T61p Advanced Dock w/ nVidia GTX 745 Problem

[BuzzTTC]

Hello !

So I recently bought an Advanced Dock for my T61p (spec in signature) and I connected to it a nVidia GeForce GTX 745 to it's PCI-E slot.
First of all, it won't POST docked (discoloration on LCD).
If turned on (undocked) and docked afterwards, I can see the GPU in Device Manager without the drivers installed.
So there are 2 uninstalled devices PCI Device and VGA Controller.
PCI Device appeared to be the nVidia HD Audio Device - it installs out of the box with Windows Update.
But when I try to install the driver for the GPU, the screen resolution goes 640x480 (trying to install the driver) and I get a BSOD during the installation.
Is there a way to install it silently ? Is this a docking station PCI bus limitation ?
Is the GPU actually too powerful for it ? It a slim form factor version of GTX 745 that fits perfectly the PCI-E tray (not the one with advanced cooling etc).
I couldn't find any proper information about this kind of situations, so any help is welcome.

Thank You !

[p.art]

Hi,

Remove one of your RAM sticks and try again. Let's see if it helps.

I own such a docking station and a GeForce GT 640. For me it hasn't been possible to use it in the dock with more than 3 GB RAM in my ThinkPad T61 (both Intel- and Nvidia-based models). I guess it has something to do with the virtual memory addressing space conflict but I haven't dug through it to much.

--
p.art

[RMSMajestic]

I've tried HD7750 and GTX 645 (this is an dell OEM card, more powerful than GTX650).

GTX 645 has 65W TDP according to wiki.
It's hard to tell the TDP of my HD7750. According to wiki the 900mhz/GDDR5 hd7750 has 75W TDP and the 800mhz DDR3 one has 55W. Mine is 800mhz GDDR5 so I just assume it's more or less the same as GTX 645.

The first thing I recommend, is to have a clean new operating system (at least windows 7).
The second thing is, if you want to boot with larger than 2GB RAM, set the boot device to "internal graphics device" in the BIOS. On my T61 with intel graphics, it works perfectly fine. You can use the external card on the secondary monitor.

I had occasional failed to start problems on both cards.
Apart form that HD7750 works fine without any problem. Run games like a beast, also earned me 50 GBP from bit mining.
But GTX 645 seemed to hate T61, just as it's great great grandfather G84 did. I had BSODs during 3dmark13, driver installation and numerous other occasions. However I'm not sure if it's caused by lack of total power due to my QC mod, or it's just the fact that nvidia totally s***ed so hard.

I have not tried with T61 NVS140m/FX570m machines for external graphics.

[BuzzTTC]

Thank you guys for sharing the experience.

First of all, yes, it boots docked only if I remove 2 out of 4GB of RAM.
I couldn't test until today the GPU output itself as I just got my LG TV shipped yesterday.
GTX 745 outputs through VGA and HDMI only. My TV has HDMI and Composite.
When I connect the docked GPU to my TV, in " Screen Resolution" it detects the 2nd screen and also detects that the image is sent from the discrete GPU, altough the TV model and GPU model are not detected.

In device manager there are 2 not installed devices: PCI Device and Standard VGA
PCI device is the audio from HDMI and I can install it manually (344.11 Driver) without any issues.
When I try to install the VGA controller driver, both manually and using the setup.exe, the resolution changes to 800x600 and then it gives me a BSOD.

The strange thing about this whole story is that at my first ever boot, Windows installed both drivers without any issues and in Device Manager I had 2 GPUs correctly working and detected.
I couldn't achieve a similar result ever after.

Please, if you've seen any information related to this case, post some links here.
I would be very grateful.

Thank you !

[BuzzTTC]

UPDATE

I was able to install the driver by disabling the integrated nVidia Quadro FX 570M but it still didnt output on external TV.
I have chosen in BIOS to boot from PCI Express and set it to VGA+LCD and then it booted directly through HDMI.
It works properly, tested Autodesk Inventor.
BUT, as p.art said, it is possible to boot with 2GB only.
Still looking for a solution
Will keep the thread updated.

[emeraldgirl08]

This past year I had tried the graphics card in a dock configuration as well. In my case I used a Radeon HD6570 which is rated with a TDP of ~45W. It worked okay (albeit noisy) if I ran a game or even switched web pages but I learned to live with it. I was able to use the 4gb in my T500 by starting the T500 first then placing it on the dock. If I did not take that approach then the power would cycle and I could never get to desktop.

Not sure if you saw this thread a couple of us had contributed to- in case you have not here it is if you are interested.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=113724

I was lucky and had started an internship this past summer that afforded me to build a desktop to replace the advanced dock+T500 setup. Now my X201T (when handwritten notes are needed) or Chromebook (battery life) are used for light-duty and my desktop is for heavier applications. All in all it was a fairly fun learning experiment for me! Good luck on your setup!

