hardware is hard :-(

[cellio]

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. :-(

Comments

[alienor]

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).

[mdlbear]

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.

[cellio]

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. :-)