eGPU experiences [version 2.0]

[jacobsson]

Link works fine. Try downloading with another browser and/or from another IP address.

The link magically started working this morning (same IP, same browser) =)

However, setup x.1 still promts "[ichip] unknown intel chipset found."

I know that I my lenovo e530 has a HM77, any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

[Laukess]

Check if your bios has an option for expresscard slot Gen1/Gen2 switching. Previous Fujitsu AH531 user reports suggest there isn't one. In which case reverting back to Setup 1.x, ensure you have a MBR installation of Windows for Setup 1.x to work. Check Device Manager -> Disk Drives -> [your HDD] -> Volumes -> Partition Style says "MBR". It would be technically feasible to use Linux' grub2 bootloader to do this also in the same pre-boot manner as Setup 1.x but that installation is for a more advanced user.

Ty for the reply. It tells me that the partition is GPT. I've tried looking for ways to change it, but haven't found anything. Reinstalled Windows 8 in hopes I was able to change it with a fresh install, but no luck. I wanted to try out Win 7, but I can't get access to the disk the next few days. Should I wait and install Win 7, og will Win 8 be just as good ?

[Tech Inferno Fan]

The link magically started working this morning (same IP, same browser) =)

However, setup x.1 still promts "[ichip] unknown intel chipset found."

I know that I my lenovo e530 has a HM77, any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

What does running 'setpci -s 0:1f.0 2.w' at the Setup 1.x DOS prompt return? Running this on a HP 2570P returns 1e55 which is the QM77 Series-7 chipset as derived from a lookup of c:\core\intel.txt:

[DOS prompt] C:\setpci -s 0:1f.0 2.w
1e55

Ty for the reply. It tells me that the partition is GPT. I've tried looking for ways to change it, but haven't found anything. Reinstalled Windows 8 in hopes I was able to change it with a fresh install, but no luck. I wanted to try out Win 7, but I can't get access to the disk the next few days. Should I wait and install Win 7, og will Win 8 be just as good ?

Check your bios settings looking for a SecureBoot/UEFI or CSM/BIOS/MBR boot mode. You want the bios in the latter state upon which reinstalling Win7/8 will see it make MBR rather than GPT partitions.

Suggest wait for Win 8.1 released on June 26. Rumor has it the Start button will be back.

[Khenglish]

Ty for the reply. It tells me that the partition is GPT. I've tried looking for ways to change it, but haven't found anything. Reinstalled Windows 8 in hopes I was able to change it with a fresh install, but no luck. I wanted to try out Win 7, but I can't get access to the disk the next few days. Should I wait and install Win 7, og will Win 8 be just as good ?

It is possible to convert a GPT into a MBR using a hex editor. GPT spec originally called for also having an MBR, but they ended up intentionally making the MBR's partition table invalid for some reason. In theory both GPT and MBR can be operable, but GPT no longer worked for me when I did this on a toshiba. Keep in mind that if you make a mistake that windows recovery is completely incapable of fixing a corrupt MBR or GPT, despite having multiple boot recovery programs. Luckily when I made my mistake (wrote in a partition size backwards) I had an old version of partition magic lying around on a CD that let me directly edit the MBR to fix it. Now I can run my assembly files on that laptop prior to loading windows

I find GPT to be a PITA since it vastly complicates booting from a flash drive. If you don't have a drive >2TB there is no reason to use it.

PM me if you want the procedure. Remember if you mess up, there's a good chance you'll have to reformat, especially if you do not have partition table editing software. Doing all the math for LBA sizes is very tedious. I'd try to exhaust other options first before resorting to this.

[jacobsson]

What does running 'setpci -s 0:1f.0 2.w' at the Setup 1.x DOS prompt return? Running this on a HP 2570P returns 1e55 which is the QM77 Series-7 chipset as derived from a lookup of c:\core\intel.txt:

[DOS prompt] C:\setpci -s 0:1f.0 2.w
1e55

Hi Nando.

