Advanced Dock and ATI FireGL V5200

[moltar]

I got a hold of an advanced dock. It was suggested here to get the ATI FireGL V5200 which should work. Got the card, get the dreaded beeps. Got another one - same thing. So two cards, both beep. Tried messing around with BIOS - setting primary to PCI - nothing. Any ideas? Are there any tricks to get it to work?

Thanks!

[iwishiwasinwhistler]

Just a thought....how much RAM do you have?

I know the question doesn't seem relevant but I've found that when using my T60 and T61, with 8gb RAM, if I set the primary to be PCI it wont boot and I get the beeps at POST. If I pull the RAM and try with just 2gb it boots fine. Just to be clear, that's with all other settings the same between both scenarios. I'm sure someone cleverer than me can tell you why this happens. I tried this with the FireGL V5200 as you have and also more lately with a hacked together HD5850. Results are always the same for me.

What DOES work is using 4 / 8GB and booting with the laptop LCD set as the default boot display device and then just setting up the extra monitors once Windows has booted with catalyst or equally the same boot method with linux and a xorg.conf file.

Hope that helps.

EDIT: as the OP has just pointed out in a PM I don't use 8gb ram in my T60 only my T61 (apologies, it's late here ). Same thing still rings true for me in either the T60 or T61 - more than 2gb and I get the beeps at POST and no boot when PCI is set to primary.

[moltar]

Yes, I do have 8GB, and I am not willing to give it up So, please go over again, what's the procedure for booting with 8GB AND PCI video?

Thanks!

[RealBlackStuff]

What a BS story, 8GB in a T60p!
Your T60 can only accommodate 2x2GB RAM, and out of that only ~3GB is usable, due to chipset limitations!
If you managed to somehow put in 4GB chips, no wonder it does not work!

[iwishiwasinwhistler]

Hey RealBlackStuff you might want to read the thread a litlle more carefully before you call someone's post a BS story. Specifically the EDIT in my post where the OP had already pulled up my mistake via PM.

moltar, I'm not at home at the moment but will be later. I'll post up my BIOS settings and see if I can help you through this. Getting this to work with my T61 was driving me crazy and like you I was unwilling to give up my 8GB. I kept banging my head against the wall until I found a way.......

[RealBlackStuff]

Hey, this thread does not even belong in this T6x forum!
This should have been posted in the Thinkpad - General HARDWARE/SOFTWARE questions forum!

The FireGL 5200 is in 99% of all discussions the GPU in the T60p, not some desktop card!

(And you can't expect people to read every EDIT they might make to an older post)

[iwishiwasinwhistler]

Maybe the thread doesn't belong here in the T6x forum but hopefully it'll catch the attention of plenty of T series users, some of whom may well be in the same situation. When I was working through this high memory problem I couldn't find a single sucessful post anywhere on the web. Lots of stories about cards that didn't work and wouldn't boot and many of the threads just died out with no solution.

Hi moltar, I said I'd be back to you....

I'll try and put all the relevant info here but if anything's unclear please ask.

To get either of my machine's to boot (with more than 2GB) when docked with the external card (the T60p with 4GB and the T61 with 8GB) the "Default Primary Video Device" needs to be set to "Internal" in the BIOS. I also have my "Boot Display Device" set as "DVI+LCD" but I imagine this will be dependent on your setup. While this may seem counterintuitive, as we're trying to use the card to output video, I think there's some conflict that stops boot when the default device is set to "PCI Express". I'm guesssing it has to do with the higher amounts of memory causing problms with the PCI allocation on boot. I read a bit about it over on NBR in the eGPU thread. So, this should allow the notebook to boot with external card too. So far you'll likely only have display on the notebook LCD but at least you're past the dreaded beeps!! I had also spent lots of time thinking it was an IRQ problem but it isn't and this can all be left alone in the BIOS.

Once booted succesfully to linux you can confirm the external card is available to the sytem with "lspci" in the terminal. If you're using Windows 7 then the external card should be seen in device manager. It may well have a yellow mark next to it because you haven't installed the correct video drivers for it yet. I used the thread over at NBR for guidance with installing the correct video drivers. IIRC Win7 installed the correct one for the 5200. I no longer have the 5200 as I sold it. I now have a hacked together HD5850 for a bit more GPU power and I use the latest driver from AMD for it. However the 5200 worked once it was recognised by the system and had an appropriate driver. One of the great things about Win7 is that it handles multiple GPU's with different drivers so easily. My T61 has the intel GPU and that works as well as the T60p does with the Ati GPU. With linux the OSS radeon and intel driver play well together in this setup as long as you're comfortable manually configuring your xorg.conf including the correct PCI id's. I wasn't. But, I took the time to teach myself and work it out.

Okay, so you've probably still only got the notebook LCD working so (after a reboot - gpu driver installation) you should be able to use the native Win7 tool to arrange your desktop(s). This is where you should be able to turn on and configure the other monitors and extend your desktop from the notebook LCD to include all of them!!!! I have 4 in total. My notebook plus my HD5850 runs 3: a l220x and a T221 (which counts as 2 because it eats up 2 of the DL-DVI connections and has mega-resolution...but that's a whole other thread). When I had it my 5200 used to run 2 monitors, or my T221, so I'm sure it can work for you.

Good luck with it. Let us know what happens........

[moltar]

Hi iwishiwasinwhistler!

Thank yo so much for help! I haven't tried the settings yet, because I have a few more questions. What is that thread you reference about the drivers? I've tried looking up the drivers in the past, and the info was very scarce. I think I did find the right drivers at the end, but I am not sure.

Also, as a side question, there is a fan on the GPU, and also on the dock itself. Did you kill one of the fans? They are so noisy, it's ridiculous! It's literally like a jet taking off.

[iwishiwasinwhistler]

Yeah, I genuinely thought my dock was faulty when I first started to use it. The fan noise is distracting to put it mildly. How anyone could work with one of these going off!......

I think you've got 3 fans to contend with (not counting the one in your notebook). The 5200 PCI card has one on the GPU cooler which I left stock and tended to run with the plastic base/side of the dock unnattached for improved airflow. From memory it was worst at boot and then settled as it was used unless under heavy load. The other 2 are in the dock itself. Initially, I just put a piece of wire between the blades on both of these and jammed them motionless. Not ideal I know but it was that or my sanity! Longer term I've taken out the small one that is the most irritating and is supposed to cool the GPU although it seemed almost ineffectual. I've replaced the larger one that cools the PSU with a 60x60x25 multispeed Acoustifan that is virtually silent and doesn't trouble me at all. You'll find more info about fan replacement here.....

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- ... tures.html

.....although I managed to house mine internally mounted on rubber grommets so it's a little tidier and quieter.

I've moved on since the 5200 to an HD5850 using a riser cable seeing as it wont mount inside the dock. I use a modded Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev 2 GPU Cooler with a pair of big slow 500rpm Scythe 12cm fans on top to keep it all cool and quiet. Works really well. I found the following thread useful so hopefully other people will too......

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- ... -dock.html

.........the eGPU thread at NBR which I mentioned in another post is here......

http://forum.notebookreview.com/e-gpu-e ... mentations

......with tonnes of good info to search through. This was handy when I was first experimenting with my current setup.

moltar, I think I may have confused you. My HD5850 works equally well with either the ATI drivers (in windows) or open source drivers (in linux) but IIRC when I had the 5200 I just let Windows 7 take care of finding a suitable driver. It definitely worked. I'd be tempted to just dive in and try it......