Question HDMI to DVI cable problem

[mikeymikec]

I built a computer for a customer (socket 1200 gen) and its board only has HDMI and DisplayPort outputs. The customer has a monitor with a DVI socket on, and I naturally thought I could use a HDMI to DVI cable to connect the two. It didn't work, the monitor reported no signal through the cable.

Luckily I had a DVI -> HDMI adapter and a spare DVI cable which worked. I had two theories going forward, one was that I have a faulty cable, and the other is that I think I saw somewhere such a cable being sold but with a warning that it would only work a specific way around. I didn't buy that cable, but I was wondering whether there's more going on what with HDMI/HDCP etc and even though DVI and HDMI are quite similar, perhaps there are these little swings and roundabouts to be encountered occasionally.

I just tried the cable on a monitor at home and another computer I've built with the same board as the first and the cable works fine.

The only other difference I'm aware of between the cable I ended up using for that customer and this one is that the one that worked was a DVI single-link cable and this cable is a dual-link type. I wonder whether the customer's monitor didn't like the dual-link nature of the cable?

Are there any further complications in using DVI-HDMI cables that I ought to be aware of?

 

[jhona48]

Does your monitor have more than just the dvi input ?

 

[mikeymikec]

Does your monitor have more than just the dvi input ?

Their monitor also has VGA.

 

[Viper GTS]

What's the monitor model and the exact cable you tried to use? Also the CPU and motherboard you used would be relevant too I suppose.

HDMI only carries a single TMDS link vs the potential for two on dual-link DVI-D. I have seen weirdness when using passive adapters to connect to higher resolution dual-link DVI displays. Active DP to HDMI/DVI would be the easiest work around in this situation, or just tell them to buy a modern monitor.

Viper GTS

 

[VirtualLarry]

HDMI only carries a single TMDS link vs the potential for two on dual-link DVI-D. I have seen weirdness when using passive adapters to connect to higher resolution dual-link DVI displays. Active DP to HDMI/DVI would be the easiest work around in this situation, or just tell them to buy a modern monitor.

You might be onto something there. If the cable that OP tried was an HDMI-to-dual-link-DVI, then that probably wasn't a passive pass-through mechanical adapter, it probably had conversion chips inside (active), and those have to be powered from one side of the link, thus was likely directional.

Normally the passive DVI-SL-D to HDMI cables work either way round.