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Troubleshooting Guide: NandFarm PowerRiser (Tiny6)

· 6 min read
Radu S
Radu S
Second of his name. Rattler of bits and bobs.

Welcome to the edge of enterprise desktop hardware hacking. You bought a Lenovo Tiny6, decided it wasn't complicated enough, and crammed a custom expansion board into it. We respect that.

However, because we are forcing consumer and custom hardware to play nice with Lenovo’s locked-down enterprise architecture, things don't always work perfectly on the first boot.

This article is here to help with that. This is a living document. As long as people keep finding creative ways to push the PowerRiser to its limits (and occasionally break things), we will keep updating this page with solutions.

1. The x16 Card in an x8 Slot "Ghost" Issue​

The Symptom: You plugged a physical x16 GPU or expansion card into the x8 PCIe slot, you powered up the system, and... absolutely nothing happens. The OS doesn't see it, lspci is completely oblivious, and device manager is empty.

The Cause: Some x16 cards are aggressively stubborn about their presence detect pins (PRSNT). If the card doesn't sense that it's seated in a full slot, it simply refuses to turn on.

The Fix: You need to force the presence detect signal. On the side of the PowerRiser board, there is a dedicated solder bridge for this exact scenario.

  • Option A (Permanent): Just bridge the two pads with a blob of solder. x16 Presence Detect Solder Bridge

  • Option B (Removable): You can add a standard 2.54mm pin header and a jumper. Because we designed the header holes with a staggered holes pattern, you can literally just jam the header pins into the holes for a tight friction fit—no soldering iron required. All pin headers are not made equally. Some are thinner some are thicker. If the fit is loose, use a set of needle nose pliers to band a bit the header pins for a snugger fit. x16 Presence Detect Header

2. The Fan Connector Does Nothing​

The Symptom: You plugged a fan into the onboard fan header, and it’s dead quiet.

The Cause: By design, the Tiny6 PowerRiser ships from the factory with no power connected to the fan header. Why? Because we don't know if you are going to plug in a 5V Noctua fan or a screaming 12V server blower, and we'd rather not be responsible for letting the magic smoke out of your shiny new fan.

The Fix: Flip the board over. You will find a set of solder bridges labeled for 5V and 12V. Grab your soldering iron and bridge only one of them to match your fan's voltage requirement. Fan Connector Pinout & Voltage Solder Bridges

3. The NVMe Drive Refuses to Boot​

The Symptom: You installed a fresh NVMe drive in the PowerRiser's M.2 slot, installed Windows or Linux, but the Lenovo BIOS flat-out refuses to boot from it.

The Cause: Lenovo’s BIOS is notoriously picky about what it considers a "valid" boot device, especially on newer Bios versions.

The Fixes: There are a few ways to wrestle the BIOS into submission:

  1. The "Excluded" List Check: Boot into the Lenovo BIOS and navigate to the Startup tab. Check the Primary Boot Sequence. Often, the Lenovo BIOS sees the drive but automatically dumps it into the Excluded from boot order list. If it's hiding down there, simply move it up into the active sequence.
  2. The Windows NVRAM Force (bcdboot): If the BIOS still ignores it, boot from a Windows Installation USB. Once the installer loads, press Shift + F10 to open the command prompt. Run the command bcdboot C:\Windows /f UEFI (assuming C: is your NVMe drive). This forcibly writes the bootloader credentials directly into the motherboard's NVRAM.
  3. The Linux NVRAM Force (efibootmgr): Similar to the Windows trick, boot from an Ubuntu/Linux live USB, open a terminal, and use the efibootmgr utility to manually inject the EFI boot entry into the NVRAM. Once it's hardcoded into the NVRAM, the Lenovo BIOS usually stops complaining.

4. Unlocking True PCIe Bifurcation​

The Symptom: You want to run two x4 devices off the main CPU PCIe link, but the system only sees one device.

The Cause: The Intel CPU on the Tiny6 platform handles a single monolithic x8 link by default, and Lenovo hid the BIOS switch to change it.

The Fix: You have to force the CPU into a dual x4/x4 configuration via a hardware-level configuration pin mod.

Since this is a much more involved process that requires either CPU pad modding or micro-soldering an 0402/0805 resistor onto the host motherboard, we have dedicated an entire article to it.

👉 Read the Full PCIe Bifurcation Guide Here

5. Using Long 2280 NVMe Drives (And Beefy GPUs)​

The Symptom: Sparks, mechanical stress, or an NVMe drive that looks like a diving board.

The Cause: The PowerRiser is compact. While you can use standard 2280 length M.2 drives, the board itself doesn't stretch that far, leaving the tail end of the drive floating. Furthermore, if you plug a thick, heavy GPU into the x8 PCIe socket right next to it, the bottom of the GPU's PCB might rest directly on top of your NVMe drive.

The Fix:

  • Support the Drive: The unsupported weight of a long 2280 drive (especially with a heatsink) can act as a lever, physically forcing and damaging the delicate pins inside the M.2 connector. Jam a small block of non-conductive foam, a 3D-printed standoff, or some high-density thermal pad under the tail end of the drive to give it structural support.
  • Tape the GPU: If your GPU clearance is dangerously tight, do not trust the solder mask. Apply a generous strip of Kapton (polyimide) tape to the bottom edge of the GPU PCB where it crosses over the M.2 slot to prevent any accidental electrical shorts.

2280 Drive Support & GPU Kapton Clearance

6. [Placeholder for Future Chaos]​

More to come. As soon as someone figures out a new way to break this platform, we'll document how to fix it right here. (If there is a fix. :S)