[Sticky] NVidia is killing off mPCIe/NGFF.M2 eGPUs : error 43 with 372.90 or newer driver  

Posted by: carage

 

I have a ThinkPad W520 connected to a GTX 1080 via EXP GDC Beast ExpressCard,

375.63 has been great for me, it is even much more reliable than any of the 372 and earlier series.

Things have been great until this morning when I noticed the external monitor no longer has a signal,

as I suspected, Windows 10 decided to sneakily update the driver to 376.53 WHQL in the middle of the night.

I reinstalled 375.70 over it and followed the instructions to turn off automatic driver updates in the control panel,

but a few hours later I found Windows 10 did it again. 

Is there anyway to tell Windows 10 not to mess with a particular set of drivers permanently?

I don't really want to turn off automatic driver updates/installation for all devices as I find the feature to be pretty convenient,

but I also hate to reinstall display drivers every morning when I wake up or come back home after work. 

 

Additionally, my patience is wearing thin on this.  As nVidia is apparently ignoring those of us on "legacy connections",

I might as well get a ThinkPad P50 and join the TB3 crowd or build a desktop and ditch the whole EGPU scene altogether.

   

I had the same issue with Win 10 updating the driver all the time (even when i was in a game!)

If you go to your device manager after windows updates to 376 again, you can right-click on your graphics card, go to properties -> driver and then choose the third option (go back/ revert to an old driver). After that windows will revert to your old driver version and wont install it again.

If you have problem with windows reinstalling newer drivers, try this  https://www.howtogeek.com/263851/how-to-prevent-windows-from-automatically-updating-specific-drivers/  

Yeah.. I have Windows 7 Professional 64 bit and a GTX 970 I am trying to get working and I have error Code 43 on the driver version 378.66. I will try some earlier drivers because it happened when I upgraded from driver version 353.62. Just thought I should let you know, because you said GTX9xx and older cards are reportedly not be affected

Posted by: RubbaBoy

 

Yeah.. I have Windows 7 Professional 64 bit and a GTX 970 I am trying to get working and I have error Code 43 on the driver version 378.66. I will try some earlier drivers because it happened when I upgraded from driver version 353.62. Just thought I should let you know, because you said GTX9xx and older cards are reportedly not be affected

   

This is a constantly updated thread based on user reports. We may be chasing a moving target with NVidia changing their drivers to adversely affect eGPU users. Pls rollback your driver to older versions to see when your error 43 started.

Aw snap. This is going to get annoying in a hurry if they start trying to close down on this with every one of their GPUs. We've had people move to GTX9XX cards after returning their 10-series to avoid being stuck with an older driver.

Granted, it isn't a huge issue, as nVidia is not great on supporting older GPUs, so people won't be missing on a lot, unless nVidia adds new features (like their promised Vulkan oriented driver revision)...

Argh.

I guess AMD is the way to go.

PE4C (EC) + msi 1070GTX on lenovo W530

372.90 -> Error 43

372.70 -> Error 43

368.81 -> Perfect but drivers older (july 2016 !)

dont try 375.63, 375.70. Other says its ok.

dont try newest drivers as 378.49, 378.66,  with hot fix 378.77

Posted by: nando4

 

 

How to check if the candidate eGPU port is hotplug enabled?

Example below: a Dell E6540 (that I'm currently using). I find the wifi card to identify the mPCIe port that could host an eGPU. Then I click the hosting PCIe bridge to check if hotplugging support is enabled.   

A couple of questions, I've got 2 empty slots, one for wifi and another M.2 slot for an SSD. When I checked on HWiNFO, Bus, I don't see any entry for PCI Express, as both slots are empty. Is there a way for me to check if they would be hotpluggable at the moment?

When you mention that the WiFi slot will host the eGPU, is it possible for me to host it in the M.2 slot, as my mother board would support PCIe 3.0 x4 speed in that one instead?

Yes, m.2 eGPU is doable, and it is the best performing eGPU interface available today. The BPlus PE4C v4.1 is a suitable adapter, but it is expensive as heck. The new GDC Beast v9.0 should also have this connectivity option, but it is still hard to find outside of Chinese speaking sites.

And do you know if I could still have that problem with incompatibility due to the hotplug issue in the M.2 slot?

If it's possibly a problem, any idea if I could check its value if it's empty at the moment?

Yes, this issue happens on m.2 as well. HWiNFO should show you the details of a slot even if the slot is empty, assuming the slot is enabled if it is not populated, and not disabled by the BIOS. On my ZBook, I can see an empty slot off a Pericom PCIe bridge sitting under the PCH in the PCIe hierarchy. But the m.2 slots are not showing up at all. If I had to guess, the slot shown is the Expresscard slot, while the m.2 are simply disabled by the BIOS as they are not populated (and they may be whitelisted, so they won't show until an approved device is installed in them).

