Win7 - using only the secondary pci-e adapter [disable primary]

[nando4]

Hi Everyone,

Wondering if someone can assist?? This primarily to correct an issue with DIY ViDOCK, xxxx://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5324240 where a expresscard-to-pcie adapter allows notebook users to attached desktop video cards.

The issue being systems with > 2.5GB need to remove RAM for the external video card to work. The root cause being that both the onboard and external graphics require 256MB windows. Systems with > 2.5GB RAM do not have ample space to accomodate both Windows. This issue occurs for both 32-bit and 64-bit variants.

Under XP, I was able to manually set my the onboard X3100's graphics window to be zero, disable it entirely at the chipset level with XP appearing to simply find and use the next available graphics adapter. Great.. I can get 3GB working on a GMA950+HD4670 HP DV2000 that way.

Problem arised with Win7. The same strategy has not given any useful results. If the onboard graphics resources are disabled, the onboard graphics reverts to VGA mode (or a blank screen), with the HD4670 external graphics not even starting. It would seem the primary adapter *MUST BE* activated for the secondary to work.

Can anyone suggest any registry hacks or workarounds to allow the XP style of funtionality to work. I really just want the X3100 graphics resources disabled, and the HD4670 to be active and present. Surely it must be possible. THere is no way for me to otherwise make my secondary appear as the primary display (ie: the VGA BIOS is still the X3100 bios..).

Any tips/pointers?

Edited December 10, 2009 by nando4