Help with a Thin Mini ITX GA-H170TN

grjbb

Efficiency Noob
Original poster
Jul 9, 2018
6
2
First of all Hello, throughout my searching for my issue its great to find a cool community dedicated to small builds :).

I was browsing on ebay and spotted a mini itx for £35 and had all my needs plus more so I without thinking too much into it went ahead and bought it.

Little did I know the THIN Mini ITX would gave me much of a headache and go way over my budget for a cheap build!

First of all when I got it when I got it was how to power the thing. I have the option to use a DC external power supply or a PSU which connects via a 2 pin power connector on the board which I cannot find to use a connector to use a normal PSU. Oh well I thought of it as a bonus, I have the perfect Dell 180W 19.5V 9.23A charger for it! Im really getting into the space saving factor without a bulky PSU. I planned to go with a Pentium G4560 but when I came to install it I got nothing, a blank screen. Same as I tried without the CPU ( I thought I was not getting into BIOS simply because I had no CPU?) So then my next thought was Ah HA! I have bought a used mobo that has not had a BIOS update for Kabylake. I got this confirmed with the seller and he said he used a Skylake i5 6400. So I was stuck but went ahead and bought a Skylake i3 6100T used, thinking this will be better overall for my build (onboard graphics for hackintosh etc). And get the BIOS update done also for future proofing.

So I get this CPU and get it installed and still, I can power it up with fans spin, cpu getting hot and hooked up a case switch to turn on but still no output onto my display either DP or HDMI. I have tried different monitors, different cables etc and now I am feeling left with a board I dont have much of a idea on and nothing to go from as there really is hardly any info on this particular board. But if I got it working some how it would suite me greatly. The one annoying thing about these thin boards is they do not have a small speaker connector to listen out for the post code, So I am left in the dark with whats wrong!

It has a LVDS connector onboard which I am unfamiliar with, I am wondering if the output automatically goes through that, like a laptop say? I have tried unplugging the cmos and cmos reset also.

I also have tried different ram, but only DDR3, which is should be supported no problem.

Many thanks to any help!
 
Last edited:

grjbb

Efficiency Noob
Original poster
Jul 9, 2018
6
2
Just to update, my problem is basically this ; I do not have a post speaker pins to find out exactly what the problem is. I have orderd a 3w 4ohm speaker which hopefully will fit in the speaker 4 pin connection. And hopefully give me a beep code to pin point my issue.
 

GuilleAcoustic

Chief Procrastination Officer
SFFn Staff
LOSIAS
Jun 29, 2015
2,967
4,390
guilleacoustic.wordpress.com
Been using thin ITX (Asus Q87T) as my daily driver for over a year now and I can confirm that it does not default to LVDS nor eDP.

Did you try resetting the bios to its default configuration ?
 
Last edited:

jtd871

SFF Guru
Jun 22, 2015
1,166
851
That's actually not a horrible idea @aquelito. Might be a tough pill to ask the OP to swallow sourcing a slot-powered x4 discrete GPU though....
 

grjbb

Efficiency Noob
Original poster
Jul 9, 2018
6
2
I have tried with a GPU, although rather large a 760gtx, but still managed to turn on when the mobo was powered (powered by my own PSU). I see a small LED blink on the board when I first attach power and start the system. I have been looking into LED codes and to see if its on this board (all boards?) I have also hooked up a power LED and that is just a constant green as normal. I just wish they would of included a beep connector, would make life alot easier!

Still, got the 4 pin speaker coming in the next few days, I am hoping that the POST code will come through that port, as there is no other way and on the website it does have its own page dedicated to the beep codes.

It has become more of a personal accomplishment to get this working now :p.
 

GuilleAcoustic

Chief Procrastination Officer
SFFn Staff
LOSIAS
Jun 29, 2015
2,967
4,390
guilleacoustic.wordpress.com
Might be a tough pill to ask the OP to swallow sourcing a slot-powered x4 discrete GPU though....

I'm using a GT1030 on a Q87T and it works without a powered riser. This is the best you can get with the 25ish watts limitation and without a powered riser.

The GA-H170TN PCIe-4x slot is opened at its extremity and can take a 16x physically.
 

grjbb

Efficiency Noob
Original poster
Jul 9, 2018
6
2
Yeh, it did look hilarious hah, had to do some balancing put it that way. But no luck.
 

aquelito

King of Cable Management
Piccolo PC
Feb 16, 2016
952
1,122
You can run any GPU from the PCIe 4X slot as long as it stays idle !
It was just to test if the iGPU was disabled in the BIOS.

Did you look at the Clear CMOS jumper ?

What kind of AC Adapter are you using ? This board accepts wide input voltage, from 12V to 19V.

So-Dimm references ?


I hope you'll sort it out. IMO this is the best thin ITX board around : Kaby-Lake ready but accepts cheaper DDR3L, wide-input, m.2 slot.
 
Last edited:

kotproger

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Jul 9, 2016
136
131
vk.com
I'm using a GT1030 on a Q87T and it works without a powered riser. This is the best you can get with the 25ish watts limitation and without a powered riser.

The GA-H170TN PCIe-4x slot is opened at its extremity and can take a 16x physically.
I always disliked boards from Gigabite and I use Q87T myself. There are no problems with her. But my regret, in modern execution of thin boards ASUS refused the slot x4. Only Gigabite and remained ...
 

Arboreal

King of Cable Management
Silver Supporter
Oct 11, 2015
805
803
Silly question, I just looked at the GA-H170TN specs, and it specifies DDR3L low voltage (1.35 or 1.25V as opposed to 1.5V), RAM.
Could this be a factor? You didn't say whether you had L RAM or standard DDR3.
 
  • Like
Reactions: grjbb and jtd871

grjbb

Efficiency Noob
Original poster
Jul 9, 2018
6
2
Silly question, I just looked at the GA-H170TN specs, and it specifies DDR3L low voltage (1.35 or 1.25V as opposed to 1.5V), RAM.
Could this be a factor? You didn't say whether you had L RAM or standard DDR3.
Not silly at all, silly on my part IF DDR3 ram wouldn't not work in DDR3L dimm socket? I did some quick searches as I got the board and read I could use normal ram. Now thinking about this how could this be the case, I may have screwed up here. I am currently using some DDR3 Kingston 4gb from a bought back in 2011. If this is the case then... that could well be it.. I find out tomorrow, and hopefully... feel like a complete idiot. (more money in the pit :p).
 

grjbb

Efficiency Noob
Original poster
Jul 9, 2018
6
2
Well yup! I knew it would be something so simple / a stupid oversight lol. thanks too Arboreal for the spark :p. Going to enjoy playing with this little beast, will post some pics, a positive out of this is I found this place :).
 

GuilleAcoustic

Chief Procrastination Officer
SFFn Staff
LOSIAS
Jun 29, 2015
2,967
4,390
guilleacoustic.wordpress.com
Well yup! I knew it would be something so simple / a stupid oversight lol. thanks too Arboreal for the spark :p. Going to enjoy playing with this little beast, will post some pics, a positive out of this is I found this place :).

Never underestimate the power of a single letter ! Glad it's sorted out.

Note to myself: add memory voltage to trouble shouting list XD