I can see the PCIe slots under the Motherboard-System Slots menu, however, they don't seem to appear under the Bus section, so it seems I cannot check whether or not I could have this problem with the hotplugable option... :S

Someone the attachment failed to get uploaded...

This is what I can see:

I don't know what to tell you, to be honest. Nothing showing is a little weird...

I dont know if someone try this or is this is not recomended but:

-I install an unlocked BIOS

-Enable hotplug

-And how installing newest nvidia drivers 😀

And.. eror 43..  I think enabling that allow to install the newest drivers :c

Posted by: Nikouw

 

And.. eror 43..  I think enabling that allow to install the newest drivers :c

   

Try to enable discrete GPU in BIOS.

I just heard that the new 378.78 drivers are delivering huge gains in DX12 performance,

too bad we are stuck on older drivers because of this ExpressCard/mPCIe/NGFF debacle.

http://www.pcgamer.com/nvidias-37878-driver-delivers-giant-gains-in-several-directx-12-games/?utm_content=buffer0cf10&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=buffer-maxpcfb

Yeah but NVidia say -33% for TOmbRaider (but its versus the 368.81) not the last from january, only +2%

I run actually on 368.81% ;-( others have error 43.

Dont try last

Posted by: Sylvain60

 

Yeah but NVidia say -33% for TOmbRaider (but its versus the 368.81) not the last from january, only +2%

I run actually on 368.81% ;-( others have error 43.

 

Dont try last

   

Hi Sylvain60, which gtx card are you using?

Hello everyone!

There is a very tricky workaround to avoid error 43 on GTX10xx videocards (!will not work with 1050 and 1060 3GB cards!), which is quiet popular in our russian egpu community. I didn't try it, but i have read a lot of successful stories about it. So do it on your own risk!

Here is the instruction:

1. Download from nVidia archive 368.81 and 378.78 drivers.

2. Uninstall all current nVidia drivers using DDU, and reboot (or it will be rebooted automatically).

3. Install 368.81 and DO NOT REBOOT your system.

4. Open your registry editor, proceed to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE and delete nvidia_rebootneeded. (thanks Cacada for this additional step)

5. Start installing 378.78 (not clean install!).

6. Reboot your system after install procedure will be done and there will be no error 43, and videocard will work perfectly with 378.78 driver (of course you still can't update to a newer drivers).

 You may faced with not working "GeForce Experience" (if you do "Express" install, or if you choose it during "Custom" installation), but as for me, i don't think it is useful software. I always install only driver and Physx.

Please let me know if it will be helpful for someone.

(Edited due to new information)

Hey igorgiv

I just tried these instructions on a non hotplug enabled (locked bios) machine and received error a system restart is required.

So I removed the registry key under hklm/software /nvidia/nvidia_rebootneeded and installed 378 via express (this installed 3d vision etc and I couldn't select options as it's express) 

Rebooted and... It works! 

Amazing igorgiv!

Hi Cacada!

I'm very happy to hear that it was helpful! I think that we should add the instruction with your registry trick.

Btw, i just thought, what if we use the latest driver instead 378.57? Maybe it will also work? We need someone to try this. 😉

P.S. Did you make any performance tests to see if there any difference between old drivers and 378.57?

I got maybe 150 pts more on firestrike benchmark. 

I noticed Doom ran a lot better in vulkan too, but not more than about 10 percent, and I don't have a benchmark. 

I will try this method with latest driver in the next day or so and report back. 

Posted by: Cacada

 

I got maybe 150 pts more on firestrike benchmark. 

I noticed Doom ran a lot better in vulkan too, but not more than about 10 percent, and I don't have a benchmark. 

I will try this method with latest driver in the next day or so and report back. 

   

Hi Cacada, congrats.  Can you please give more detail of your hardware setup and also your steps, like how you installed the first driver (through Windows or Nvidia Installer, etc.), how to edit the registery, and your steps to install the newer driver over it.  Thanks a lot.

No problem.

I am running Lenovo Y480 i7-3610QM with EXP GDC 8.4 via mPCIe

GTX 1060 6GB EVGA connected with 1 x 6 Pin

I followed Igors steps as follows :

Downloaded 368.81 and 378.57

Ran DDU in safe mode - removed all and rebooted.

Installed 368.81 - standard installer (Chose Custom  - Driver and Physx)

DID NOT REBOOT

Opened regedit and went to HKEYLOCALMACHINE/SOFTWARE/

Deleted the key NVIDIA_REBOOTNEEDED

Installed 378.57 via installer - EXPRESS

Rebooted

Voila

Cacada,

Thanks a lot.  I have a very similar setup with a Lenovo G510 non-hotplug.  I'll try this right away.

Just one question, I cannot find 378.57 on guru3d.  Do you mean 378.77?