"C:\setpci -s 0:1f.0 2.w" returned: 1e57​.

Hmm the update didn't install in the right path!

Let me come back to you Nando =)

[Laukess]

Check your bios settings looking for a SecureBoot/UEFI or CSM/BIOS/MBR boot mode. You want the bios in the latter state upon which reinstalling Win7/8 will see it make MBR rather than GPT partitions.

Suggest wait for Win 8.1 released on June 26. Rumor has it the Start button will be back.

I took a look in bios, but the important stuffed seemed to be grayed out(not something I could change). I got some pictures, but the quality is shit, but let me know if you wanna see 'em.

CSM was disabled and I wans't able to select it, or change it. One of the tabs was called Security, and had Secure Boot options, but they were also grayed out.

[jacobsson]

What does running 'setpci -s 0:1f.0 2.w' at the Setup 1.x DOS prompt return? Running this on a HP 2570P returns 1e55 which is the QM77 Series-7 chipset as derived from a lookup of c:\core\intel.txt:

[DOS prompt] C:\setpci -s 0:1f.0 2.w
1e55

.

Alright so now the setup 1.x recognizes my chipset at least.

My first thought was, and still is that, my mPCIE wlan port is whitelisted so I went through the anti-whitelisting procedure.

1. Booted setup 1.x with the "whitelisted" wlan card in its original port 2.

2. Made a save: mPcie -> !Save -> Port 2.

3. Restarted and entered setup 1.x with PE4L2.1b-mPcie attached in port 2 and eGPU running.

4. Enabled port 2 (wlan port).

5. Entered the "restore port 2". Then nothing happens, this is what is see.

This laptop might be a dead end for an eGPU

Also saw that my TOLUD was 3.49 GB, but it shouldn't stop the system from recognizing it? (it should be the next problem to solve).

[Tech Inferno Fan]

This laptop might be a dead end for an eGPU

Also saw that my TOLUD was 3.49 GB, but it shouldn't stop the system from recognizing it? (it should be the next problem to solve).

The 100% accurate method of getting around mPCIe whitelisting AND the CLKRUN signal starting by the PM3N is:

1. Boot the system with the wifi card in the mPCIe slot into Setup 1.x. That should ensure the bios enables the port correctly.

2. While system is active, *carefully* unplug the wifi card, power on the eGPU and hotplug the PM3N end into the mPCIe slot. If you line it up right there is no chance of shorting anything. This ensures the CLKRUN signal on the PM3N starts when there is a device on the PCIe bus. A safer variation of this step would be to set the PM3N delay switch, plug the PM3N in then power on the eGPU before the countdown reaches zero (6.9s or so).

Please do report your result. We had another E530 owner who gave up on this project due to his concerns over hotplugging the PM3N into the live system. If it helps, I've done that many times with my 2007-era HP 2510P with not one instance of ever shorting the system. Would be great to have a E530 implementation. A budget business grade system.

[jacobsson]

We had another E530 owner who gave up on this project due to his concerns over hotplugging the PM3N into the live system

Trust me Nando, I don't care if the computer blow up so lets get this working =)

But I will not be able to try this until to night. I'll keep you updated!

[Laukess]

It is possible to convert a GPT into a MBR using a hex editor. GPT spec originally called for also having an MBR, but they ended up intentionally making the MBR's partition table invalid for some reason. In theory both GPT and MBR can be operable, but GPT no longer worked for me when I did this on a toshiba. Keep in mind that if you make a mistake that windows recovery is completely incapable of fixing a corrupt MBR or GPT, despite having multiple boot recovery programs. Luckily when I made my mistake (wrote in a partition size backwards) I had an old version of partition magic lying around on a CD that let me directly edit the MBR to fix it. Now I can run my assembly files on that laptop prior to loading windows

I find GPT to be a PITA since it vastly complicates booting from a flash drive. If you don't have a drive >2TB there is no reason to use it.

