Cables are very important

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When upgrading a computer and you’ve also invested in a new monitor you might want to also invest in new monitor cables. Case in point the HP workstat
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Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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Cybertooth, BobbyB, Mark, alejr, geekdom

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Good advice, Susan. Besides, if we didn’t fit new cables whenever changing things around, how would we maintain that big box of old cables we can never quite get round to sorting out and dumping?!

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Seff wrote:

Besides, if we didn’t fit new cables whenever changing things around, how would we maintain that big box of old cables we can never quite get round to sorting out and dumping?!

Just keep the old working cables. You never know when you have to go retro (legacy).

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Cybertooth

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The minimum resolution supported by mini DP is 2560×1600 (DP v1.1a) so your problem wasn’t the DP port connector but the HDMI connector.

The max resolution for various HDMI cables is

1.2a 1920×1200 @ 60Hz
1.3  2560×1600 @ 75Hz
1.4  4096×2160 @ 24Hz

So the original mini DP ↔ HDMI cable (it’s actually an “adapter” with a very small circuit board inside the HDMI connector) most likely only supported either HDMI 1.1 or 1.2 and needed to be at least HDMI 1.3 to support the higher resolution.

Just FYI…

Even though HDMI 1.3 is pretty much the standard on new monitors/TVs, it’s still critically important when purchasing HDMI cable/adapters (or reusing old ones) to verify exactly which HDMI version it supports.  Most “cheap” HDMI cables/adapters only support up to HDMI 1.2 and won’t work at 4K display resolutions (BTDT )

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Mark, ZombieStew, geekdom

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Is anything color-coded or labelled? Or is it a case of fish around in the left-over cable/adapter box until you find something you like?

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geekdom wrote:

Is anything color-coded or labelled? Or is it a case of fish around in the left-over cable/adapter box until you find something you like?

Unfortunately, no!

The original packaging “should” show what HDMI version a cable supports and the HDMI version “should” be either printed on the PVC coating or molded into the plastic of the HDMI connector itself.

Unfortunately, not all cable manufacturers do this (especially the “cheapie” ones) so it may be impossible to determine what version a spare cable supports without actually using it and, like Susan discovered, finding out it doesn’t support the higher resolutions.

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geekdom

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IIRC, didn’t HDMI 1.3 introduce ethernet facilities? (just from memory)

Keep IT Lean, Clean and Mean!

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Do not forget to check what cables you may need when setting up a new computer.

Most of our workstations are setup with display port cables running from the monitors to the PC.

However, we recently purchased a new work station and monitors.  The monitors had mini display ports while the graphics card was configured with display port plugs.

We had forgotten to order new mini display port to display port cables when we ordered the PC – resulting in a two day delay in starting up the new system.

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Cybertooth

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IMHO the retention teeth on DisplayPort cable connectors are AWESOME. There have been too many times when loose HDMI ports resulted in HDMI cables falling out. Cables should have some sort of retention on their connectors!

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alejr

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Marlin S wrote:

There have been too many times when loose HDMI ports resulted in HDMI cables falling out.

Yup, BTDT also!

My Nephew’s gaming PC regularly experienced problems with the display seeming to freeze up which we thought was due to S/W problems.

Turned out the real problem was “all the video ports” on the back of his monitor pointed directly down and the weight of the HDMI cable “hanging down” when it was plugged in would cause it to slowly work loose enough for the video to stop reacting.

Solved that by looping the cable up a bit toward the monitor’s stand and then using a zip-tie to secure it to the stand to relieve the stress that was causing it to work loose.

My own Dell monitor is configured the same way but includes a “cable management” hole in the stand positioned so it relieves any strain on the cables!

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They are only not great when you forget that it’s got the teeth and you can’t figure out why it’s not coming loose 🙂

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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Cybertooth

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A funny thing about the latching mechanism on full size DisplayPort cables is that it isn’t part of the official spec even though most cables have it.

If anyone is looking for some additional information on cable quality, Linus Tech tips did a two part series where they tested HDMI and DisplayPort cables using a Total phase cable tester. The results are interesting. The HDMI cables tended to be more problematic due to specification changes in the design and the DisplayPort cables just seemed to work with few issues unless you were using very long cables (like a 20′ DisplayPort cable). They didn’t test any cables that converted from one design standard to another (e.g DisplayPort to HDMI).

LTT HDMI cable testing

https://youtu.be/XFbJD6RE4EY

 

LTT DisplayPort cable testing

https://youtu.be/Vn2vdQZhs0w

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Cybertooth, SueW

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