. If anyone has any ideas, let me know? Otherwise, I hope this is enough to encourage other X230 owners that it's possible. Lastly, huge thanks to to everyone involved for posting all your info and results, but most especially Tech Inferno Fan and kizwan.