timohour

@aldimeola81 If you have connected your eGPU with an x2.2 connection then you will see no difference if you enable the iGPU. If you are using an x1.2 connection as Khenglish said you will see a boost in performance. There is no need to unlock your flash descriptor in order to change the uefi variables. you only need to unlock your FD in order to flash a modified MEFW and apply BCLK OC, set the SB ports @ x2.2 or x4.2 or generally flash user-modified BIOS. Ignore the error message. Proceed with caution though, change only things that you need. Check here how to enable iGPU and/or internal screen when you are using an eGPU prior to boot.

Yep. Using an old card will most probably automatically set the link to gen1 since your card will only run @ gen1 speeds. I think that's your best bet right now. If it is easy to find an old gpu, try that and tell us if it works. also check your HDMI port. The VGA port is connected on your iGPU which you disable. HDMI is connected on the dGPU.

Yes it usually works for the E6430 without problems... what do you mean you can not boot to BIOS? Do you own the iGPU or the dGPU model? What happens when you start up your computer? could you be more specific? what happens when you start up? fan starts? led flash? screen backlight on or off? you may be able to make the change blindly or use an old pci-e card that runs by default @ x16.1

Ι have been thinking to try this. I am considering either the gk107 core or even the gm107/8. I think I will be able to replace the chip successfully. Do you think you can help me to replace the vBIOS section in my BIOS?

I may have done something wrong. I will try tomorrow to measure it again but I suggest you go with what Khenglish suggested.

measured mine and showed .980 It is probably 1 KΩ VGA is directly connected to your iGPU both on the laptop and the dock. So it would probably work.

dGPU version has a much better cooler, but you will have to disable the dGPU in order to enable Opt. compression. I never used an Nvidia card on this laptop so I won't know. I would suggest dGPU if you want to upgrade to i7 quad. If you are going dual core any of the two would be OK and iGPU would be easier to setup. note: There are some reports that some E6430 (iGPU/dGPU) won't handle adequately the x1.2 signal. Two cases reported to have trouble to connect an eGPU successfully @ x1.2 with EC. They had to downgrade to x1.1. Right now prices are too low on ebay (you can find a CPU only as low as $100). So you may take your chances and try. I would also suggest that you go for one of the latest models so it will still be under warranty.

That's not true. If you have two cables going to the same monitor you can choose which is active and inactive from the Display Settings (at least on the E6430) and disable the one wired to the iGPU. The data then will go through the eGPU no loss...

If you need optimus compression you need to force iGPU as primary display... there is no otherway you can do it... But as long as your monitor has a 2nd input (e.g) VGA you can use it to control boot selection by connecting it on the dock's or the laptop's VGA port and keep it disabled in Linux or Windows. So you will use igpu output for your boot selection and egpu output for everything else. I believe it will be a better solution even for your current setup.

AFAIK once you connect the eGPU prior to boot every other gpu is disabled so you can use it with external screen only. This way though your iGPU will be disabled and you won't be able to take the performance advantage of the optimus compression. Let others chime in before you make your decision though.

Nope. no way. Since you laptop boots with your 2630QM, it seems like the 3630QM you bought is dead. Spec sheets usually have the cpus that they ship the laptop with, not the compatible ones.

Did you check if by any chance this is an E6420?

Hello, I agree totally with Khenglish. Since your 2630QM works your 3630QM should work too. On the first post you can see that there are people with Extreme CPUs so your 3630QM won't be a problem. Is it possible that you purchased an E6420 instead of the E6430? This is the previous generation laptop that works with older CPUs... (no 3XXXM) What's the CPU that came originally with your laptop? This could give a clue. You can also check with your Service Tag at dell support. I have seen misleading auctions sometimes on eBay, selling an E6420 as an E6430. Also there is no need to apply any mod to make your laptop identify your i7. It should work OOB. The thread you mention is to enable an OCing option which BTW is not available with your 3630QM.

you set 0x25 to 0x29 which translates to 1-Core-Ratio-Limit to x41 0x26 is for 2-Core-Ratio-Limit . your maximum turbo for 2 core is x36. Add the four unlocked bins x40 thus 0x28 3 and 4-Core-Ratio-Limit (0x27 & 0x28) is the same x35. Add the four unlocked bins x39 thus 0x27.

Yes. Although it is not crucial you should set the rest too. 0x26 --> 0x28 0x27 --> 0x27 0x28 --> 0x27 And then press the power button.

