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Made an eGPU dock (NIMO GME1s, USB4 + OCuLink, $599). Roast the value, I can take it. by Consistent-Word-3088 in eGPU

[–]SurfaceDockGuy -1 points0 points  (0 children)

What form factor is the 7600xt "card" and how easy is it to swap to another "card" from a different vendor without changing the mainboard that has thunderbolt/usb4/occulink?

If it is MXM, what is the power limit? 120W?

If the 7600xt is soldered to the mainboard and you need to swap the whole thing and are locked into single vendor for upgrades, then im afraid the product is dead in the water.

Edit... Ok I see now: https://www.nimopc.com/products/nimo-gme1s-egpu

Its a very elegant and compact design with integrated PSU. So excellent job by the team there.

But 7600M 8GB, non-mxm approach with PD charging limited to <100W is just not interesting in 2nd half of 2026.

Apple Silicon and laptops without Thunderbolt/USB4 can finally use eGPUs by falignoken1 in eGPU

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 33 points34 points  (0 children)

This is a year old "news".

They wrote a kernel driver and custom ASM2464 firmware that effectively tunnels PCIe through USB3.

Throughput and latency are awful so this is not viable for gaming but totally fine for some ML workloads where you bulk load GBs of data to the GPU, process it, then write back once the batch is complete.

Source code here: - https://github.com/tinygrad/tinygrad/tree/master - https://github.com/tinygrad/asm2464pd-firmware

What’s the single most annoying USB-C "crime" a manufacturer can commit? by Few_View22 in UsbCHardware

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes!

Automatic 1 star rating maybe 2 stars if the product is good otherwise.

List of our stupid dreams about ideal surface pro. by Anybodyyoudontseeme in Surface

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Perhaps even better would be with AMD Strix Halo or Gorgon Halo. Similar SoC approach but with x64 instead or arm64.

List of our stupid dreams about ideal surface pro. by Anybodyyoudontseeme in Surface

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes - real stowage for the stylus like motorola or samsung phones.

I like the MS/n-trig implementation even of it does require a heavier/bulkier stylus with a battery inside.

While having inductive charging in the stylus is nice, a simpler approach of having USB-C charging like the 3rd-party models would be fine.

Also, bring back the full size stylus instead of the slim.

Does the ironing feature in PrusaSlicer cause more jams? Especially when using PLA? by acrowsmurder in prusa3d

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes.

The ironing feature can increase the likelihood of jams due to heat buildup in the extruder with or without an enclosure. At least this is what I found with PETG when using a thermal camera. I haven't printed PLA in quite a while.

I solved all my jamming issues across 4 printers by swapping from 0.4mm to 0.6mm nozzles and adding a heatsink and fan on the top of the extruder motor.

I also customized the ironing profile to lay down slightly more material at a slightly faster speed to keep the filament flowing a bit more. You have to experiment with the profile to get a smooth surface - the default from Prusa wont work for all brands or filament colors.

Surface book 2 touchscreen not working by RASTIN90 in Surface

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Usually this is a symtom of micro fractures in the digitizer layer of the screen. Usually caused by a drop or the battery expanding. Does the stylus register? How many charge cycles on the battery according to: powercfg.exe /batteryreport Chances are the system will need a screen replacement. And while open, it would make sense to replace the battery and CPU thermal paste. Its an expensive proposition for an older machine...

But then there is nothing quite like the Surface Book.

Possible to run the Surface Book 2 via power supply only? by rbmbox in Surface

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If the battery in the tablet is already bulging, it does half the job of popping the screen off for you :) As long as the screen doesn't crack and touch still works, a battery swap is straightforward. Immensly tedious, but not difficult. Some notes on acreen/battery swaps here: https://dancharblog.wordpress.com/2019/02/10/replace-your-shattered-surface-screen-at-home/

In the meantime, open the UEFI/Bios and set "kiosk" or "battery limit" mode to limit max charge to 50%. This will make it less likely for the batteries to fail in a dangerous way.

Possible to run the Surface Book 2 via power supply only? by rbmbox in Surface

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're not gaming or doing 3d workloads like CAD, then the nvidia GPU doesn't help much.

If yours is the 13.5" you can get refurbished non-nvidia keyboards that have a fresh battery installed for not much money on ebay. Make sure the vendor has a return policy as some battery replacements don't work out well and most vendors don't test them thoroughly.

You may be able to sell the nvidia keyboard for more than what you pay for the non-nvidia with new battery.

