High_Voltage

Awesome! Glad to hear everything works as it should! Yeah, unfortunately, this mod is not suitable for Y400/Y500 series. There might be another bios mod to do on it. Alternatively, as I've already mentioned before, there might be a relatively easy hardware hack. Do you happen to have access to soldering iron, wires and Arduino nano (or clone) by any chance? No problem, I'm a student too. P.S. I seem to have much more stuff to do today than I initially expected. Deadlines'n'stuff... Therefore, please excuse me for delaying official release of the mod in the separate thread 'till tomorrow. By then you can install the pre-release version I linked in the previous message. As it seems to work just fine, the release version will probably be identical (might be supplied with a clearer readme guide and pictures, but no change to programs). -High_Voltage

This is what I expected. With Nvidia there might be a way to use Optimus driver to game on internal screen. More info on it can be found on eGPU dedicated forums. More data will never hurt! Go for it! If you really really want to try it right now, here's the link to release candidate version: https://mega.nz/#!XNozQbRI!QIZQheYs0bpua3nwJaJreKjnygVwUhRtU3QjfbLzPM4 Would be quite nice if you tested it too. This way we'll have more than just one user's confirmation of the mod working before the actual release. We're performing the final tests right now. Today @MWichni got a GTX1070Ti running. We have encountered Error Code 43 which appears to be quite common across eGPU community and managed to fix it using this guide: https://***********/forums/expresscard-mpcie-m-2-adapters/FIXED-Nvidia-GTX1050Ti-error-43-on-mPCIe-or-M2-non-hotplug-eGPU-interfaces-applicable-to-GTX10xx/paged/1/ Tomorrow if everything goes well, we'll create a separate thread with the mod discussion, download and the installation guide.

All of this is cool, but are you really able to use the AMD GPU as a graphics acceleration device when gaming in say "internal screen only arrangement"?

This has been already suggested in this thread before, as far as I remember. It should totally work. By that mean the reboot sequence won't be initiated. But apart from these dedicated checks at ultrabay address, BIOS has something that I assume to be generic initializer sequences for PCIe devices (there are structures like "Is it Nvidia? If true, do this. Is it AMD? If true, do that. Is it Intel? If true do other stuff"). Those will execute incorrectly too, with possible adverse effects. Let alone the obvious troubles with driver installation you'll encounter with altered vendor ID and a hassle of flashing BIOS of every card you're ever going to use. In my final version of the mod (coming soon, by the way!) I'm preserving compatibility with original ultrabay GPU by replacing checks for Vendor ID with checks for Device ID. So now instead of checking for 0x10DE at Vendor ID address, we're shifting by two bytes and checking for either 0x0FE4 or 0x0FCD, device IDs of GT750m and GT755m respectively. This unfortunately means there're going to be two separate versions of the mod for owners of different iGPUs. Other than that this should work perfectly (as long as AMD doesn't release some GPU with same device ID, but AMD users don't need to flash the mod anyway).

@AllanDavidson Ideally, yes. The whole new adapter with a microcontroller or a socket for adruino. But really, arduino can be just soldered to the existing adapter without any modifications. Getting the GPU away from where it is right now is a good idea. Not sure how long the PCIe cable can be before it loses signal integrity though. I remember Linus from LinusTechTips had GPU working flawlessly with over a meter of PCIe risers in total (those were real high quality things though). Also, it seems like with Nvidia GPUs there might be a way to configure Optimus drivers to pass the image back to the laptop's screen. We shall investigate this at some point.

We've noticed that the reboot is related to system trying to communicate with the Ultrabay module via SMBus (and failing because desktop cards don't generally implement SMBus, and even if they did, chances that they would appear at the correct address are almost zero). Looks like SMBus is only used by the system to monitor temperature and control fan speeds on the ultrabay. If Ultrabay does not respond to communication, EC reboots the system. So, in Y510p BIOS for some reason there is a check, which only enables SMBus communication if the Ultrabay device is branded Nvidia (Vendor ID: 0x10DE). Looks like in Y500 there's no such check, therefore AMD GPUs cause reboot as well. While I can remove the check in Y510p's BIOS, it might be possible to take an alternative route and use a specially-programmed arduino for listening at SMBus and replying to the EC with some temperature value that doesn't cause it to panic. While it sounds complicated, it would only require four wires from the adapter to the arduino. Such solution would theoretically work on both Y500 and Y510p without any BIOS modification. Right now we are making the modified BIOS image for Y510p, but I'll research the arduino approach too. Also, I haven't yet looked at Y500 BIOS. It might be that they're similar enough and I can come up with BIOS-based mod for Y500 too.

