Any luck with HDMI Exntenders for EXP GDC Beast cable? Length is too short

[stardude900]

Hi all,

 

Wanted to chime in and thank everyone here for all their help.

 

I have been using an EXP GDC Beast with my R9 290 and Lenovo W520 without any issues.

 

One small hiccup I've been encountering is that the cable from expressscard adapter to the Beast is far too short.  So I got a 6ft HDMI extension cable to try and lengthen this.  The computer is able to boot up and I can get to about the welcome screen (eGPU is working for just a bit), and then I lock out and blue screen and it resets.  My guess is the signal is degrading in quality just enough in 6ft that the laptop can't receive enough signals and treats it like hot-unplugging the graphics card (immediate death).

 

I've done a few searches here, but no one has really provided many sound answers or potential solutions.

 

Does anyone have any experience on this topic?  Surely people must be experiencing the issue of this cable not being long enough.  I'm thinking of getting a 1.5ft and 3ft length cable and testing it out to see which one may work and provide stable results.

[Another Tech Inferno Fan]

Perhaps this is one instance where those $5k noise-isolating, awe-inspiring, orgasm-triggering, ovulation-inducing, ground-shaking, sky-shattering, warpfield-stabilising solid silver audiophool HDMI cables might come in useful for once.

 

My gut feeling doubts it however.

Edited September 6, 2016 by Arbystrider

[stardude900]

Well the signal is digital, so it either gets there or it doesn't.  If it was analog signal, might make a much larger difference (as far as cable or shielding quality).

 

My guess is the extremely high frequency over the longer length is what is causing enough signal deterioration to the point where it freaks out.

 

Might hook it up to a state analyzer or oscilloscope to see if signal isn't getting through.

 

Have you ever had any success or seen anything which might help?

[Another Tech Inferno Fan]

8 hours ago, stardude900 said:

Well the signal is digital, so it either gets there or it doesn't.

 

Of course it gets there. It's like how you can order bread from China and it will be delivered to your doorstep.

 

Whether the bread is stale or not is another story.

 

8 hours ago, stardude900 said:

Might hook it up to a state analyzer or oscilloscope to see if signal isn't getting through.

 

If you had access to the kind of electronics engineering equipment that could make sense of high-frequency PCIe signals (PCIe x1 1.0 has a data throughput of 250MB/s, which is equal to 2Gb/s, thus requiring at least 2 GHz of bandwidth), you wouldn't be sitting here scratching your head.

 

8 hours ago, stardude900 said:

Have you ever had any success or seen anything which might help?

 

Yes. Use the cable included with the GDC, and only the cable included with the GDC.

Or force the eGPU to use PCIe 1.0.

[stardude900]

Yes, we have a few Tektronix oscilloscopes at work that have something like 25GHz of bandwidth.  And just because I have access to equipment and know how to use it, doesn't automatically mean I know 100% what to do.  Things take time and troubleshooting to figure out.  Might have to see about figuring out how to view signal while having it run.  Hmm..

 

Forcing PCIe 1.0 might be an interesting troubleshooting method.

 

Though I'm still curious if anyone who has experience using an extender or has been able to extend the length of the cable has had any success.  Surely many of the users here do not like having their setup so close to their laptop (confined spaces on desks etc...).

 

 

[Sgt Chaos66]

Has anyone made their own custom length cable? E.g mPCIE to HDMI for the beast v8.

 

Thanks,

 

Stu

[Roger Feederer]

I extended my EXP GDC using this cable https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00QV3THB8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

No problems so far