Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Geek Speak => Topic started by: McKay on 25/02/2015 15:08:41

Title: HDMI cable weirdness - help me understand
Post by: McKay on 25/02/2015 15:08:41
Greetings. I dont really want this to be a "fix my pc" thread, but, well, I have a weird problem and I dont understand how can it possibly happen.
That is - I had an HDMI cable that worked fine until, after two months or so, my monitor just started to disconnect randomly. Sometimes for a second, sometimes for minutes, sometimes just kept on connecting and disconnecting until it drove me mad and I pulled the cable and unsed my laptops smaller screen.
I took the cable back to the shop and they replaced it with a new one. So far so good.

But the funny thin is - this new cable, after a month or so of usage, started to exhibit the same symptoms.
As if the monitor just goes to sleep, but not really, because mouse and keyboard doenst wake it up, but not the same as unplugging the cable (although the pc does play the unplug sound), because there is no "check signal cable" message.

*I tested the old and new cable with two laptops and two different monitors (+a tv) and a different cable I had for another purpose - the problem seemed to be the cable (plus the fact BOTH cables worked fine for some time)
*All the ports on all devices are in good condition and nothing wiggles
*The cable gets rarely moved/ unplugged and there is external damage to the pins or the cable itself

I am a bit baffled. What could possibly be the cause for this? What could happen to a cable over such short time of use? And the fact tat BOTH cables have exactly the same problem.
Title: Re: HDMI cable weirdness - help me understand
Post by: Bread Girl on 04/03/2015 09:55:50
Is it really humid? Maybe the contacts/pins in the cable connectors are made from a bad alloy that corrodes or something. Have ya tried another brand, or Gold Plated connectors?
Title: Re: HDMI cable weirdness - help me understand
Post by: evan_au on 04/03/2015 20:26:26
All of these devices (except the cable itself) have software in them. Software is notoriously bad for having problems like "memory leaks" which slowly cause it to clog up over time (not to mention viruses and worms).

Next time the video stops working, try resetting the PC, and see if the video resumes workingIf so, it is a PC problem.
If not, try resetting the TV (including disconnect at the power point for 10 seconds). See if the video resumes working. If so, it is a TV problem.

You could try upgrading the PC or TV software to a later version, but there is no guarantee that the new version will be any better.

In the meantime, try resetting the offending device every few weeks, so it happens when you choose, not when it chooses!
Title: Re: HDMI cable weirdness - help me understand
Post by: syhprum on 05/03/2015 22:01:11
In a weak moment I connected the monitor on my computer with HDMI cable as the 8400GS video card that feeds the monitor has a HDMI connector, I was appalled how blurred the 1680/1050 pixel display was and quickly reverted the normal cable.
Title: Re: HDMI cable weirdness - help me understand
Post by: evan_au on 07/03/2015 22:06:58
Quote
how blurred the 1680/1050 pixel display was
Check your settings to see what resolution the monitor is using when connected to the normal video cable?
Maybe this monitor can't handle 1680x1050 pixels?
Title: Re: HDMI cable weirdness - help me understand
Post by: McKay on 11/04/2015 21:27:47
Well, I got yet another, ordinary, cable and this one seems to work quite fine. So software/ virus/ laptop problems are pretty much eliminated, aren't they? Hmm