Good news, everyone! It looks like we've got more or less stable operation with an Nvidia GTX275 as an eGPU here. Still needs more testing and tweaking before I can release the installer, though. One major issue with current version is that it breaks original SLI compatibility: the PC just won't boot with the native GT750M/755M module in the Ultrabay, but I think there might be a way around. @AllanDavidson $250 for the whole y510p? That's an absolute bargain! I can now see why you considered investing into a 1080Ti. P.S. It's just occurred to me that this adapter is probably one of the fastest laptop eGPU interfaces out there (excluding proprietary-connector-based solutions, if such exist). PCI-E x8 will go up to 8GB/s while Thunderbolt 3 based solutions can only supply 5GB/s, which only allows to implement PCI-E x4 on GPU side.

I think I've found the exact reason why the 40s reboot happens. Unfortunately, too busy this week to investigate further... This'll be quite hard to solve but if works, would open the potential of using adapter with y500p too.

@AllanDavidson Unfortunately, @MWichni and I haven't been very successful with Nvidia support. Thus far the only things we've seen are boot loops of various kinds. Plus, as it was already known before, the PC starts up with an Nvidia card if the CLK_REQ# pulldown resistor has been replaced with 10k, but reboots after 40 seconds. It is still a mystery to me how it manages to initialize the GPU this way, as the digital CLK_REQ# signal is being put into undefined state. We will continue researching the subject next weekend as unfortunately I don't really have much time throughout the week. Regarding external sources, I'd guess talking to some guys would be quite helpful. Especially someone who is experienced in Insyde brand bioses. Yours Sincerely, High_Voltage. P.S. why would you want a 1080Ti on a 5 year old mobile hardware?

Right, an update: We've spent some time with @MWichni trying to get this to work. The mod doesn't help at all with getting Nvidia card to work. The EC flashing issue seems to be unrelated to the mod or its performance though. Such issue has also occurred several times in Svl7's thread, but nobody knows the exact reason why it happens. @MWichni and I will now test several other varieties of the mod (over the course of undefined amount of time) to see if anything works at all. -High_Voltage.

Yeah, it's the same for me. That's why I went with freedos in the first place. p.s. I've replied in PM

I see. Could you please try Svl7's DOS flash then?

@MWichni I see. This appears to be some FreeDOS error. Maybe it just doesn't like your flash drive. I can see two options to try: 1) Try different flash drive. 2) Try different DOS. (For example, you could follow Svl7's original procedure of creating DOS drive) OH ALSO, I think I know what the issue is. You should try smaller flash drive. I've been using a 2gig one. This could be because DOS can't allocate as much memory as 8 gig.

@MWichni Right, this is to confirm our DOS versions are identical. Also, I've just reflashed my EC once again from modded V3.08 bios. Whether the BIOS has been installed with Ultrabay GPU or without, should not make any difference. Better not touch it once it's installed successfully. Have you checked the flash drive label? Could you maybe try another flash drive?

@MWichni Something might really be wrong with the DOS version then. Were you using the latest Rufus to prepare the flash? And if so, was it a portable version of rufus or the one that has to be installed? I've been using portable version. Just trying to follow my steps through once again to see what might be different. Can you confirm, that apart from bios files and autorun files, the only content of the flash drive is the LOCALE folder? if so, can you take a SHA-256 of it? (this should be available on right click menu, then CRC SHA, then SHA-256, if you have 7zip installed). Comparing our checksums will tell whether we're using the same version of FreeDOS. Also, what is the label of your flash drive (the one displayed next to the drive letter in My Computer)? This shouldn't really matter, but try changing that to something below 8 characters long, like "FLASH" for example.

