2018-08-20, 04:09
First I'd like to thank those that took the time to read and respond to my unusually lengthy post. I know the purpose of this forum is to offer support to users of Kodi and not disillusioned ASRock J4205-ITX owners.
Dr.Feelgood
After performing Procedure "C", I can power-off the LCD and then power it back on sometime later and the display will work as expected.
My guess is that most Kodi users, or those that don't have HDMI problems with the J4205, are using some form of Linux (Ubuntu, Libreelec). This would seem to indicate the problem is most likely some type of anomaly with the ASRock bios and the Intel HD Graphics 505 video driver for Windows 10.
As I mentioned in my original post, I never had the HDMI problem with the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter driver, it only happened with the Intel driver installed. Much later, when I discovered the problem where the bios CSM setting would change, I was never able, or should say that I haven't had the ambition, to switch back to the Microsoft driver to see how the bios CSM setting behaved with that driver.
It is not that I haven't made attempts to switch back to the Microsoft driver, but one of the attractive features of Windows 10 is that it seems to know what is best, so it would dutifully reinstall the Intel driver upon restart. With Windows 10 Pro there is a Group Policy change that can be made to disable this behavior for a specific driver, but it was more hassle to do than I had ambition.
It should come as no surprise that when I connect my LCD display to the J4205 DVI port, using a DVI to HDMI conversion cable, I experience the same problem. At one point I thought there was a possibility that, during bios startup, maybe the bios does an inspection of the three video ports. First it inspects the HDMI port, followed by the DVI port, and lastly defaults to the (legacy) VGA port if the first two devices are not detected. I thought this might explain why CSM was changed to Enabled during boot whenever the LCD display was powered-off. However, after booting, I connected a VGA display and there was no signal on that port.
During another attempt for some type of workaround, I entered the bios, set CSM to Enabled, and then set "Launch PXE OpROM Policy", "Launch Storage OpROM Policy", and "Launch Video OpROM Policy" to "UEFI Only". Unfortunately the same HDMI blank display problem occurred. After performing Procedures "A" and "B" I found the setting "Launch Video OpROM Policy" was somehow changed to "Legacy Only", while the other two settings remained set to "UEFI Only".
I'm pondering the installation of bios versions 1.5+1.6 to see if these offer any solution to this problem. I've been hesitant to do so since ASRock retracted these bios updates shortly after they were released, and that occurred a frustratingly long five months ago. I also feel that at least I know how to resolve the HDMI problem as it currently exists.
Since ASRock offers no release notes with their bios updates I have no insight into what should be fixed and what new problems could occur. Add to that the absence of any tech support from ASRock and I could be left with an out of warranty board and no way out.
A last act of desperation would be to browse my way over to NewEgg, where I purchased the board, and post a rather harsh review of my experience with this board. I feel that this is something I would prefer not to do, at least until I can confirm that other Windows 10 users are able to duplicate the problem I described.
I made a similar post to the ASRock forum but, as I wrote in my original post here, members on that forum appear to have lost interest in the problem. Maybe those forum members feel ASRock has abandon Apollo Lake so they have found salvation in J5005 and J4105 Gemini Lake boards, or Linux perhaps.
Dr.Feelgood
After performing Procedure "C", I can power-off the LCD and then power it back on sometime later and the display will work as expected.
My guess is that most Kodi users, or those that don't have HDMI problems with the J4205, are using some form of Linux (Ubuntu, Libreelec). This would seem to indicate the problem is most likely some type of anomaly with the ASRock bios and the Intel HD Graphics 505 video driver for Windows 10.
As I mentioned in my original post, I never had the HDMI problem with the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter driver, it only happened with the Intel driver installed. Much later, when I discovered the problem where the bios CSM setting would change, I was never able, or should say that I haven't had the ambition, to switch back to the Microsoft driver to see how the bios CSM setting behaved with that driver.
It is not that I haven't made attempts to switch back to the Microsoft driver, but one of the attractive features of Windows 10 is that it seems to know what is best, so it would dutifully reinstall the Intel driver upon restart. With Windows 10 Pro there is a Group Policy change that can be made to disable this behavior for a specific driver, but it was more hassle to do than I had ambition.
It should come as no surprise that when I connect my LCD display to the J4205 DVI port, using a DVI to HDMI conversion cable, I experience the same problem. At one point I thought there was a possibility that, during bios startup, maybe the bios does an inspection of the three video ports. First it inspects the HDMI port, followed by the DVI port, and lastly defaults to the (legacy) VGA port if the first two devices are not detected. I thought this might explain why CSM was changed to Enabled during boot whenever the LCD display was powered-off. However, after booting, I connected a VGA display and there was no signal on that port.
During another attempt for some type of workaround, I entered the bios, set CSM to Enabled, and then set "Launch PXE OpROM Policy", "Launch Storage OpROM Policy", and "Launch Video OpROM Policy" to "UEFI Only". Unfortunately the same HDMI blank display problem occurred. After performing Procedures "A" and "B" I found the setting "Launch Video OpROM Policy" was somehow changed to "Legacy Only", while the other two settings remained set to "UEFI Only".
I'm pondering the installation of bios versions 1.5+1.6 to see if these offer any solution to this problem. I've been hesitant to do so since ASRock retracted these bios updates shortly after they were released, and that occurred a frustratingly long five months ago. I also feel that at least I know how to resolve the HDMI problem as it currently exists.
Since ASRock offers no release notes with their bios updates I have no insight into what should be fixed and what new problems could occur. Add to that the absence of any tech support from ASRock and I could be left with an out of warranty board and no way out.
A last act of desperation would be to browse my way over to NewEgg, where I purchased the board, and post a rather harsh review of my experience with this board. I feel that this is something I would prefer not to do, at least until I can confirm that other Windows 10 users are able to duplicate the problem I described.
I made a similar post to the ASRock forum but, as I wrote in my original post here, members on that forum appear to have lost interest in the problem. Maybe those forum members feel ASRock has abandon Apollo Lake so they have found salvation in J5005 and J4105 Gemini Lake boards, or Linux perhaps.
