cellio | hardware is hard :-(

I got a new monitor to use with my Mac Mini, after confirming that the product spec says all the right things about connections (and a couple other things I care about). Tonight I tried to connect it. Easy, right? You've got a bunch of cables that each fit in one place, and hieroglyphics that come with the monitor besides. (Actual words, not so much -- presumably because of internationalization concerns.)

It came with an HDMI cable and a display port cable that fits the Thunderbolt connector on the other end. (Q&A confirms that's what you're supposed to do with it.) I assume I'm supposed to choose one. I tried each on its own and then tried them together; in all cases I got "no cable detected" on the monitor even though all connections are tight. I tried the HDMI connection with Dani's laptop; same result. I was using the HDMI connection on my old monitor. (Not HDMI on the monitor's end; there's some sort of adapter. But HDMI on the Mac end.)

It seems unlikely that both cables are bad, though I'll try to borrow other cables from work tomorrow to swap those out. Could something be broken in the monitor such that it would power up and produce its splash screen but then not detect either connector? I am really not a hardware person... What should I do next to try to get a working monitor?

It has USB ports and the diagram shows plugging a keyboard into one. I guess that only works if I can connect USB to USB on the computer? The package didn't include a USB cable. Or is HDMI some sort of magic that transmits other signal too? (It did include a cable I can't identify that doesn't fit into any connections on my Mac.)

Assuming I get that far, if I get a choice between HDMI and DisplayPort/Thunderbolt, which do I want? Ideally I'd like to send sound to the monitor too (it claims to support that) and get rid of the crappy falling-apart external speakers I have now.

Argh. This is the part about computers I hate -- getting the pieces of hardware to all play nicely. I wish I could get someone to come by tomorrow night and make it all happy. :-(

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Various Macs have offered HDMI, mini-DisplayPort, and Thunderbolt. They all offer the same quality of video.

The manual says the monitor has an HDMI port, a mini-DP, and a full sized DP. I would start with a straight HDMI to HDMI connection, if you've got that on your Mac. If it doesn't show something, the monitor is toast and should be sent back.

HDMI can carry all sorts of things, but this monitor only handles video through it. The monitor has a built in 2 port USB2.0 hub; if you connect it to your computer with the right cable, you can then plug 2 USB2.0 devices into the monitor.

Thanks for the help! My Mac Mini (2012 I think) has HDMI and that's what I'm using with the older monitor. There's an adapter in that loop but it's at the monitor end -- the monitor doesn't support HDMI. (Did I say it's an old monitor? :-) )

I was only expecting video with this monitor but the pictograms show a connection for speakers. I haven't groped around in there yet to try to find a line out. I wouldn't want a line out; if sound can reach my monitor at all I want it to stay there. If not, I'll keep using the old speakers plugged directly into the computer until I improve that. (If I need real sound quality I use my USB headphones; the speakers are for the various dings and beeps and other notification sounds and the like. Really don't care much about quality there...)

One of the cables in the box is conventional (i.e. full-size) USB at one and and a sort of small square plug at the other. I was looking for something with conventional USB at both ends, but in looking around in the cable bins at work, I'm finding more of what I got and none of what I was looking for. Is that a USB connection too and I should be looking for a place on the monitor to plug in that square end? I'm pretty sure there's nothing on my Mac that takes that connection.

I guess some of the problems that arise for me from stuff like this is that I usually can't actually *see* connections and buttons and pins and whatnot and have to do things largely by feel. It just now occurred to me that I could use my cell phone to take a picture of that part of the monitor, which I could zoom. So I'll do that when I get home.

People have addressed the other points, so:

- the manual says it has a line-in, not a line-out.

- Glasses correct my vision to 20/20 and I still use the phone camera technique to look at various inaccessible, small, or badly-lit locations. Motherboards are often all three. Flash and zoom win.

Thanks for all the help! It turns out I had to explicitly select the HDMI source, using all-but-invisible buttons. And it does have sound, it turns out, despite the documentation.

Definitely sounds like a problem with your monitor.

One more troubleshooting step: if the HDMI to DVI adapter you're using is active (larger than just something that changes the shape of the plug) I'd try plugging the laptop into a TV or something just to check the HDMI connection and the cable you're using.

The manual from the manufacturer's website says it should have come with a USB cable. If it didn't, I'd suspect something wonky (and given Amazon's stocking practices, you might have gotten a counterfeit).

Good idea, thanks! I didn't take a close look at the adapter (it's Dani's). I think it's one he uses regularly, but the TV test is a good idea that I hadn't thought of.

I might be misinterpreting the USB cable. I was looking for something with "conventional USB" at both ends, and am now starting to wonder about the cable that has that at one end and a small *square* plug at the other. (Square -- not any of the small USB connections used by phones.) I don't know what that cable is and might have mistaken it for DisplayPort-to-mini-DisplayPort. My cabling life would be a lot easier with labels.

Ah, yeah the manual indicates the USB cable is a type A (regular full sized USB) to type B (square plug) connector. The square plug goes into the monitor. This type of cable ensures that you don't accidentally plug 2 devices that both send power into the cable together (but cables have evolved and it's not used often anymore).

Something to check on the monitor is whether it has a switch or a menu that selects which input it's using. Fixing the problem might be as simple as telling the monitor to use a different input (an older monitor would usually have DVI and the even older VGA inputs, and possibly RGB).

The original USB B connector has mostly been replaced by mini-usb and micro-usb connectors. USB-3 has larger (taller) B and (wider) micro-B connectors.

... and all of those are in the process of being replaced by USB-C, which is really just USB-3.1 with a different connector.

HDMI includes an audio channel as well as video, because television, but DVI doesn't.

That was it! I've never had to select an input on a *monitor* before (TVs yes, but TVs have multiple HDMI ports). Until now, if a monitor had exactly one thing feeding it, it just worked. And the buttons for this were effectively invisible to me.

I now have it connected via HDMI, which includes sound to the monitor (even though some documentation says this monitor doesn't support sound), and the USB hub properly connected with my keyboard now plugged into the monitor. And that last is a real bonus, because before, the cable stretched across the desk and was an attractive nuisance for the cat. (I got this keyboard fairly recently, replacing a wireless keyboard.)

Yay, new monitor! And most of my hair remains intact. :-)

hardware is hard :-(

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