VGA or DVI connectors - hot swappable?

[Turbonium]

Are VGA and DVI connectors hot swappable (technically speaking, not practically speaking)?

I want ZERO chance of damage to components (like with USB).

EDIT: Google says no, so I'm going with a non-zero chance.

 

[Cerb]

You can't connect and disconnect connectors with zero chance of damage (like USB? You've never seen USB get damaged?).

Taking into account that life is full of risks, and they non-zero, yes, VGA, DVI, HDMI, and DP are all fine for plugging in or removing hot.

What they are not designed for, is constant swapping around. If you're going to do that, get a KVM, or mount the connector to a stiff wall. All the torquing will cause failure over time (projectors, FI, typically have their connectors mounted to be supported by the case, while you're not going to get that with a PC).

 

[Turbonium]

I've honestly never seen USB get damaged (at least electrically). But then again, I take good care of my stuff, so maybe that's why I've never physically damaged anything.

 

[Torn Mind]

USB can damage if you yank out some items without ejecting or unmounting the device. This usually applies to flash drives.

"Google" is nothing but an information aggregator. It in itself has NO authority whatsoever in the various subjects you terms into for. It is in fact a collection of a bunch of little programs (i.e spider), with one in particular working with matrix algebra to "guess" at which site someone would hit next. What IT DOES, is refer you to sites to evaluate based on their own merit.

So, what these sites tell me is that the connector will eventually wear out PHYSICALLY. But I think hot swap means yanking out the connector from one output and then sticking it in another while the both products are on at the time of insertion/removal. In that case, they are "hot-swappable".

 

[rsutoratosu]

Depending on manufacture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB

The newer Micro-USB receptacles are designed for up to 10,000 cycles of insertion and removal between the receptacle and plug, compared to 1,500 for the standard USB and 5,000 for the Mini-USB receptacle.


VGA/DVI adapter - not official cycle but from another manufacture - 5000 insertion cycle

http://www.villagetronic.com/e_pr_dvi-to-vga.html

Again from another manufacture, usb/hdmi - insertion cycle 1500
http://www4.gira.com/en/gebaeudetec...stechnik/audio/hdmi-ether-usb-miniklinke.html

From foxconn - some are only rated for 100 cycles..
http://www.datasheetarchive.com/dvi connector foxconn-datasheet.html

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Taking into account that life is full of risks, and they non-zero, yes, VGA, DVI, HDMI, and DP are all fine for plugging in or removing hot.

If you really need to do that I'd recommend DP or HDMI for hot-swapping, as the connector is more durable then DVI. Especially dual-link DVI has an awful lot of pins that can break... :\

But I'd still recommend finding a different solution, perhaps a KVM switch. You can get all kinds of weird errors if you hot-swap.

 

[VirtualLarry]

VGA will generally auto-detect if you hot-swap. DVI sometimes will, and sometimes requires a reboot. HDMI is supposed to, but I've had wonky issues with HDMI-out on PCs as well. Don't know much about DP, never used it.

 

[Falacer805]

We "hot swap" at work all the time. 80 stations all dual monitor setups, powering down all the time just takes too long.

 

[piasabird]

USB is hot plugable more or less, but not all things are hot pluggable like say an external hard drive. If it is flashing dont yank it. It is a bad idea to disconnect monitors when the power is on. Computers just arent designed to be treated like that.