Glad to hear that! Also, would be interesting to see whether it allows you to flash the EC without rolling back to V2.07. If not, just roll back and follow the steps from 7) onwards. Also, if it flashes successfully on V3.08, don't forget to change boot mode to UEFI and UEFI first when done, otherwise windows won't boot.

@MWichni No idea why this happened... Worked perfectly on my machine. Have you tried running the EC command several times? More importantly, does your PC still boot? (I don't see any reason why it wouldn't) And if it does, Does the NVidia card work? One more question: Did you have anything installed in your ultrabay while flashing? Edit: Yeah, this could possibly be due to different graphical configuration. On my machine I was flashing while original secondary GPU was inserted into Ultrabay, meaning Intel graphics and thus Optimus were disabled. EC flasher part of flashit uses some sort of pseudo-graphical interface, so that could have been what has failed. Alternatively, you should maybe try different version of FreeDOS.

@MWichni Awesome! Can't wait to find out whether it works well!

@Bos Maior Thanks a lot for support! Even though the flashing procedure is not really that dangerous (except for the EC flash, but we flash stock FW so it's OK), I'd discourage anyone who is happy with their AMD-based rig from flashing the mod (unless one wants to do it just out of curiosity, of course).

Good news, everyone! Having studied Svl7's BIOS modding method, I've been able to create my own installer for the nvidia patch discussed in previous posts. It works in a similar fashion and installation instructions are pretty much the same (although applications I recommend for backup and DOS drive creation are IMHO easier to use). Also, note that this mod is applied to Version 3.08 of BIOS whereas original Svl7's mod is applied over V3.05! You will find detailed installation guide in the Readme file. Download link: https://mega.nz/#!yd41hBJK!E76XI_NbCG-3q1VDbF9XMePwImkOyiGwjFZAg-wJzNQ DISCLAIMER: Follow the instructions carefully and thoroughly when applying the patch! Although I have successfully tested it on my own machine, I provide ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY that it will not damage yours. ALL THE ACTIONS YOU PERFORM DURING INSTALLATION PROCESS ARE DONE AT YOUR OWN RISK ONLY!!! Now, it would be interesting to see whether it actually works for anyone. If it doesn't, we will continue our search through BIOS's disassembled code. Also, if anyone is interested, I can tell you more about this installation procedure and the reason the BIOS rollback is necessary. I can also explain how to extract EC image from factory BIOS installer, and list my interesting findings about the general structure of official updater's .bin files. Also, if anyone wants the patcher's source code, I'll be happy to provide that too. Yours Faithfully, High_Voltage.