Cacada,

NM, found it.  It is listed on the download first page instead of the Video Drivers list.  Wonder if 378.78 will work also.  I'll try.

Sure, DavidC I am busy actually enjoying my gpu setup right now instead of fixing it - so feel free to go ahead and try latest driver.

I'm pretty sure it will work with same strategy!

Posted by: IgorGIV

 

Hello everyone!

There is a very tricky workaround to avoid error 43 on GTX10xx videocards, which is quiet popular in our russian egpu community. I didn't try it, but i have read a lot of successful stories about it. So do it on your own risk!

Here is the instruction:

1. Download from nVidia archive 368.81 and 378.57 drivers.

2. Uninstall all current nVidia drivers using DDU, and reboot (or it will be rebooted automatically).

3. Install 368.81 and DO NOT REBOOT your system.

4. Start installing 378.57 in Express mode (not clean install!).

5. Reboot your system after install procedure will be done and there will be no error 43, and videocard will work perfectly with 378.57 driver (of course you still can't update to a newer drivers).

 You may faced with not working "GeForce Experience", but as for me, i don't think it is useful software. I always install only driver and Physx.

Please let me know if it will be helpful for someone.

   

holy moly this is huge, I might get a 1050ti next month, did you know anyone success with it (the 1050ti)? awesome piece of information.

survfate,

Unfortunately i haven't heard about 1050 users who tried this instruction. And i don't think it will be helpful for 1050 users at all as far as this videocard doesn't have support in 368.81. And this driver is required for this trick. Anyway, you can try this and write here whether it works for you or not. Or maybe it would be possible to make this with other videocard which doesn't have error 43, and then (after successful installation) replace it with 1050?

Posted by: IgorGIV

 

survfate,

Unfortunately i haven't heard about 1050 users who tried this instruction. And i don't think it will be helpful for 1050 users at all as far as this videocard doesn't have support in 368.81. And this driver is required for this trick. Anyway, you can try this and write here whether it works for you or not. Or maybe it would be possible to make this with other videocard which doesn't have error 43, and then (after successful installation) replace it with 1050?

 

   

I successfully modded 372.70 to "work" with the 1050 (extremely poor performance). I'm sure the same could be done with 368.81.

Tried installing newer drivers over the older modded drivers, but I would always end up with a black screen. I still have the 1050 but I really don't have any ambition to play around with it any further now that I have a working RX 480.

Posted by: Cacada

 

No problem.

I am running Lenovo Y480 i7-3610QM with EXP GDC 8.4 via mPCIe

GTX 1060 6GB EVGA connected with 1 x 6 Pin

 

I followed Igors steps as follows :

Downloaded 368.81 and 378.57

Ran DDU in safe mode - removed all and rebooted.

Installed 368.81 - standard installer (Chose Custom  - Driver and Physx)

DID NOT REBOOT

Opened regedit and went to HKEYLOCALMACHINE/SOFTWARE/

Deleted the key NVIDIA_REBOOTNEEDED

Installed 378.57 via installer - EXPRESS

Rebooted

Voila

   

Thanks to IgorGIV and Cacada.

I followed these exact steps and was able to get below system to work:

- Lenovo G510, Wins 8.1, factory BIOS (Non Hotplug), mPCIx, EXP GDC 8.4, GTX 1060 6GB

Additionally, I tried to install 378.78 over 372.70 and it didn't work (error 43).  Tried 378.78 (the newest driver) over 368.81 and it worked.  Will see how stable this will be.

Have you checked that this not lead to a fake install and it is not just a trick that fake the newest drivers install? Like check the revision of the file or if there is any real fps gain, like it should be on pascal series. Before reboot and after the laptop reboot/shutdown.

If yes, sir i take my hat off and say you did a pretty damn good job finding this trick!

DavidC,

Thanks for your report! Glad to see that it works even with the newest drivers!

wimpzilla,

It's not my merit, i only post this method here because it already helped some people. Anyway Cacada reported that performance in games increased (i have already asked him about the difference between two drivers on previous page). But you are absolutely right - we need more tests and reports before confirm this method working properly. 

However i fear that nVidia will kill this method soon. Btw, does anybody know why did they do this with us? Any official statement about killing egpu in new drivers?

So, what's the next step if i have a modded bios to enable the hotplug for the 1050 Ti?

Can i install the latest driver and have it running?

(Bought the eGPU setup but didnt check that my laptop didn't have mPCIE and only NGFF. Have already ordered the NGFF cable and it's on its way)

Have had 2.blue screens so far only when watching YouTube. Not sure if related. 

Dxgmm1. Sys stop error which seems to be related to video driver. 

Having said that I had no issues with any games over a few hours yesterday using this trick. 

I'm curious if it is actually using the latest drivers as wimpzilla suggests, DavidC have you tried some benchmarks with the very latest drivers esp with dx12?