PM me if you want the procedure. Remember if you mess up, there's a good chance you'll have to reformat, especially if you do not have partition table editing software. Doing all the math for LBA sizes is very tedious. I'd try to exhaust other options first before resorting to this.

I dont mind reinstalling windows again. I got 2 harddrives so I dont have much usefull stuff on the C drive. This stuff souds way too advanced though, so I really hope there's a better way.

I'm not sure why I can't change it in my bios, but I really hope there's an easy way to do this kinda thing.

***UPDATE***

So I might have fixed it. I had to add a password in bios to access those sittings. I've disabled Secure Boot and enabled cms (not 100% sure what the name is, but something along those lines). I'll try to reinstall windows when I get home in a few hours. ***************UPDATE 2************************ I got hom e and tried to reinstall windows on another partition after changing the settings in bios. Nothing changed, so I decided to format the hard drive, and only have one partition with windows installed on it. Not sure if that's required or not, but I just wanted to give it a shot. This time around I got an error though. "The selected disk is of the GPT partition style". I had to change the bios sitting back to what they were before to reinstall windows. I'm not sure what to do next, trial and error takes ages when you have to reinstall windows every time. Is there an easy way to make the disk MBR, and Is it possible to make a new partition and experiment with that one ? I still don't really know if I can make a partition MBR, or if it requires the whole disk. Would it make sense to go into cmd and type: diskpart, list disk, select disk 0, clean, convert mbr before installing windows ? I should be able to get access to cmd by typing shift+f10

[jacobsson]

A safer variation of this step would be to set the PM3N delay switch, plug the PM3N in then power on the eGPU before the countdown reaches zero (6.9s or so).

When speaking of SW1 and SW2 of the PE4L-PM060A I'm a bit confused. I can see that SW2 provides two modes of delay (?) and the two modes of SW1 I'm not sure of?

I hope my questions are somewhat readable =)

[Laukess]

Check your bios settings looking for a SecureBoot/UEFI or CSM/BIOS/MBR boot mode. You want the bios in the latter state upon which reinstalling Win7/8 will see it make MBR rather than GPT partitions.

I've tried quite a few things today, and I'm super frustrated right now. I've reinstalled windows so many times today, and I'm not any closer to fixing this. You guys know way more about this stuff than I do, so I hope you'll be able to help me. I'll try to explain what I've tried in hopes you'll have an easier time helping me.

I went into bios, but the options about secure boot and CSM was grayed out, and I wasn't able to change them. I learned that by adding a password they became available. I disabled secure boot and enabled CSM.

I only got 1 computer, so i felt it would make sense to make a new partition to experiment with. This would allow me to always have access to my original windows.

Installation went smooth, but partition style was still not MBR.

I am/was not sure if MBR/GPT was part of the hard drive, or the partition, so I ended up deleting the harddrive and reinstall windows again. This time I wasn't able to install windows due to an error. "The selected disk is of the GPT partition style", so I changed the bios settings back to default, and installed windows again.

I did some more research and gave diskpart a try. If I used it before installing windows, it seemed to work, but for some reason the partition style was never MBR after windows was installed. I selected the right disk, used clean, and convert mbt. trying this I got another error when telling windows what disk/partition to install to. It would still let me install windows, but this showed up "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computers hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu".

I forgot all about this, and to be honest I didn't/don't expect it to be a problem. The hard drive I use is not the one that came with the laptop, Its a 128 gb ssd.

Hope to hear from you. cheers

[Splitframe]

Hi,

I encountered a weird problem today.

I soldered my HDMI ports and wanted to connect the PM3N to the PE4L via a HDMI cable ( it's a 1,4 with ethernet )

and Windows recognises it but suddenfly puts it into another Memory block:

Does anyone know why that is?

The device manager lists the GPU as normal Graphic Card without any warnings, but I can't get an image out of it.

Weird...

