(Solved)J4205-ITX HDMI output

any news on this topic? I am also facing the HDMI issues. Bios 1.40 installed and LSPCON 1.66 (as 1.72 does not work). This is ridicolous!

It's nice to hear that you had success with your J4205-ITX and the HDMI port.  From what I gather not everyone experiences problems with the HDMI port but, for those that do, the problem can be quite frustrating to resolve and some never do.  I get the impression that the problem could possibly be traced to anomalies with the HDMI interface and some LCD displays/TVs, where the EDID doesn't properly identify the characteristics of the connected display.  I'm not sure if this is caused by the LSPCON chip, the connected display, the HDMI cable, the Intel video driver, or some combination of the four.

Like you, I never had a problem with the HDMI port and my display when the Windows 10 Microsoft Basic Display Adapter Driver was installed.  The problems would start once the Intel video driver installed.  Of course the Microsoft driver provides a fixed basic set of display characteristics so there is practically no display configuration available when using that driver.  The Intel driver provides for a lot of configuration and it is my guess this is where the problems begin, when the Intel driver attempts to interrogate the display characteristics and fails to properly do so.

I have read where some people have installed the third-party Custom Resolution Utility application to override the EDID with a user defined EDID.  Apparently this solves the problem provided the display remains the same.  I'm not fond of installing third-party workaround software, if it can be avoided, so I never gave CRU a try.

It has been about twelve weeks since ASRock released J4205-ITX BIOS updates 1.5 and 1.6.  If you have been following some of the threads on this forum you will know that those BIOS updates were pulled a few days later because there were reports that some users where bricking their boards, apparently depending on the BIOS installation method that was used.

I downloaded the two BIOS updates shortly after they were released, but I never installed them because I assumed they were not ready for prime time.  My J4205-ITX continues to work with my display HDMI interface, with caveats, plus using a DVI to HDMI adapter cable along with BIOS 1.4 and LSPCON firmware 1.66 installed.  I didn't want to potentially make the situation worse by installing 1.5 and 1.6.

I've been reading that the new Gemini Lake boards (J4105-ITX and J5005-ITX) don't use the LSPCON chip for HDMI so that could be an option for those that have deep pockets and are ready to chuck the J4205-ITX.  For those that are using Windows 10, and don't have a Retail License, swapping in a Gemini Lake board will probably leave them begging Microsoft to reactivate the Windows license.

My last contact with Microsoft activation support had me speaking with a nice gentleman from India.  Neither of us could understand one another.  After a frustrating ten minutes of "What?", "Huh?", and "Could you repeat that?" he sent me to a synthesized voice that recited a long activation code which did the trick.  When calling activation support perseverance is probably a virtual.

Anyway, with the introduction of these new Gemini Lake boards I'm left to wonder if patches will ever be available for the older misfit Apollo Lake boards.  In addition to the HDMI problems, the Apollo Lake boards have several exploitable Intel vulnerabilities; Intel Management Engine, Meltdown, and Spectre.  I believe Intel has addressed these vulnerabilities with patches for the J4205, which were released to production in 2017 and February 2018, but I'm not sure if ASRock will make these patches available.  I haven't read any news that said patches are on the way.

I have been following the ASRock Support -> Latest BIOS Update list for about twelve weeks, waiting for another J4205-ITX BIOS release.  For many weeks I found no activity then, in the past two weeks or so, there have been about thirty BIOS updates released for various boards.  Unfortunately none of those updates have been for the J4205-ITX.

So what can I say, it has been a slow night and I had time to write.  All the best to ya and enjoy your J4205-ITX with the working HDMI display.

https://newsroom.intel.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2018/04/microcode-update-guidance.pdf

https://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-Custom-Resolution-Utility-CRU



Edited by Event4101 - 06 Jun 2018 at 11:43am

Thank you guys for posting your experiences. Unfortunately this doesn't work for me so I still hope that ASRock releases a proper Bios / LSPCon Firmware  or driver that solves this issue. This is massively frustrating for me. 

Oh my Gussie, I believe you are onto something with that CSM setting somehow getting enabled after being specifically set to disabled.

I remember many many months ago, when I was configuring some bios settings, I too could have sworn that I had disabled CSM, but I would later discover that it was enabled.  I typically don't have a need to venture into the bios that often and, with so many settings, I certainly don't review them all when I do.

I'm glad you mentioned your observation concerning the quirkiness of the CSM setting.  At least now I know that it wasn't some form of absentmindedness on my part.

I just returned to my bios settings and found the CSM setting was enabled (again).  This "CSM (Compatibility Support Module)" setting is sort-of hidden because it is located at the very bottom of the bios "Boot" page and it may be necessary to drag the scroll bar (if present) down to find it.  But even then the current state of this setting is not shown on the Boot page.  The setting must be selected which then shows a second page with the current CSM state.

I switched CSM back to "Disabled" and saved the bios configuration and allowed the computer to restart.  I then shutdown the computer and powered-off the LCD display and then powered-on the computer.  After a minute or so I then powered-on the LCD display and found the Windows 10 Start screen was displayed!  That just never happens!  I'm usually left staring at a blank screen with a flashing mouse pointer.

I then shutdown the computer and powered-off the LCD display.  I moved the HDMI cable to the J4205-ITX HDMI port (instead of the DVI port with the HDMI adapter I have been using).  I powered-on the computer and waited a minute or so before powering-on the LCD display.  Once again I found the Windows Start screen was displayed.  I had given-up on ever using the HDMI port since it was causing me so much grief with the blank screen and flashing mouse pointer.

As I was performing some other trials I did encounter the blank screen with the flashing mouse pointer while the HDMI cable was connected to the J4205 HDMI port.  I went back into the bios and found that the CSM setting had somehow been set to "Enabled" even though I had never returned to the bios during my trials.  Once I set CSM back to "Disabled" the LCD display once again acted normal.

I noticed that when CSM is set to "Enabled" there are other options that appear, one of which is titled "Launch Video OpRom Policy".  By default this setting is set to "Legacy only".  I wonder if this is causing all the problems with the HDMI interface when CSM is enabled.

So far I can't figure out exactly when the CSM setting is being switched from Disabled to Enabled.  If there is a way to reliably repeat this incident then maybe ASRock can publish a bios fix, hopefully sometime in my remaining lifetime.  It is getting late here (1am) so hopefully I can follow-up with some additional testing to see if I can pin-point when CSM is being corrupted.

What a discovery Gussie!  If this HDMI problem can be resolved with a simple bios fix then you definitely deserve the $5,000 bug bounty I'm sure ASRock would be happy to award. :)





Edited by Event4101 - 06 Jul 2018 at 1:10pm

Seems like a new BIOS 1.70 - 1.80 have been released etc.

But why oh why is there no describtion on what they contain? What are the fixes and/or new fetures does this BIOS contain?

Does this fix the HDMI issue?