Getting a 2x PCIe Port from a MiniPCIe Port for an External Graphics Card

While I was working on this, it came to my attention that a miniPCIe port actually has some reserved pins to be used as another PCIe lane. So it should be possible to get a 2x port from just one miniPCIe port.

Please read this before reading the rest of my post.
Also read the following PDF:
http://leotardi.no-ip.com/html/eeepc/download/pciexpress_mini_cem_10.pdf

Now that you're up to speed on things, here is what I have been able to find with a DMM:
http://i896.photobucket.com/albums/ac167/moral_HaZaRd/nowpins.jpg
The picture shows which pins I found were connected to GND.

There is a resistance between pins 49 and 47. There is no connection between pins 41 and 39. There is no connection between pins 33 and 31. There is a resistance between pins 25 and 23.

Next I will check the voltage between pins 49&47, pins 41&39, pins 33&31 and also pins 25&23 while my notebook is on.

Cooling

My notebook reached 85C in 1min while running ORTHOS. I changed the thermal paste to some coolermaster paste (since it's what I had) the maximum temp went to 74C.
I removed the old paste with some mentholated spirits. I spread the new paste evenly and on both the CPU and the heatsink. I made the thinnest layer that I could and the most even layer.

I then undervolted the cpu by using RMclock (I followed the guide here, the maximum temp now is 62C. I took my volts from:
6x 0.8500V
7x 0.9500V
8x 1.0357V
9x 1.1375V
10x 1.2375V

To:
6x 0.8500V
7x 0.8500V
8x 0.8625V
9x 0.9125V
10x 0.9750V

This is when my CPU is @2ghz, when I overclock I increase the voltage just enough to keep it stable.

When I overclock to 2.7ghz the cpu gets above 85C, soon I will install a small 6mm thick DC 5V Blower Fan. I will connect it directly to usb power and use a small switch to turn it on/off.

Overclocked by modifying my PLL (clock generator)

The first thing I wanted to do when I got my Toshiba Tecra A9 was to overclock it. I tried a program called setfsb. I went through all of the available clock generators in setfsb and none seemed to work. I decided that I had to open the notebook to check what PLL was actually used. On my motherboard there was an ICS chip. More specifically ICS9LPR501SGLF.
I downloaded the datasheet for my PLL.The closest option in setfsb was ICS9LPR501HGLF. I press getfsb which does read the right frequency. Then I move the slider (top slider) a little bit and then press setfsb. The HDD lights up, I can move the mouse but not interact with anything. Then a few seconds later I get the BSOD and then the laptop restarts. This happens even if I don't move the slider, just press getfsb then setfsb. This also happens when I "Select source for SATA clock" to be "Sata = PLL2" That is, change bit 1 of byte 0 to 1. Which is what setfsb tries to change, among other things, but this is where it goes wrong. So the reasons setfsb didn't work for me are:
1. My TME strap status (read only) reads 1 = no overclocking.
2. My system did not like how setfsb's ICS9LPR501HGLF overclock was changing the SATA clock from PLL main to PLL2

Here are photos of my PLL: before after and after the modification.Basically as you can see from the photo I found that next to the resistor there was a GND pad and a pad that was connected to the TME pin (pin 4). I found this by using a multimeter. I tested points on the motherboard with the system chassis to find GND. I tested points on the motherboard with the pin 4 (TME pin) to find the second pad. So I removed the resistor and put it into the new position. I did some tests with a DMM to check my work and then closed the laptop back up. I started the laptop and it’s working perfectly, the best part is that now TME = 0, confirmed by reading the TME_READBACK register 9 bit 6 being 0. I used setfsb to increase the fsb a little, and I took a picture of my screen with a camera since setfsb causes my laptop to freeze. After the laptop restarted I then manually copied the register values that I saw in my camera to setfsb, except I did not change the source for the SATA clock. So bit 1 of byte 0 is 0. Then when I pressed apply it worked without freezing my notebook. Here is the screenshot. I sent an email to Abo (creator of setfsb) and provided this info to him. He then gave me a test version that adding ICS9LPR501SGLF PLL support. The only difference now with setfsb between ICS9LPR501HGLF and ICS9LPR501SGLF is that the bit that is used to select the source for the SATA clock is unchanged in SGLF. Now using setfsb I was able to overclock my FSB to over 270mhz, my CPU frequency went from 2ghz to over 2.7ghz and is stable without and modifications to ram timings.

Here is an album of successful OC screenshots.

More images:





I have a thread in a forum that has more information here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=393027