[Tech Inferno Fan]

I forgot all about this, and to be honest I didn't/don't expect it to be a problem. The hard drive I use is not the one that came with the laptop, Its a 128 gb ssd.

Hope to hear from you. cheers

Google gives a relevant hit for "AH532 MBR" keywords here. That user had a MBR pre-configured HDD from another system. You could accomplish the same by using a surrogate system with your HDD.

Hi,

I encountered a weird problem today.

I soldered my HDMI ports and wanted to connect the PM3N to the PE4L via a HDMI cable ( it's a 1,4 with ethernet )

and Windows recognises it but suddenfly puts it into another Memory block:

Does anyone know why that is?

The device manager lists the GPU as normal Graphic Card without any warnings, but I can't get an image out of it.

Weird...

Windows has allocated the eGPU into empty 32-bit pci-e space as it was available. If it had not been available it would have placed it in the 'large memory' 36-bit space. It can be forced into 36-bit space using Setup 1.x, though is unnecessary. Seeing there are no errors against the GTX560, try uninstalling the intel HD driver + NVidia driver, the reinstalling both ensuring you do a 'clean' NVidia install as an attempt to get the external LCD work. Worth also trying another LCD.

[Splitframe]

Windows has allocated the eGPU into empty 32-bit pci-e space as it was available. If it had not been available it would have placed it in the 'large memory' 36-bit space. It can be forced into 36-bit space using Setup 1.x, though is unnecessary. Seeing there are no errors against the GTX560, try uninstalling the intel HD driver + NVidia driver, the reinstalling both ensuring you do a 'clean' NVidia install as an attempt to get the external LCD work. Worth also trying another LCD.

Thanks, I'll try this.

What bugs me is, that it worked before I cut the PE4L cable and soldered it to the HDMI connectors.

I tested every lane and I have no bridges and every lane is connected.

And, as you see, the system sees my gpu.

But I can't start the NVidia control center and even CUDA.Z and GPU-Z don't see the card.

EDIT:

Sadly, it didn't work.

The HDMI cable is 0,75m long. Maybe that's too long?

[Laukess]

Google gives a relevant hit for "AH532 MBR" keywords here. That user had a MBR pre-configured HDD from another system. You could accomplish the same by using a surrogate system with your HDD.

I'm not sure how that post is relevant, maybe I'm missing something. The SSD seem to work fine, but its not part of the original laptop, so I felt like mentioning it in case it was important. I don't know anything about MBR or GPT so I'm quite lost atm. You told me I should try to disable secure boot and enabling CSM, and then try to reinstall. I did so, but with no luck. Any ideas what to do now ? Would it make sense to try the old hdd ?

[HansMaulwurf888]

Hi,

i have 1 question:

the PE4L supports PCI-E 2.0 so we need a new PE4L PCI-E 3.0 for this scenario?

13-4-2013: calling on notebook systemboard manufacturers (Foxconn, Inventec, etc) to attach their expresscards slot in the upcoming Intel Haswell platform using the pci-e 3.0 Northbridge rather than the pci-e 2.0 Southbridge. That will give eGPU users x1 3.0 link speed, equivalent to 2011-2013 Thunderbolt but better it as a x1 link allows NVidia Fermi/Keplar eGPU pci-e compression to engage as well. Use of the Expresscard slot means no annoying Intel Thunderbolt certification/licensing issues to deal with either.

[Tech Inferno Fan]

Hi,

i have 1 question:

the PE4L supports PCI-E 2.0 so we need a new PE4L PCI-E 3.0 for this scenario?

tintin's testing at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/3094-egpu-desktop-htpc.html#post44463 confirms BPlus' advice that the PE4L 2.1b is pci-e 3.0 capable.

Only problem is there are no pci-e 3.0 mPCIe or expresscard slots. That is were the manufacturers can come to the party by attaching a pci-e 3.0 Intel Series-7+ northbridge (IVB/Haswell) to one of those ports. Chances of that happening are low because Intel's guidelines have x1 ports attached to the pci-e 2.0 Southbridge instead. A manufacturer doing this risks getting blacklisted by Intel as they would be providing functionality outside of their intended/designed scope.

