H170 pro4 display & ssd issues

I also had a problem with no HDMI signal. But my DVI and VGA worked.
Very strange

The problem with my mainboard was the following: the Ram was installed in the Memory-Slots A2 and B2.

Once i switched the Memory-Modules to the Slots A1 and B1 i got an HDMI signal :-)
Yeppi!!!
I was looking for a solution of this Problem for some days now, i already got the mainboard changed but nothing helped.

I am so happy that i found a solution for me that's why i am writing here and hope this information is might useful for someone else.

zappie wrote: I also had a problem with no HDMI signal. But my DVI and VGA worked. Very strange The problem with my mainboard was the following: the Ram was installed in the Memory-Slots A2 and B2. Once i switched the Memory-Modules to the Slots A1 and B1 i got an HDMI signal :-) Yeppi!!! I was looking for a solution of this Problem for some days now, i already got the mainboard changed but nothing helped. I am so happy that i found a solution for me that's why i am writing here and hope this information is might useful for someone else.

I'm glad your HDMI output is working now, and I can't say it did not happen, but it just does not make any sense that moving your memory to the other slots fixed the HDMI output problem.

If another user or two did the same thing, move their memory from the A2 and B2 slots (the recommended slots to use with two DIMMs) to the A1 and B1 slots, and that also fixed their problem, I would think that there is a problem with the UEFI/BIOS, or the board itself.

After reading that several users had the same problem, I began to think something might be wrong with the HDMI connectors on these boards, or the soldering of the connectors to the board.

I also know that bad cables, usually the connectors on the cables, can cause screen flickering and no signal to the monitor.

Any type of adapters, like a VGA to HDMI adapter (that must be a powered adapter, that is converting an analog video signal to a digital signal, or digital to analog video, which is not a simple thing to do) can not work properly if not used correctly.

Also enabling the SATA controller in the UEFI apparently fixed the video problem for someone?

Sometimes when we work on our PCs, we move things by pressing or pulling on the board, which usually breaks something. But it can also cause a bad connection to be accidentally fixed. I wonder if that is what happened when the memory was moved to the other slots?

I would love to know what is actually happening that is causing and fixing this issue.

Sadly i have to say that after some mails with asrock it turned out that my memory was faulty.
That's the reason why switching the memory modules in the other slots helped.

I changed it now to some other brand (now kingston) and that helped.
At least i am getting partially a HDMI picture.
The memory i used before seems to have had a bad batch with faulty memory modules on it (16-GByte-Kit Crucial CT2K8G4DFD8213 - micron modules with labels C9BDG or D9RGV on it). These modules also showed errors with memtest and therefore it did not give a picture to me.

Anyway ... with a short cable (2 meters) i am getting a signal now - with my 10 meter cable i have flickering :( and with higher resolution it is a bigger problem.
The board is also changed meanwhile - therefore i do not think this was a hardware failure of the first board.

If i test with my 5 year old laptop with hdmi connected through the 10 meter cable it gives me a clear signal without problems. That is even more strange. And with the asrock board it just shows a picture and then goes black, shows picture again goes black, and so on

I tested several bios versions now. Downgraded to 1.30, 1.50 and also tried 1.90 - all have the same problems with the defaults loaded.

Could it be that the HDMI signal strength of the H170 board is not strong enought?

I also have the feeling if i have other outputs (for example DVI attached) makes it more worse.
And somehow it looks like it makes a difference if i have the cables screwed to the bracket or just plugged without screw connection (sorry if i explained it a bit strange/confused but i do not know how to explain it better in english)

PS: I forgot to mention...
In Linux it gives me a lot of EDID errors... i am not sure if that's a kernel/driver problem (because there are some bugs filed already) but anyway it looks like there is a problem in the connection/handshake.


Edited by zappie - 15 Mar 2016 at 5:12am

zappie wrote: What i found out after trying several cables... The HDMI Port of the Mainboard seems to behave strange (loose/bad contact with HDMI cable). First i removed the I/O panel. Then after pushing the cable with my hand to the side it seems to become a connection and show's a picture. Then after pushing to the other side it seem's the connection is lost. This i tried with several cables - all the same. With my old intel board i did not have such problems. As this board is the second one because it was already changed once from the online-shop it seems that this might be a common problem. Having the I/O shield installed seems also to be a problem for me because this forces the HDMI-Cable into a position which causes the cable to have a bad or no connection at all. Maybe someone can verify this. This problem really drives me crazy. I am thinking about buying a DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter ...

This is exactly what I thought was wrong  in an earlier post, a bad connection with the HDMI port.

We also know now that moving the memory to the other slots did not fix the problem with the HDMI connector. The memory you were using was apparently the problem. Before you tried some of the memory in the other slots, you did not have a signal from the HDMI port because the PC never completed POST or booted because of the defective memory.

The DisplayPort to HDMI adapter is not a bad idea. But this thread is about the H170 Pro4 board. The H170 Pro4 does NOT have a DisplayPort output:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H170%20Pro4/

So you are using a different ASRock board. The lack of information like this in your posts makes me wonder what else is missing.