Sure! First of all, I find the Universal BIOS Backup Toolkit 2.0 to be extremely useful for dumping the UEFI image under Windows without the need for bootable DOS flash drive. Fptw64 which was recommended by Svl7 does not work for me for some reason (got it to work right now, the backup file it returns is identical). The Y510p holds its BIOS in two flash chips, 2MB and 4MB one in configuration 2+4. In this case the 2MB one contains about 1.5MB of Intel ME region and the rest is possibly EC firmware. To be precise, EC firmware is contained on the EC chip itself, however I suspect that it includes a bootloader which allows firmware to rewrite itself from data stored on BIOS chip during update. There should be some trigger bit in BIOS flash that the EC checks to decide whether to trigger self-flash or not. But the EC is not important to us. The 4MB chip holds the UEFI image, which is what we're looking for. Once executed under administrator privileges, the Universal BIOS Backup Toolkit 2.0 will spit out a file of approximately 4.5MB. This consists of 0.5MB of rubbish header in the beginning and remaining 4MB are the contents of the 4MB flash chip (the one of two, that actually holds the UEFI image.). The offset is 0x80000 and mine starts from signature 38 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF. Yours might have a different first byte, I suspect. The 0.5MB header has to be deleted. (Also, if you don't have a hex editor, I recommend HxD). Once you have dumped your 4MB UEFI image, it can be decompressed by using either PhoenixTool (despite the name, actually works perfectly with InsydeH2O) or UEFItool. This will separate it into individual UEFI PE files (UEFI modules). The one responsible for GPU initialisation appears to be the A6F691AC-31C8-4444-854C-E2C1A6950F92_284. It can be found by using the UEFItool to search for the unicode text phrase "Unauthorized Slave VGA". The A6F691AC-31C8-4444-854C-E2C1A6950F92_284 can then be disassembled using IDA Freeware v7.0, where searching for the same text phrase will point you at the subroutine that determines whether the adapter is valid and either does nothing or outputs this error and runs some sort of infinite loop (which possibly makes the PC freeze at the error screen) and some additional subroutines. I can't be 100% certain, but having looked around the cross references to this subroutine and that variable it checks, you can find such interesting things as explicit declaration of variable with value 0x10DE, which is Nvidia's Vendor ID. Or that the variable which determines whether the error occurs is written by a code that compares return values from two similar routines accessing some (similar) hardcoded addresses. All of this suggests that the thing might be checking whether the Ultrabay is Nvidia GPU, and if it is, whether it is the same as the built-in one. This could explain why AMD cards work perfectly fine. After you decided to do something to the code (for example, in my first patch attempt, I have changed conditional jump (JZ) (or was it a JNZ, I don't remember) that decides whether to throw an error to an unconditional JMP that jumps to No Error no matter what. This is done by highlighting the instruction and looking up its location in the HEX view. You can then manually replace it in your hex file with an op code of the instruction you want there instead. When you have modified the desired PE UEFI module, you can reassemble your UEFI image using the same utility you used to decompress it. That's it! The resulting 4MB file can be flashed. And that's where it stops, because I have no idea how to reliably flash this file by software means, and therefore can't provide any installer solution for everyone to test. When I have more free time, I'll have a look at the method Slv7 used to flash his mod, however I'd appreciate if anyone explained it to me (especially the reason for v2.07 bios rollback being necessary for the installation). Speaking of my own machine, I just had an so8 ic clip arrive from e-bay and immediately flashed my modded image. Raspberry pi zero w with flashrom, accessed via SSH was used as a programmer and also to power the memory chips. Anyone with extra 15 bucks, a soldering iron and a screwdriver could probably just hardware-flash. My machine is still working fine with modded BIOS, however I have no way of checking whether the fix actually worked or not. If you or anyone else is interested in doing a hardware flash, I could provide you with test ROMs or mod your own backup dump, thus retaining your Windows license key.

Hi, Everyone! I've just discovered this thread and the whole Y510p adapter thing and needless to say I'm quite fascinated with what you've accomplished so far. While 5 years have passed since this laptop's release and it might be almost considered too old to get any useful performance from, I believe that the i7-4700MQ together with external GPU would be just enough to make this machine VR-capable, which is what I'm interested in. It is a shame, however, that NVIDIA GPUs are not supported. I had some free time this weekend to disassemble and fiddle with Y510p's BIOS to make NVIDIA GPUs work and would like to ask if any of you were interested in testing some BIOS dumps on their machines, since I'm kind of too broke to afford the adapter, let alone the GPU which might not even work. It looks like the BIOS code specifically checks whether a PCI Vendor ID is NVIDIA upon initialization, and if so, runs a test to check whether the Device ID is equal to that of the built-in GPU. This is a bit like whitelist, but is instead meant for people not accidentally plugging a GT755M ultrabay unit into their GT750M machines and vice versa and then complaining that SLI doesn't work, I believe. I have now removed this conditional check, which threw the "Unauthorized VGA card" exception and ran some extra code, but there are still places in the binary, which cause questions to me. If this attempt fails, there are at least two more approaches I have in mind to be tested. So, if anyone is up for this, please let me know. Please, note that you will need an SPI Flash programmer to do this. Also, always back up your original flash dumps!!! They will not only be useful if(when) my modded dumps render your machine unbootable, but will also contain your Windows license code, which can be later integrated into modded dumps if they're successful. Also, I'd appreciate any links or advice on modding the Lenovo bios update exes to allow flashing of the patched image (haven't looked into this yet). Other than that, does anyone have a working download link for V2.07 bios installer? Found it.