[whatshannenin]

Hi everyone just wanted quick confirmation before I buy anything, as I couldn't find anyone with a similar setup:

E5530 w/ i5 3340 + 4gb ram

660 ti

pe4l

Any issues with this setup or anyone with a similar setup who can post their experiences?

thanks

[Splitframe]

Hi,

I am really at a dead end here.

If someone knows a solution I would be very grateful

http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/3579-lenovo-s430-pe4l-2-1b-xbox-360-psu-case%3B-egpu-blog.html#post51296

Thanks

[buster2178]

wow thats pretty nice

[angerthosenear]

tintin's testing at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/3094-egpu-desktop-htpc.html#post44463 confirms BPlus' advice that the PE4L 2.1b is pci-e 3.0 capable.

Only problem is there are no pci-e 3.0 mPCIe or expresscard slots. That is were the manufacturers can come to the party by attaching a pci-e 3.0 Intel Series-7+ northbridge (IVB/Haswell) to one of those ports. Chances of that happening are low because Intel's guidelines have x1 ports attached to the pci-e 2.0 Southbridge instead. A manufacturer doing this risks getting blacklisted by Intel as they would be providing functionality outside of their intended/designed scope.

Where is the TB port attached? That is a x2 port so that can be attached to the northbridge? Is BPlus working on getting licencing/permission to manufacture a TB adapter?

[Tech Inferno Fan]

Where is the TB port attached? That is a x2 port so that can be attached to the northbridge? Is BPlus working on getting licencing/permission to manufacture a TB adapter?

TB bridge is attached on the Northbridge on Macbook Pros and on the Southbridge on Macbook Airs. 2011-2013 TB is only pci-e 2.0 so isn't getting any benefit being on the Northbridge.

BPlus had already manufactured a very cost effective TB adapter, TH05, but seems higher ups have put a roadblock to their progress. One supposed reason being it needed to be an enclosure based product to pass Intel certification. BPlus had earmarked a future product, TH04, to be designed that way with no definite availability ETA .

[jacobsson]

The 100% accurate method of getting around mPCIe whitelisting AND the CLKRUN signal starting by the PM3N is:

1. Boot the system with the wifi card in the mPCIe slot into Setup 1.x. That should ensure the bios enables the port correctly.

2. While system is active, *carefully* unplug the wifi card, power on the eGPU and hotplug the PM3N end into the mPCIe slot. If you line it up right there is no chance of shorting anything. This ensures the CLKRUN signal on the PM3N starts when there is a device on the PCIe bus..

Hi Nando.

So I tried your instructions: Boot setup 1.x with WLAN-card, "hot-swapped" with my PE4L2.1b-PM060A, and nothing gets detected.

Maybe there is some basics that I don't know regarding the eGPU setup?

EDIT: Good to know is that I'm using an old but functional 7900GT before buying something fancier.

1. Which leds should light up on the pe4l?

2. What settings should I use for SW1/SW2?

3. Should "OS detection for switchable graphics" be enabled in BIOS (which I currently have enabled)

Side note: When I laborated and booted up setup 1.x with iGPU+dGPU I disabled the dGPU from there and manage to free up 512MB (which otherwise states 64MB when booting iGPU only). I don't know if this means anything but it didn't freeze when restoring port 2 when doing it this way.

I went for a hunt looking for some anti WL bios with no luck, if you know where to look just let me know =)

[naturbo2000]

Sadly, it didn't work.

The HDMI cable is 0,75m long. Maybe that's too long?

There's nothing wrong per-se with a 75cm cable length - I have a PE4L-EC200A which uses a soldered 2m cable. Works fine at PCIe 2.0.

Of course 75cm + HDMI connectors might be too much (given the signal reflection issues caused by the connectors).