Monitor cable that is missing two pins :-(.

[arod324]

Alright, I've got a question regarding if a monitor cable is "fixable" if it is missing two pins. My monitor has slowly been degrading (I have to twist the cable in certain directions to get it to work), and now it is completely defunct (I just noticed that it was missing two pins......). The problem is, that the cable is not "seperable", meaning that it the monitor cable is built directly into the monitor.

Anyways, to my question. Is it possible to take two copper pins, and solder them back onto the cable to make it work... (or cut the cable, and add a new modular adapter) fairly easily? If this is possible, is the image quality compromised when you do this... even if you do it "perfectly".

If it isn't possible, take a gander at another thread I have and give me suggestions on a new monitor here.

Thanks for your time,
arod324.

 

[drewski]

It is possible that the pins are missing "by design".

I've got an older (3 years old) monitor cable that is "missing" 3 pins on the PC side and 6 pins on the Monitor side of it. It worked flawlessly with the 17 inch monitor I had.

When I upgraded to a 22" monitor that cable didn't function at all! (And I was sh*tting bricks!) Luckily the monitor came with a cable. I assume that some of these pins are used for PNP stuff.

Anyways, to your issue, I would recommend changing out the whole adapter rather than just soldering a couple of pins, cause I would guess it's not the missing pins that are the problem, maybe a bad connection on one of the existing pins.

One question though. Have you tried another monitor with this machine to make sure it's not the Vid-Card that is at issue?

 

[kmmatney]

I've replied to you other thread not seeing this one.

I've repaired a monitor cable before with no degradation problems (spliced in a new connector). Most likely your existing connector is molded plastic, so you wont be able fix the pins very easily, so will need to replace the connector.

When I did it I was in a similar situation to you. My monitor started acting up, and sometimes it would lose a primary color - the "green" was completely gone. Then the Rad was gone. I figured I had nothing to lose by trying to make a new connector.

You can always try to splice in a new connector - if the pins were the problem then this should fix it. Try to use a solder-type connector with shrink wrap around each connection for a clean contact. The hardest part will be keeping track of what wires goes to which pin. Just use a multimeter on the part you chop off to keep track of this.

 

[arod324]

Hmmm... this sounds promising, since my monitor is experiencing the same thing that your things went through. It lost some color, and would have a very greenish tint, and now there is nothing, unless I "twist" the cable a certain direction. So I believe it is a problem with the cable in the proximity of the adapter. When you say "splicing", do you mean to just cut off the adapter, get another monitor cable, chop a small part off of that, and connect these two cables? Or can I buy a monitor adapter alone, and then try connecting them to that?

edit:I check the monitor in a different comp, and the same results came up

Again, thanks for your help.
arod324.

 

[jamarno]

Which 2 pins? 1,2,3 are for red, green, blue, 6,7,8 are for the shield grounds of those colors, 13, 14 are horizontal & vertical sync, 10 is sync ground, 12, 13 are plug & play. 9 is unused. The rest are grounds. You can get by without 9, plug & play, and some of the grounds.

 

[Gustavus]

Most electronic stores -- and lots of net suppliers like ComputerGate and Cyberguys -- sell "assembled" DB15 connectors with either crimp or solder connectors on the pins for only a couple of dollars. For a one time job you don't want to bother with a crimp tool -- get the solder type.

jamaro has provided the pin out info -- although I disagree with him on pin 13, I show it to be horizontal synch. Pins 11, 12 and 4 are Monitor ID 0, 1 and 2 respectively. You don't really care about this. What you must be certain is that you connect the wires to the same pins in the replacement connector that they were connected to in the original. If you are lucky the wires will be color coded inside the cable. If they are not color coded and you simply cut the connector off to replace it you are in deep trouble. Carefully open the sheath right at the connector to see if the wires are color coded. If they are, you can cut the connector off with enough of the cable to strip the wires so you can use an ohmmeter to see which pin each wire is connected to. Solder the wires to the same pins in the replacement connector. If the wires are not color coded -- sometimes several will be white for example -- you will need to identify which wire is connected to which pin before you cut off the connector - and IDENTIFY them (on the cable side of the cut!) before you cut the connector off. Otherwise, everything is the same. The pins are small, so you need a small soldering pencil and a gentle touch in applying solder. Remember the old advertising jingle -- Just a little bit will do you.