You need to shut down in order for the change to take effect. Shutdown and then restart. Also how did you set the var?

in order to unlock your BIOS to be flashable you have to enable an UEFI variable. I think it is 0x40 but I am not sure. It's been a while. the other way is using a programmer (which I assume you did) How did you import the vBIOS into the E6530 BIOS? Is it possible that an GK107 core would work with the GF108 BIOS? EDIT: It seems that pin combatible are also newer maxwell chips. Especially GM107 (N15P-GX tested side by side with schematics as 860M) and possible the GM108. If you find a way to insert the vBIOS and make the chip recognisable, I think this would be a great opportunity to upgrade the dGPU. GK107 would still be a real upgrade.

i could extract the raw bios from the E3520, and I know you can do that from the E5440 too. Check here I will be looking for the C75 too... EDIT: Seems like the Toshiba BIOS is also an exe... added the zip and trying to unpack couldn't find any way to unpack it. uploaded it in case you have another idea. EDIT2: 3520 seems the easiest way.But the E5440 would have the same format as the E6430. Hope one of the two would work. Or maybe a user with an E5440 can provide us a dump with fpt...

When you set a port to x2 or x4 you have to connect this port like you would do as if you where connecting it @ x1. Then for the remaining ports you just need the RX-TX signals (and offcourse ground). So if you set port 1 @ x2 you have to connect port 1 and then use the TX and RX signals from port 2 (no other signal is needed from port 2) The same goes for port 3 if you set that @ x2. you just need to use TX RX signals from port 4. In the following image you can see the pinout used @ x16 cards.

No & no. Only 1,2,3,4 or 5,6,7,8 (useless) for x4 and 1,2 or 3,4 or 5,6 or 7,8 for x2. You could also invert the whole array if you set x4 and use 4,3,2,1 but this is also useless unless we find a way to fully utilise port 4. And pcie 3.0 is available on the PCH only on the newer skylake series 100. It is also interesting that Skylake will run with DMI 3.0 and a total of 3.93GB/s compared to the 2 GB/s DMI 2.0 could do.

I don't have the gear or the laptop to test at the moment. But i don't think this is right. If I am not mistaken the pcie lanes are connected to the PCH which according to our schematics is connected to the CPU with DMI2 x4 (data transfer rate to 2 GB/s with a ×4 link Wiki). There are also many laptops that feed their thunderbolt port from the PCH ports (AFAIK every non apple laptop do it that way). And they do true x4 (10Gbps or 16Gbps)

LVDS wouldn't be a problem too unless you wanted to disable Optimus. The following laptops run along with an 620m/710m/720m/820m (GF117). Lenovo Ideapad U510 & U410 (625M? or 710M? 2GB) Toshiba Satellite C75-A-13 (710M 1GB DDR3) Aspire E1-571G (620M 1GB DDR3) Lenovo G710 (720M 2GB DDR3) MSI CX61-i572M281BW7 (720M 2GB DDR3) Dell Latitude E5440 (720M 2GB DDR3) Lenovo B5400 (720M 1GB DDR3) Acer Aspire E1-772G (820M 2GB DDR3) HP Compaq 15-a024sg (820M 1GB) Lenovo Ideapad Z40 (820M 2GB) ASUS Transformer TP300L (820M) Dell Inspiron 15 3542-2293 (820M 2GB DDR3) Asus F751LDV-TY178H (820M 2GB DDR3) Asus F555LD-XX243H (820M 2GB) Asus X555LD-XX283H (820M 2GB DDR3) Acer Aspire R14 R3-471TG (820m 2GB DDR3) Acer Aspire V3-571G? (710M 2GB)? Also check this out http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/54934030 points to this BIOS from dell http://www.dell.com/support/home/ed/en/eddhs1/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=907YJ for the GT620M And here is a list by ubuntu How can you tell which part of the BIOS region is the vBIOS?

it is in the previous message and in the first post. EDIT: Yep you are right... I **** up... EDIT2: Hope I got them right this time. http://imgur.com/a/99I27

Ok, keep in mind that I never actually measured it. What I said is supported only by my observations when I tried to enable port 4. It may be slightly different. You can also measure your odd connector in order to find the exact external dimensions. Keep us posted. What's the docking-pod?

Probably you are going to be able to use some, but definetely not all. AFAIK the pad-disance is the same but you need to modify the mini pcie card in order to fit it in there so you may loose some pins. I can't recall though which pins were accessible and which weren't. Regarding your previous post, I wouldn't agree more but I need to see it in order to believe it. The connections are there for sure, but I can't testify that it is port 4. EDIT: OK found an old photo. you are maybe loosing pins 14 and 25 and maybe 26. Seems like the rest are accessible. Can't say for sure though. But why would you need other signals. They are not needed for x2 or x4.