NUC Skull Canyon + AkiTio + XFX RX480 = BSOD

[Ruroni]

I got an AkiTio Node and an XFX RX480; trying to hook it up to a NUC Skull Canyon. Whenever I try to install the display drivers, I get a BSOD on my Win10pro ver 1607. The error message reads 'stop code: THREAD STUCK IN DEVICE DRIVER'.



I first went with the traditional install from the AMD driver setup file. When that first BSOD, I tried updating the driver from Device Manager.



When that failed I used DDU to remove drivers, then I tried to cheat a little by installing the drivers while in Safe mode (RegEdit->Run TB3 service). I was able to get the drivers installed, but then when I tried to boot into full mode, the computer boots into the windows logon screen and then it BSOD. Turning off the eGPU enclosure allows the machine to resume normal operations, but if it's running fine, and then I turn on the AkiTio Node, it BSOD.


I am a bit at a loss, here; and feeling kind of hopeless.


I am considering disabling the integrated GPU, but I am a little scared that doing so might leave me completely blind, and unable to get into BIOS to re-enable the iGPU.



Anyone have any suggestions?



Or does anyone know if there would be a way to reset the BIOS so that the iGPU would re-enable itself, in the event that trying to cut out all and any display other than TB3->RX480 doesn't really fix the situation either?

 

[Ruroni]

After the failure with the XFX RX480, I ordered a Gainward GTX 1070. It’s Chinese with a Chinese name 追风版 (I can’t speak Chinese).

Plugging that in essentially insta-worked, right after the drivers [download from NVidia’s website] were installed Device Manger identified the card as a GTX 1070.

However…

The system has been exhibiting some rather odd behavior. When the iGPU is not plugged in, the Intel Display Drivers activate a Virtual Desktop that is invisible to the user and Windows defaults to it as the primary display making it nigh impossible to navigate Windows. I figured the easy solve for this would be to just plug in the iGPU, so that I could get into settings and make the GTX1070 the primary –and sole– display, and it works; so long as the iGPU remains plugged in. Once the iGPU is removed, the system reverts to enabling an (invisible) primary desktop and only showing the extended desktop.

While I was mucking about I figured I’d take a gander at what the performance might be like. Here’s what I got:
Total 1696
CPU 4209
Graphics 1535
GPU1: 9.95fps
GPU2: 8.85

I also loaded Skyrim up. Skyrim said it could not detect my graphics card and defaulted everything to minimum. I manually overrode and set it to ultra, maximizing fade distances and whatnot. The Steam FPS counter showed 60 throughout, with the occasional dip into 59.

I guess at this point I want to figure out whether it’s possible to make the GTX1070 the sole display adapter, or if the iGPU always needs to be plugged in (essentially necessitating a minimum of two monitors at all times).