[BuzzTTC]

That's quite interesting, but it doesnt work for me that way. When exactly should be the "momentum" when you dock it ? Tried immediately after thinkpad logo, while the OS boot under Microsoft logo - didnt work.
The thing is that when I boot it successfully, in device manager I only have one GPU adapter : the docked one. I'm not able even to see it (on-board Quadro FX 570M). Also I tried to boot with diagnostics and extended memory test + memory protection [off] - and combinations of those with no success - i get the memory issue alarm beep.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOwjfeV ... 4lkpRlp93Q

[emeraldgirl08]

I put it on the dock until I was in desktop. The output would then automatically switch to my monitor.

[QWERTY Andreas]

I use a Expresscard based eGPU solution on my frankenpad (expresscard => AMD Radeon HD6850)

I can only get it working when i connect the Card AFTER Windows is booted. So i boot the laptop, then i insert the expresscard. I have 6 GB RAM

[BuzzTTC]

UPDATE: It did not boot successfully every time, but I've found out that the trick is to boot it docked with the lid closed! Haven't tried other BIOS settings, but mine are all set to default.

Guys, great news, apparently with the new Windows 10 (pro x64 in my case) the resource conflict is fixed. In my case it works even without hotdocking the laptop. BIOS settings are set to default.
Enjoy your superdock

[BuzzTTC]

Alright guys, seems like I've found the pattern to boot it up properly
At least it works seamlessly for me in 100% of cases. (Win10Pro x64)

1. First of all, remove RAM and install the drivers for your GPU's while on max 2GB of RAM, and make sure it works as it should.
2 .Put back your RAM modules. (4GB in my case)
3. Power on T61p on battery and dock it when the ThinkPad logo appears
4. Boot up the operating system and let it fully load (~2-5min).
5. Turn Off T61p: Start -> Power -> Shutdown and let it fully shutdown (~1min)
6. Power on T61p and let it do the magic (~5min). A fuzzy image will appear in POST - wait.
While booting up, you might hear a short system beep, which usually means a successful boot

Please let me know if it worked for you guys too.
Have a great day

http://s13.postimg.org/bk8zy50v9/Untitled2.png

[cadillacmike68]

so Buzz,

With this procedure you can have a graphics card in the T61 AND have, say, 8GB ram, and it will boot properly after doing this one time - correct?

Is this problem only for T61s with nvidia GPUs or are Intel GPU T61s having the same issue (won't boot with graphics card in dock and over 2GB or 3GB RAM)???

I never put a graphics card in any of my docks, but might want to for this T61 8898-AGM. It has the 2nd best CPU available (2.4GHz), 8GB Ram, 2.5TBs of HDD (or 1.5TB plus DVD combo). Only thing lacking is graphics power.

[SurrealMustard]

Alright guys, seems like I've found the pattern to boot it up properly
At least it works seamlessly for me in 100% of cases. (Win10Pro x64)

1. First of all, remove RAM and install the drivers for your GPU's while on max 2GB of RAM, and make sure it works as it should.
2 .Put back your RAM modules. (4GB in my case)
3. Power on T61p on battery and dock it when the ThinkPad logo appears
4. Boot up the operating system and let it fully load (~2-5min).
5. Turn Off T61p: Start -> Power -> Shutdown and let it fully shutdown (~1min)
6. Power on T61p and let it do the magic (~5min). A fuzzy image will appear in POST - wait.
While booting up, you might hear a short system beep, which usually means a successful boot

Please let me know if it worked for you guys too.
Have a great day

http://s13.postimg.org/bk8zy50v9/Untitled2.png

Interesting. So you're able to use both GPUs at the same time? Would this allow you to have three monitors simultaneously (two on the PCI-Express card and the laptop's display off of the Quadro)? Do both cards use the same driver or do they use different ones?

Also, something to consider for Windows 8.1 and 10 is that they are set to enable "hybrid shutdown" by default, which means that when you press "shut down", it only logs off and puts the computer in hibernate, which may cause conflicts when adding a major piece of hardware. To fully shut it down, you must either disable this feature or use the shutdown command at the command line (or on the start screen)

[franz4ever]

Good evening (it's 9pm in Italy now ) everybody!

I can share my experience if it can be of any help!

I have a T601 intel based FrankenPad with 8GB DDR2 installed and a Asus R7 240 2 GB DDR3 in the Advanced Dock;
My BIOS is set to "Internal" Default Primary Video Device and "ThinkPad LCD" as Boot Display Device:
with this setup I can drive 3 external monitors through VGA + HDMI + DVI of the R7 without the internal ThinkPad display (it stays off)
and I can have 2 external monitors (say VGA + HDMI or other combinations) + the internal LCD;

I'm using Windows 10 PRO 64Bit and everything works flawlessly... I can boot normally with any display combination and I can even "Hot plug"
and "Hot unplug" the laptop without errors or system hang-ups (I must obviously press the eject button on the Dock before unplugging).
The R7 is rated at 50W and the Dock has the Lenovo branding (I assume it's a newer model...), the power fan of the dock is very quiet when
using the internal LCD, but as soon as I open something on one of the external monitors it ramps up and becomes a vacuum

Dear BuzzTTC, maybe your problem lies with the discrete nVidia graphics?

Just my 2c!

Bye!