There is a possible problem. Most video cables have a built in ferrite RF suppressor near the connector which you may not be able to save if it is too close. Try to save it if you can -- i.e. cut the cable close to the connector. If you can't save it, the cable will still work and you can probably save your monitor if the problem is just an intermittent opening of a wire in the connector.

Good luck

PS I should have said this first. Lots of video connectors are missing one or more pins -- especially on non PNP monitors. The fact that you have a couple of pins missing in itself doesn't say the connector is at fault. If the monitor behaves the same on another system, then it probably is. Wiggling it to get it to work suggests an intermittent open, but I would make sure before going to the trouble of replacing a connector. It is more likely that the intermittent open is on the video card rather than in the cable -- make sure where your problem is before you replace the connector.

 

[medic]

Pinout picture

 

[arod324]

Okay, I just looked at the cable, and I'm missing pins 4,9 and 11, so I'm thinking that's probably the problem .
Also, as I said above,in case you didn't read it, the same thing happened on a different computer (video card), so I'm guessing that it is the monitor that is actually the problem.
Edit: Edits the pin numbers so they are correct.

 

[arod324]

Update: I just opened the adapter, and cut a small section of the sheath on the cable. Near the adapter, where the cables are supposed to connect to the pins, it is COVERED in glue, so much that I cannot distinguish very well which cable goes to which pin. However, I looked further down the cable, and noticed there are 9 individual cables that are all colorcoded, with 3 thick ones, red, green, and blue. I am guessing that these thick ones contain their individual colors, including the grounding, which would bring the total number of cables up to 12.

There are six small cables: white, grey, black, yellow, orange, red
and three large ones :Red, green blue.

#1. Would it be possible to solder the cables to the pins knowing ONLY this, since I cannot see the actual connections themselves (since they are in glue).
#2. What would happen if I took of the RF thing (that thick thing near the video card end of the cable). It is very close to the adapter, and I don't know if I could add a new adapter without cutting the RF thing off.
#3. If I needed that, would it be possible to buy another monitor cable with the RF thing (cut my current cable past the RF thing), and solder the wires together?
Thanks
arod324

 

[Gustavus]

Pins 4, 9 and 11 missing tell me your monitor is not PNP. 9 is not used and in many cases blocked. The other two are the monitor ID lines 0 and 1. I doubt very much that the problem was the missing pins. The larger red, green and blue wires are certainly the corresponding color leads with their shields and the pin out table will tell you where to connect these. Unfortunately there is no color code standard for the wires themselves in a VGA cable-- I have seen just about every possible color coding -- so you must identify which line goes to which pin. It is possible that you can contact your monitor manufacturer to get that info, but even they are are probably not standardized so there will be no answer they can give you.

I do this sort of thing all the time, but I have no way of knowing what you have in the way of tools or how adept you are at troubleshooting. I always have some spare pins from old connectors, so I would use one of the female pins on a piece of wire to allow me to connect one lead from my ohmmeter to each of the pins in the connector in turn. The other lead from the ohmmeter I would connect to a sewing needle and then prick through the insulation on each lead identifying which lead went to which pin. Then I would cut off the connector and assemble the new one. Easy to do, but it requires that you have some way to check continuity. Double check what you find, and watch that you don't short between pins in the connector which will give you a false connection. That is why I would use a female pin on the end of a piece of wire. The spacing between pins is tight and using just the ohmmeter probe tip it wiould be easy to touch two pins at once.

Cutting out the RF suppressor should have no effect. I say should, because I once worked on a MagInnovision monitor in which the cable had a signal reflection with the suppresor missing that resulted in a slight ghost image at any sharp edge. I have only seen that the one time.

PS In identifying pins, keep in mind that the numbering in the male and female connectors is a mirror image of each other as you look into the connector. Be sure you solder to the right pins on the rear of the connector. I just did a similar job a couple of weeks ago. I bought three APC Smart 1000 UPS's which call for a proprietary APC serial cable that costs over $40 each. I bought regular DB9 serial cables from ComputerGate International, rang out the wiring and rewired them to the APC design. Saved myself well over a $100 in the process. I soldered the connections, even though I have crimp tools since the assembled connectors from ComputerGate are soldered to start with. Easy task.