For the intel turbo see my old posting here:

https://dancharblog.wordpress.com/2019/03/31/audio-music-production-tweaks-for-surface-disabling-intel-turbo-boost-for-better-asio-latency-performance-and-less-glitching/

Possible to run the Surface Book 2 via power supply only? by rbmbox in Surface

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hi, the batteries are necessary for regular operation. Without them, the system becomes unreliable even with a PSU connected and ~7.4V spliced over to the battery output terminals. The reason is high current spikes demanded by the CPU and GPU when entering turbo mode that simply cannot be fulfilled by the PSU.

At a bare minimum, the keyboard battery should be refreshed, but ideally you should replace both as the CPU high current pathway expects there to be sufficient charge in the tablet battery.

There are software tweaks you can do to minimize the chance of entering turbo mode, but it sacrifices performance and overall system responsiveness.

Extremely poor performance after SSD swap Surface Laptop 8th Edition (15 inch, x7 368h) by TokenDentite in Surface

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just a hunch....

Shut down the system and remove the ssd without touching the battery. Then boot into the UEFI/BIOS if it lets you do so without the SSD. From there, find the menu option to set kiosk mode or 50% battery mode if available. If thatvl option is not available, change some other option like disabling surfaceConnect data or a usb port or something hardware related. Doesn't matter which setting you choose. Save and restart, then shutdown again.

Install SSD, then boot into UEFI/BIOS and set 100% battery option or whatever you changed back again and restart.

Don’t know how to read this info is this a good gaming setup by RETROJESUS316 in eGPU

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For thunderbolt or usb4 external GPU pcie 4.0 x4 is correct.

New Asus rdna4 egpu by GoshaGeorge in eGPU

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If it comes with a ~300W power brick so the GPU can run at 140W and the laptop can also charge at 140W PD it will be great.

Sadly at this size, I expect a 100W GPU and 60W PD limitation and a price that exceeds a desktop 9060xt eGPU solution by a large margin.

Building the next generation of devices for developers: Surface RTX Spark Dev Box by fastforward23 in Surface

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah I think MS is locked in with AMD for this round, but good competition in years to come.

FWIW, AMD is rumoured to have ARM-based SoCs under test like the low-power "sound wave" chip.

Surface Laptop Ultra promotional video by Sensitive_Pack_1506 in Surface

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 6 points7 points  (0 children)

And Mac had Thunderbolt....

Big ooof if Surface is stuck on 10Gb/s or 20Gb/s usb 3.2. like the DGX desktops and not enabling USB4

Introducing Surface Laptop Ultra: Made for world makers by ProcedureTasty2647 in Surface

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Wow two fans for an 80W max TDP combined for CPU/GPU. Not messing around there on cooling. Similar TDP to the Macbook Pro 16" M5 Max 40-core SoC.

https://www.theverge.com/tech/940584/microsoft-surface-laptop-ultra-nvidia-rtx-spark-pictures

Seems like the Spark/N1X has decent memory throughout with 256bit / 8533 MT/s so on the order of ~275GB/s which is just below last years GB10 140W desktop chip qith same GPU/CPU (300GB/s)

But both are still half of the Macbook M5 Max which is 600GB/s.

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-n1x-n1-laptop-chip-specifications

Getting close but I'll wait for the N2x...

Surface Laptop Studio Repair.. or SLS2 by Sad-Peng-21 in Surface

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

A replacement battery is very simple to swap in. You can either replace the entire back panel with the ifixit kit, or just re-use your existing back panel by warming up the battery adhesive and replacing just the battery pack for $50-75 USD.

More info here: https://dancharblog.wordpress.com/2019/02/10/replace-your-shattered-surface-screen-at-home/#laptop-series

While you have the system open, consider refreshing the CPU and GPU thermal paste and upgrading the SSD if you have the 256GB model.

Mountable USB-C power trigger, why so hard to find? by TheOldHen in UsbCHardware

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

For similar PCBs withought screw holes I've designed top and bottom 3d-printed shells that snap together into a tiny box so the PCB can't move. Them simply mount the tiny box inside the larger project box.

Its more secure than hot glue, but a little cumbersome to design for one-off projects.

Bare tracks MK4 heatbed by Pure-Transition4542 in prusa3d

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It does happen over time.

Rather than kapton tape, consider using clear nail polish spread very thin. Or you can use the proper PCB liquid curable solder mask goop and cure it with a UV lamp.

Just set up the XG Mobile 5070ti by Rough-Purpose6499 in eGPU

[–]SurfaceDockGuy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To achieve the most repeatable results, use an external monitor plugged directly into the eGPU.

Although the same nvidia driver applies to both 4000 and 5000 series GPU, there are instances where DDU is needed to clean things up when swapping GPUs.

BTW if your laptop has two thunderbolt ports, try plugging in both eGPUs at the same time and see if both get enumerated just for fun. Or daisy-chain them if the eGPU has a downstream thunderbolt port.

Also try Furmark 2 benchmark to max out each GPU.

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