This has been a lovely disaster for so many hours. So maybe you all can gently guide me in the right direction.
System: Dell Latitude E6230 , 16GB DDR3 , i5-3340M @ 2.7ghz , Windows 10 Pro x64.
Bios: A19
Video Card: Nvidia GTX660 (EVGA)
Hardware: EXP GDC 8.4d Beast, Express Card version
Power Supply: Dell DA2 220w
I can't get this darn thing to work for the life of me. Upon boot the laptop detects the card fine about half the time and I can explore Bios on the external display, and it will even let me launch windows in safe mode and run on the external display. But booting to windows normally on the device either turns the display black and show me nothing right after the windows logo, Or very rarely will let me onto the desktop for about 30 seconds where i get that lovely "device disconnected" windows sound and again , black sleeping screen.
Also, I attempted the DSDT override and have successfully gotten it to display "large memory" in the device manager. But if plug in the Beast via express card and boot to it gives me a BSOD ACPI BIOS ERROR screen.
I was able to get it stable enough exactly 1 time to run this benchmark.
The rig fits nicely in a backpack, so it'd be perfect for goofing off at work if I can get the thing ticking.
2012 12" Dell Latitude E6230 [3rd,2C,M] + GTX 660 @ 2Gbps-EC2 (EXP GDC 8.4) + Win10 [build link]
Please refer to the go-to thread for EC issues relevant here: hotplugging after BIOS boot to hide the eGPU from the BIOS, downclock the GPU for stability & use a Gen1 link for reliability.
64Gbps PCIe 4.0 x4 over 80Gbps Intel Thunderbolt 5 / USB4v2 ETA starting 2024 • eGPU Bandwidth Reference • eGPU Setup 1.35
2018 15" HP ZBook Studio G5 (Q P1000) [8th,6C,E] + RX 6700 XT @ 32Gbps-M.2x4 (ADT-Link R43SG) + Win10 22H2 // compares M.2 NVMe vs TB3 & RX 6700 XT vs RTX 3070 eGPU, 2.06kg triple-M.2 NVMe slot budget Workstation [info]
2018 14" HP EliteBook 840 G5 [8th,4C,U] + RX 6700 XT @ 32Gbps-M.2x4 (ADT-Link R43SG) + Win10 22H2 // compares M.2 NVMe vs TB3 & RX 6700 XT vs RTX 3070 eGPU, 1.48kg dual-M.2 slot budget UltraBook [info]
2015 15" Dell Precision 7510 (Q M1000M) [6th,4C,H] + GTX 1080 Ti @ 32Gbps-M.2x4 (ADT-Link R43SG) + Win10 1803 // compares M.2 NVMe vs TB3 eGPU performance inc unoptimized H-CPU BIOS [build link]
Thanks Nando4, those forums eventually led me down to the right path.
To get the thing stable I needed to abandon the DSDT fix all together, that was just leading me to uncontrollable BSODs.
Secondly I needed to enable Gen 1 Link ( I used DIY eGPU Setup 1.35 to facilitate this), otherwise I'd get black screens after 30 seconds
Thirdly I had to turn the EXP GDC 8.4 to always be ON, this stopped the race between BIOs and the GPU. Again used setup 1.35 to have it be detected before windows boot.
and Forthly. I had to use a earlier Nvidia driver, was getting a Code 43 that cleared up with a older driver.
2012 12" Dell Latitude E6230 [3rd,2C,M] + GTX 660 @ 2Gbps-EC2 (EXP GDC 8.4) + Win10 [build link]